How the Grinch Stole Halloween? - Phelous 

The reason why Grinch doesn’t have magical powers in the original special is because it takes place on Christmas… which is a HORRIBLE night for eyebrows.

*"It's a wonderful night for eyebrows."* I want this on a t-shirt.

I can't get over "It's a wonderful night for eyebrows". It's just such a random sentence that comes out of nowhere and doesn't have anything to do with the story whatsoever.

Sad we didn't get more of these Grinch prequels. Would've love to see "How the Grinch stole Easter", "How the Grinch stole Thanksgiving", or "How the Grinch stole Valentine". Or better yet, "How the Grinch stole Black Friday".

To be fair, that kid did do a flip at the bottom of the slide, so I was pretty impressed

I never get tired of that Clint-Howard 'Cancelled' joke.

How could this be? There was no Grinch Night to be had! It came without Ghosts! It came without Screams! It came without Monsters, Spooks, and Bad Dreams!

in 2020 I read a new biography of Dr. Seuss that had come out, the author goes into these late 70s specials he made with Friz Frieling after the smash hit that was How the Grinch stole christmas, and apparently Dr. Seuss really enjoyed it because it allowed him to flex his skills as a song writer and to do a darker story he had not done since the days of Private Snafu.

The complete nonsense of this cartoon is exactly why I like it honestly. Plus the animation has such a Halloween feel to it. The colors look so surreal and saturated it looks really cool. I wish the non-story wasn't so boring though lol

A few things (other people have mentioned some of them, but oh well) 1. The Grinch is voiced by Hans Conried. He also voiced Captain Hook and Mr. Darling in Disney’s Peter Pan and King Azaz and the Mathemagician in the ‘70s adaptation of The Phantom Tollbooth. 2. Max’s singing is done by Henry Gibson, Wilber’s voice from the animated Charlotte’s Web. 3. The outhouse is called “The euphemish” in this world. When I was growing up, I just thought it was a Seussian word. Now, it’s like the most in-your-face adult joke there is.

The Sub- Zero joke came outta nowhere, and I laughed 3x harder that day. ... "The doctor said I almost died, you idiots!" XD

The Paraphernalia Wagon sequence is uncanny in its ability to captures the feeling of a fever dream and I’m not saying that in a “haha this is trippy” way but the fact it has its own internal logic that those dreams usually force your brain to mull over. it’s pretty great. Also, there’s a cameo by The Jibboo from “Oh the Thinks you can Think!” depicted a bit more threatening than its appearance in the book. Knowing Seuss, it wouldn’t surprise me if that was intentional on his part (I’m told the original text did frighten some kids and even got complaints from parents)

Halloween is Grinch Night is one of my favorite holiday specials of all time. It's so needlessly creepy and unsettling, especially considering how loved and lighthearted the Christmas special is comparatively. Nothing like when an icon tries to sell you paraphernalia!

For some reason I was obsessed with this cartoon as a kid, but I'm not sure why since NOTHING happens until that freak-out scene at the end, then it's instantly over. I was even more enamored of Witch's Night Out, but that one has some legit magic to it and some of the dialogue and voice acting are freaking brilliant--way, way better than a no-budget Halloween special had any business being.

The funnier way to interpret this special is that it's actually a sequel instead of a prequel, and the Grinch just went back to hating the Whos after Christmas was over. It would explain the whole "Max leaves the Grinch" part at the end.

I think the eyebrows, the idea of Grinch Night, the magic powers disappearing by December, and the Grinch suddenly having to leave are all connected. Perhaps this is the one night a year the Grinch has all these powers. Either way I personally liked this. Then again, I also like Homer’s rivalry with the Grumple.

It's Grinch Night is a mandatory Halloween watch at our house. It's silly, it's downright absurd, makes no damn sense, climaxes in a frightening trip... and we love it lol. There was probably a solid month where us kids kept calling the bathroom "the euphamism."

5:14 I MEAN, TO BE FAIR, $1.50 in 1977, when this special premiered, is equal to $7.19 nowadays

Genuinely upset that the Grinch isn't an eldritch god-king in any other Grinch media than this.

Every year when Halloween comes, I greet it by telling my little sister "it's a wonderful night for eyebrows Max."

"A Phelous Halloween Grinch video?! I wouldn't miss a Phelous Halloween Grinch video on a night like this for $60 and $.60!"

You know, the fact that the Grinch concentrated all his attention on a young boy and all he did was scare him a bit makes we wonder why the entire town is terrified of him.

Of course proper eyebrow care gives you superpowers. I mean have you seen Heihachi Mishima? The dude ate a tomahawk and regularly teaches bears martial arts! Oh and of course that party the Grinch was going to was worth it I mean Wabbu and Goron would have been there!

