Monday, June 30, 2014

Halloween is Grinch Night

Halloween is Grinch Night is a 1977 Halloween musical TV special and prequel to How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. It won the 1977 Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. It premiered on ABC on October 29, 1977.

In this special, the evil Grinch who stole Christmas is back to steal Halloween! When the sour-sweet wind starts blowing again, the Whos in Whoville retreat to their homes because they know the Grinch will soon be a'prowlin'. It's Grinch Night and young Eukariah Who has to make a trip to the Euphemism when the wind blows him away to a confrontation with the gruesome Grinch. Eukariah decides that Grinch must be stopped from terrorizing the Whoville, so he faces his fears and confronts the Grinch and his spooks in the surreal imaginary filled with numerous monsters. In the end, the Whos celebrate the little Who's courage in preventing the Grinch releasing the Paraphernalia Wagon's full horrors on their town and up in the mountains the Grinch, who is hauling the wagon home himself, hoping that one day there will be another Grinch Night when the Sour-Sweet Wind blows once more.

The special features the voices of Hans Conried as the Grinch and the narrator. Gary Shapiro as Eukariah Who. Hal Smith as Josiah. Irene Tedrow as Mariah. Jack DeLeon as Sergeant Samuel McPherson. Thurl Ravenscroft as the singing monsters. And Henry Gibson as Max in the singing part of "What Am I Doing Here?"

Sunday, June 29, 2014

The Hoober-Bloob Highway

The Hoober-Bloob Highway is an animated musical special written by Dr. Seuss and produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises for CBS in 1975. The special is a musical and features songs written by Dr. Seuss and composed by Dean Elliott, which is the last special to feature music, and is the first DFE Dr. Seuss special not to have been based on any of Geisel's books. This special would be the last time to be aired on CBS and produced by A Cat in the Hat Productions like the other five Dr. Seuss animated shorts. Bob Holt voices Mr. Hoober-Bloob while Hal Smith does the Additional voices are the only cast in the Dr. Seuss special.

Mr. Hoober-Bloob, a dispatcher of newborn children from some location in space, is preparing to send a new child down his highway to Earth, but first, he gives a child, who he refers to as Bub, a chance to decide for himself whether he wants the life of a human. Mr. Hoober-Bloob shows him the realistic problems and pleasures that people face in life. The story suggests that while things may be pretty bad, but there's always something to be thankful for. With the help of a lute with arms and legs that often breaks into fast-paced solos, which annoys Mr. Hoober-Bloob, his explanations are often accompanied by musical vignettes of the baby, depicted as a pre-adolescent boy in an unusual situation that accompanies the song. Eventually after the "Answer Yes or No", the baby makes its decisions, and Mr. Hoober-Bloob excitedly pushes it down the Hoober-Bloob Highway at last.



Saturday, June 28, 2014

Dr. Seuss on the Loose

Dr. Seuss on the Loose is an animated musical television special, cartoon first airing on CBS on October 15, 1973, and hosted by The Cat in the Hat who appears in bridging sequences where he introduced three animated adaptions of Dr. Seuss children's stories including The Sneetches, The Zax, and Green Eggs and Ham. Allan Sherman reprises his role as the voice of The Cat in the Hat from the 1971 TV special. This special was the final project Sherman worked on before his death.

First in The Sneetches, some of the Star-Belly Sneetches have stars on their bellies and some of the Plain-Belly Sneetches don't have their stars. With the help of Sylvester McMonkey McBean, the Fix-It-Up Chappie, the Sneetches learned a valuable lesson either they have a star or not from McBean's Star On and Star Off Machines. Then in The Zax, the North-Going Zax and the South-Going Zax stand respective headings around each other because both are stubborn and none of them went any directions until the highway overpass is built around them. And finally in Green Eggs and Ham, Sam-I-Am tries to convince a grumpy grouch guy to eat his favorite dish, but he refuses to sample them. He gets really grumpy wherever Sam-I-Am follows repeating his respond, "I would not like them here or there. I would not like them anywhere!" in various locations from a house, a box, a car, a tree, a train, in the dark or the rain, and on a boat. Along with a mouse, a fox and a goat, but the fox in the special was chased by the fox hunters. Finally, the grouchy guy gives into Sam's pestering and sample green eggs and ham, which he certainly does like them after all.

The special features the voices of Allan Sherman as The Cat in the Hat. Hans Conried as the narrator, North-Going Zax and South-Going Zax. Paul Winchell as Sam-I-Am, Grouchy Guy, and the Sneetches. And Bob Holt as Sylvester McMonkey McBean and the Sneetches.
  

Friday, June 27, 2014

The Lorax

The Lorax is a 1972 animated musical television special produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. It first aired on CBS on February 14, 1972 based on the book by Dr. Seuss. It last aired on July 30, 2005 as the airing of ABC. In this special, a ruined industrialist who is known as The Once-ler tells his tale of his environmentally self-destructive greed despite the warnings of an old forest creature with a yellow mustache called The Lorax, who speaks for the Truffula Trees. When the entire forest was chopped down by the Once-ler and his family, they made Truffula Trees into soft things called Thneeds. But they did not hear The Lorax' wise warnings as he protect. In addition there are also animals in the forest which are the bear cubs called the Bar-Ba-Loot Suits, the birds called the Swamee Swans, and the goldfish called Humming Fish.

The special features the voices of Bob Holt as The Lorax and The Once-ler. Athena Lorde as Miss Funtzler and Miss O'Schmunsler. And Harlen Carraher as The Boy who hears the Once-Ler's story and uses the Truffula Seed to grow back the forest before the special ends.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

The Cat in the Hat

The Cat in the Hat is an animated musical television special first aired on CBS on March 10, 1971, based on the 1957 Dr. Seuss children's book, and produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. With the voices of Allan Sherman and prolific vocal performer Daws Butler, this half-hour special is a loose adaption with added musical sequences.

