Content warning: we end up talking about racist WWII propaganda, 9/11, and internment camps for a while around the 30 minute mark in this episode. If you want to skip that, we resume our talk about the Grinch at the 36 minute mark. We’d also like to apologize for the sound quality. We’re not exactly sure what happened between this episode and the last one, which we recorded on the same evening, but Gillian’s connection seems to have been full of feedback this time. We did our best to take out the worst blips, but if things sound odd, that’s why. We blame 2020.
Gillian Daniels joins us again to talk about a Christmas special she remembers liking as a kid even though she never celebrated Christmas. Gillian is a fantasy and horror writer, and you can find her at gilliandaniels.com, on twitter as @gilldaniels, and on instagram as @gillianlynndaniels.
We all agree: This one is a classic for a reason. It has great voice actors, great music, and great animation.
Here’s Gillian’s summary:
What I remember of the Grinch special from the seventies (?):
- "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" song
- Max the dog, reluctant and with antlers tied to his head
- The Grinch joyfully stealing everything
- Cindy Lou-Who meeting the Grinch and thinking Santa's real
- The Whos down in Whoville being okay with all their stuff stolen the next morning and then singing it out
- Grinch being okay with Christmas and getting to cut the roast beast
That was all pretty spot on. We really didn’t imagine going into this that we would end up talking about 9/11, beowulf, and kink shaming in the course of this conversation, but there you go. It’s a whole journey. Also, Geoffrey sings a lot!
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Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) with Gillian Daniels