You would think a character like the Grinch would be ready made for Halloween🤷🏿‍♂️

The Grinch monster scene is really reminiscent of Dr. Seuss's wild collection of surrealism he's painted I've seen in one of his art books.

“I wouldn’t go out on a night like this…for a dollar and fifty cents”

My assumption is that people fear the Grinch because of his Paraphernalia Wagon. With the monstrous creatures in it, he could unleash them and terrorize Whoville. As for the ball... well, he did mention that nobody would dance with him at all. So I assumed he would unleash Seuss-hell on the town while he had the ball to himself. That's my best guess.

I want to see a Halloween sequel to the 2018 Grinch movie based on this. Grinch loves Classic Halloween where you scare kids and hates the commercialized "kiddie" Halloween, so he uses the Paraphanelia Box as a haunted house attraction.

Ironic that the Grinch would be defeated by a nerd, and nerd is a word invented by Dr. Seuss.

It helps if you think of Grinch night as a stand-alone story, with no relation to How the Grinch Stole Christmas. That's basically what it is: it's own stand-alone story, much like how all the Ernest movies were stand-alones and didn't follow one another.

"I was trying to send my eyebrows at you, but it didn't work." Must not have been a wonderful night for eyebrows, then.

I've always loved the "you put your glasses back on and face the facts!" thing, and had no idea it came from this. Very glad to know where it's from now!

“It’s a wonderful night for eyebrows!” Phelan: 😳 Cracked me up!

More like how Phelous stole my sadness and replaced it with happiness.

I always remembered Halloween being a night for eyebrows, the Grinch is on point with this one 👌

Grinch night is the perfect encapsulation of Halloween. You pretend things are spooky for fun, then you drop some acid and party

Dunno why, but this rendition of the Grinch looks to me like a weird green Garfield, lol Also, if he teams up with Goron, they'd be unbeatable, nobody would be able to resist their eye and eyebrows powers combined!

Ahh, nothing takes me back to childhood more than that immortal line "it's a great night for eyebrows!!"

Trivia: a month later, Hans Conreid was Thorin Oakenshield

This and the Cat in the Hat crossover were definitely not as good as the original book and TV special

Making the grinch green was Chuck Jones (who worked on the animated special) idea. Theodor Geisel (aka dr. Suess) had soured a lot to animated adaptations of his work, but after Jones himself personally drove out to meet him, he decided it was OK, since Jones was the same kind of perfectionist Geisel himself was. But the book was in black and white, and Jones knew it needed to be colored, so he used the color of the rental car he had taken on the drive out to meet Geisel- a sickly green. He also was the one who put some songs into the special to pad it out a little. Despite initial objections with this, upon seeing the finished product and how well it did, Geisel was impressed and was more open to more adaptations of his books

Why is Phelous the only one talking about the REAL issues in Whoville? Nobody else will stand up for the red Who, or talk about the Illwhominati with the Dingsniffler Industrial Complex under their heel. Big Truffula doesn't want you to know about all the Who Hash they shipped in, and that's why The Grinch HAD to steal all the holidays. He was hopelessly addicted and needed his fix.

I watched this the other night for the first time and I loved it! Hans Conried was a great choice after Karloff and the music was done by frequent Muppet collaborator Joe Raposo, with lyrics by Dr Seuss himself. Plus they really don't hold back from the weird and bizarre aspects of Halloween, it was a lot of fun.

Wow someone is actually acknowledging that Jim Carrey's Grinch was actually good. Finally.

This special is still better then the 2018 Grinch where that Grinch wasn't even grinchy

It's a wonderful night for *the scourge of Carpathia, the sorrow of Moldavia...*

I have a weird Mandela affect experience with this special. I remember the cat in the hat being in it but apparently that’s another special.

I think the story was suppose to revolve around how every "Grinch Night" the Grinch comes down the mountain to unleash all those ghosts and weird creatures in his cart upon whoville to scare them or drive them insane, this is why Zach took the oppertunity to meet the Grinch and basically sacrifice himself to the Grinch's spirits so that he can either placate the Grinch with a victim to send him away or endure the horrors of his cart long enough so that the Grinch runs out of time and has to go back up the mountain. If I had to guess at a moral or theme it's to give little kids a story where a kid was able to endure nightmarish horrors because he loved his family enough to gather what courage he had to endure the Grinch's evils, this way kids in the real world might take that and learn to apply it themselves to not be afraid of things that might seem spooky. sort of like a watered-down version of Egon's speech during the Ghost Busters Halloween special

The Grinch: Professional Eyebrowmancer.