Instead of following the adaption from the Dr. Seuss book, The Cat has lost his Moss-Covered Three-Handled Family Grudunza so the kids marked the letters and number in the entire house wherever they checked there during the song of "Calculatus Eliminatus." The fish who didn't have a name in the Dr. Seuss book is named Karlos K. Krinklebein who demands the Cat to leave and accuses him of not being a real cat and his hat of not being a real hat. Then Thing One and Thing Two emerged from the pink box to aid the Cat singing that they can find "Anything Under The Sun." And The Cat asserts legitimacy by singing his name in several languages including Chat Chapeau in French, El Gato Sombrero in Spanish, Katze Hut in German, Gwonka Bonkequank in Eskimo, and Shapka in a Shylapa in Russian. And like in the book, The Cat cleans up the entire house he and the kids made using the motorized vehicle just before their mother returns.

The special features the voices of Allan Sherman as The Cat in the Hat. Daws Butler as Karlos K. Krinklebein. Tony Frazier as the Boy. Pamelyn Ferdin as Sally. Gloria Camacho as Mother. Thurl Ravenscroft as Thing one. And Lewis Morford as Thing Two.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Horton Hears a Who!

Horton Hears a Who! is a 1970 television half-hour long special based on the Dr. Seuss book of the same name. It was produced and directed by Chuck Jones, who previously produced the Seuss special of How the Grinch Stole Christmas! for MGM Television. The special contains songs with lyrics Seuss and music by Eugene Poddany, who would later write songs for Seuss' book, The Cat in the Hat Song Book.

In this special, Horton the Elephant struggles to protect a microscopic community in the small speck of dust from his jungle neighbors who refuse to believe it exists. But Horton believes that "a person's a person, no matter how small." The special features the voices of Hans Conried as Horton, the narrator, and Dr. H. Hoovey. June Foray as Jane Kangaroo and the birds. Chuck Jones as Junior Kangaroo, JoJo, and the black-bottomed eagle named Whizzer McWoff. And the Mellomen as the Wickersham Brothers.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Welcome to the Dr. Seuss Page where all the characters are created by the one and only Dr. Theodore Seuss Geisel. Here is the first Dr. Seuss post I'm going to put up.

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a 1966 American animated television special directed by Chuck Jones. It is based on the homonymous children's book by Dr. Seuss, the story of The Grinch trying to take away Christmas from the townsfolk of Whoville below his mountain hideaway. The special, which is considered a short film as it runs less than an hour, is one of the classic Christmas specials from the 1960s still shown regularly on television. Jones and Geisel previously worked together on the Private Snafu training cartoons for United Productions of America during World War 2.

The 26-minute short was originally telecast on CBS on December 18, 1966. CBS repeated it annually during the Christmas season until 1987. Beginning in 2006, ABC began broadcasting it annually during the Christmas. It was eventually acquired by Turner Broadcasting System, which now shows it several times between November and December. Boris Karloff, in one of his final roles, narrates the film and also provides the speaking voice of The Grinch. The special was originally produced by The Cat in the Hat Productions in association with the television and animation divisions of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. Of course June Foray provides the voice of Cindy Lou Who, who is not more than two and Thurl Ravenscroft performs the song, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch."

Monday, June 23, 2014

Transformers

Okay, here is one last post of the New Classic Page I will explain about. It's Transformers.

The Transformers is the first animated television series in the Transformers franchise. The series depicts a war among giant robots that can transform into vehicles and other objects. Written and recorded in America, the series was animated Japan and South Korea. The series aired on September 17, 1984 and ended on November 11, 1987 and The Transformers: The Movie was released on August 8, 1986. The pilot introduces the world of Autobots including Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Hound, Cliffjumper, Sideswipe, Wheeljack, Gears, and Hauler. Then in Megatron's Decemptions, there are Starscream, Skywarp, Soundwave, Thundercracker, and Reflector. And the Dinobots are included Grimlock and Slag and Sludge.

The series features the voices of Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime and Ironhide. Frank Welker as Megatron. Dan Gilvezan as Bumblebee. Chris Latta as Starscream and Sparkplug Witwicky. Ken Samson as Hound. Susan Blu as Arcee. Aron Kincaid. as Skylinx. Casey Kasem as Cliffjumper. Don Messick as Ratchet. Michael Bell as Sideswipe. Corey Burton as Spike Witwicky. Arlene Banas as Carly. And David Mendenhall.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Danger Mouse

Danger Mouse is a British children's animated television series which was produced by Cosgrove Hall Films for Thames Television. It features the eponymous Danger Mouse, an English mouse who works as a secret agent. The show is loose parody of British spy fiction, particularly James Bond and the Danger Man series starring Patrick McGoohan. The show originally ran in the United Kingdom from September 28, 1981 to March 19, 1992.

The hero wears an eyepatch and his chest is prominently amblazoned with the initials DM. This causes problems for those translating the series into other languages, where a literal translation of words 'Danger' and 'Mouse' do not have initials.

The show features the voices of David Jason as Danger Mouse. Terry Scott as Ernest Penfold the mole and Danger Mouse's reluctant assistant. Edward Kelsey as both Colonel K the walrus and Danger Mouse's boss and Baron Silas Greenback the evil toad with a wheezy voice. He has a fluffy white caterpillar named Nero who lost the power when he was drenched in the water. And Brian Trueman as Stiletto Mafiosa, Greenback's crow henchman, who spoke with an Italian accent and always calls Greenback, "Barone,"and "Baron" for Italian.