I never knew this existed until now and the fact that you referenced the Jim Carey version is insane, especially since most people did not like that one. Though damn when you do think about it, the Who's are assholes and the Grinch if he had those powers in the Christmas one, the holiday would be his lol. This was very strange but hey nice to know that Grinch tried to steal another holiday back in the day and soild Halloween video!

Halloweenie feels like a fever dream. What a great character.

I'm pretty sure the big threat was what he had in that wagon. Random monsters, spooks and other terrors? He literally had Dr. Seuss's version of Hell inside of that thing. And he was gonna unleash it upon the entire town. Either way my theory is that this special was actually anti Halloween. A song about staying in doors? (Halloween is about people going out) And as Phealous pointed out, they used the number 6 multiple times in that same song. And the Grinch never acts more like the devil than he does here. Almost as if he his powers are at their peak because of what night it is. Halloween is Grinch Night = Halloween is the Devil's night? This did come out at a time when many Christians were going about saying how the Halloween is the Devil's night. Thankfully the majority of my brothers and sisters in Christ have thankfully died down on this belief (my parents and myself included). Orrrrrrr....it could simply be about facing what scares you. One little Who goes out to face the Grinch despite all of the horrors he had at this disposal. That is another common theme in Seuss's works. So often it's the smallest character who makes the biggest difference. Like Jojo in "Horton's Hears a Who" and little Cindy Lou in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" ...okay she didn't do much in the original but other the years her role was expanded! And here we have our little hero saving the whole town. That is another thing about Halloween thats been touched upon over the years, confronting what might scare you the most and getting past it!

Me: *Reads description* Really? How weird are we talkin'? Grinch: *It's a wonderful night for eyebrows.* Me: 😐 Oh boy.

I guess the Grinch's magic powers only work on Halloween.

I’m glad to see someone finally giving the Jim Carrey version some credit

I remember coming across the special on RU-vid a few years back and thinking “Wait, the Grinch had a Halloween Special? How come no one ever said anything about it?” So then I watched it and…yeah, what CAN you say about it; it’s so bizarrely boring. Also love the new outro music Phelan! Really rocks!

I loved this flick growing up. This, the Great Pumpkin and Garfield Halloween are a good family friendly windup for Halloween night!

This is why we love Phelous's content. Always classic, but new everytime.

Ya'know, I just watched the Jim Carrey Grinch last Christmas and while not a perfect movie it was surprisingly better than I remembered it being. I guess I associated it with all the later crappy Suess movies. You can see it starting a lot of the bad trends that pervade those films, but they're far more tolerable in it and Carrey acting being the focus is a lot more palatable than say Mike Meyer's Cat in the Hat (oh god).

Perfect. Now in the future, whenever I get stuck in an argument, I'll say "It's a wonderful night for eyebrows.". (I wonder how people will react to that)

13:52 Oh boy, I always wondered what the Dr. Suess version of Hell looked like 👍

That scene where The Grinch laughs as he heads back home, right after saying "I'll be coming back some day", hella scared me as a kid. That is one sinister laugh, and Joe Raposo's score helps set the tone.

This is regularly included as a special feature alongside the Christmas special on DVD releases. Apparently, Dr Seuss actually liked this special much more than Christmas. Especially the climax with all its weird imagery, the brief shots of the various eyes looking at the camera most of all. Sadly, Boris Karloff had died a few years earlier, which is why Hans Conried does the narration and the Grinch's voice. Conried was a very famous actor in the 50s and 60s. Among his roles was Captain Hook in Peter Pan, and Wrongway Feldman on Gilligan's Island (a character based on real-life pilot Douglas Corrigan, who earned the nickname "Wrongway" after going in the opposite direction he said he would).

Man, my brother watched this in preschool and came home to tell me there was a “Halloween” version of the Grinch. Not being smart enough to look up information online, I spent a good eight years wondering. When I finally found and viewed it, I spent eight years wondering how my brother was able to gloss things over so quickly. I would’ve filled my pants with who hash.

'Well I'll be Grinched' Apparently even to The Grinch his name is a euphemism...

It's a wonderful night for a Pheleous video.

Now this is one of my favorite Halloween specials of all time! The Grinch has powers reminiscent of an oni here, from the size-shifting, to the eyebrows turning into crows, to his hatred of wind going out of bounds, to resorting in the mountains; the live action film from 2000 had Whoville take place inside a snowflake, since snowstorms are common within natural disasters(usually caused by yōkai such as yuki-onno, orochi, among others, though oni are in the same category as the supernatural forces in Japanese folklore). The whole paraphernalia wagon is like a superweapon, especially the "Grinch is Gonna Get Ya" song during the acid trip scene. The animals are creative in this special, as usual with anything Dr. Suess. Some of my issues is Max's song number, it's oddly depressing. And to end this off, Halloween is Grinch Night was Theodore Geisel/Dr. Suess's favorite special out of his books adapted to television! That's quite interesting out of this film's trivia.

I think the kid just got hit by a hallucinagenic substance that the Grinch was keeping in his wagon. It is very fast-acting, so much so, that the boy immediately perceives the effect as a monster popping out of the door.

I want Who-Hash so bad.

The "It's a wonderful night for eyebrows" sent me into a laughing fit. Like...What does that mean??

I watched this one more than "Stole Christmas." Hans Conried was excellent as the Grinch, and the animation movie paraphernalia wagon was excellent.

Hans Conried also played the main villain in the Seuss-written live action film "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T."

06:24 yes, he said $6.66 but then the art style changed and the characters looked hyper-realistic... At least that's what Old Man's book said. 😁

This special is good cause it inspired my family to have the head cannon that the Grinch gradually becomes evil again over thr course of each year culminating in Christmas and the 1960s special isn't a rerun, it's just how it goes down each year

I remember watching this special as a kid and to this day it's still one of my favorites! The wagon part has a lot of dark moments.

I forgot this thing exists. I remember now being in elementary school at a Christian school in a church where the "I wouldn't go outside tonight for whatever money amount," would be met with me and this other student yelling "I would!" after that line. We annoyed the crap out of that teacher for our loud desire for money. I think we kept waking her up because she used movie time for catching up on sleep. Weird class. Thanks for bringing it all back to me.

On a misguided whim, I saw End of Days in the theater. The only thing that kept it from ruining my night was noticing that a little movie called Dogma was also playing. It both washed away the Arnie stank and started a short-lived obsession with Kevin Smith's films.

So grinch went from Frankensteins monster to captain hook

Haha what the hell even was this special? I found myself cracking up multiple times during this one thank you phelan

Gonna start being like 'it's a wonderful night for [insert body part here]' and provide no one any context.

It's a wonderful night for eyebrows... and traumatizing who children! I remember seeing this as kid and it was both creepy but fascinating with all the surreal imagery. Kinda like horror for kids almost haha. Definitely a nostalgia trip seeing you cover this.

clearly the christmas spirit is the grinch's one true weakness

Love this special! It can get a lil' crazy! AND THAT SONG IS STILL STUCK IN MY HEAD.

Next time the Grinch takes on his arch nemesis the Cat in the Hat

Fun fact: the songs in this were done by Joe Raposo, who wrote literally hundreds of songs for Sesame Street.

Catching up with some videos I missed. I am always so happy that the Mortal Komedy bits are still being used in your videos. Every single one of them is gold.

The Grinch heart cover makes him look like a hooded cobra about to attack

Who needs SCENE INTERRUPTING BEARS when you have key party interrupting Grinch night? The answer: Dingo Pictures needs them

Thanks for this video, Phelan. The funniest thing is that I never actually watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" as a kid, but I probably saw this about 3-5 times when it was on TV. And I still enjoy the trippy visuals. That "Grinch if gonna get you"-part in the end is certainly the best thing about it. Watching this video made me re-watch it. Actually, I think it's pretty good at capturing a certain nightmarish feel.

A new Phelous video? It’s a wonderful day for eyes!

Awesome Vigo painting. I've always loved Ghostbusters 2 and have seen it more than the first.

I feel like Grinch Night makes more sense as a sequel. Like there would be a Grinch alert system because he did previously break into everyone's home. Maybe he's down with Christmas now, but still wants to come out on "Grinch Night" every once in a while.

They’re so loud the grinch lives on a fucking mountain and he still can’t sleep because they’re so loud

the grinch needs to lay off the chinese food in order to rid him of those terrible sweet & sour winds

Another thing about The Who’s They’re celebrating so damn loud that the grinch can hear them from the tip-top of an entire fucking mountain. That is 3,000 feet up in the book, and 10,000 feet up in the special and both of the movies

Crackpot theory: The Whos know that the Grinch hates noise. We see that the noisy nature stuff pisses him off here, but he plans to wreck his havoc on easy targets like the quieter Whos. So they intentionally made their Christmas celebrations as noisy as possible to drive him to bother someone else temporarily. Then the Grinch Alarm Sender can take a few days off for once. How the Grinch Stole Christmas is just the year he'd finally had it and wouldn't be driven away.

You know... I kinda actually liked it, even though I've never even heard of it before. Probably just nostalgia-by-association to the original. Also lol @ 11:01

We all know Halloweenie is the best character. Another great review my dude. I feel like no one talks about this movie. I know for me i blame the whohash. thank you phelan. P.S. it is a wonderful night for eye brows.

I remember watching his Halloween special when I was a little girl myself. Fun times.

Not ashamed to say that I still really enjoy this one.