Last night, Bee and I went over to Sister No-Mo's and the EcoFellow's for dinner. Sis is home for the semester from the "The U", as they say in Utah (as opposed to "The Why") and we were quite excited to see her. Of course, the food was very tasty and hearty, as always. And the orange-essence flan was lovely!Just before we left the house to head down to their place, Sister No-Mo called and asked if we had a copy of the original, Boris Karloff-narrated version of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. (Of course we do, silly goose!) So, we packed that up and off we went.
After dinner, we settled in with our respective flans and a cup of tea each, popped the DVD in the player, and off we went watching the Grinch go from cold and callous to growing his heart three sizes bigger and learning the meaning of Christmas. (By the way--has anyone ever noticed at the end how the roast beast doesn't get smaller as he slices and doles it out? How come I can never get my roast beast to yield that way?)
After enjoying that little stroll down memory lane, we popped Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the player. You know this one, right? The one with the claymation type animation before there was claymation. The one with Burl Ives singing the title song, as well as Holly, Jolly Christmas? The one with the elf who wants to be a dentist, the doll that is depressed, the Abominable Snow Man, Yukon Cornelius, Clarice the doe with eyes on Rudolph, cranky-pants Santa, domineering Mrs. Santa, and females of every species who need to be protected by males? Yeah, that one!
As a kid, I missed all the subtle political messages, as well as the outright misogyny that just oozes from this Christmas classic. Needless to say, we had less nostalgia with this one and more commentary than we did with the Grinch. In the end, we concluded it was awful. Simply awful.
Still, Christmas isn't Christmas without watching those shows we all loved as kids, right?
Illustration copyright: Who knows? I found it on Wide Open West via Google Images.
7 comments:
My all-time fave is "Charlie Brown's Christmas."
It isn't Christmas until I hear that music.
Glad you had such a nice time with good friends
- Phoebe
I have to say I love playing "Your a mean one Mr. Grinch" each holiday season on the air. It's not Christmas time at KCST if I don't play that ditty, "I Want A Hippopotumus for Christmas", "The 12 Pains of Christmas", and George Strait's "Christmas Cookies."
I recorded all those Rankin and Bass puppet specials for The Dormouse to watch for Christmas this year and was floored - FLOORED - by how awful they all were. Were we just too young to know better or is it possible they were the best thing on television by comparison back then?
I love your tag on this post -- made me lawl my silly head off. I have questionable memory lane, too. Tee hee.
I love the Grinch, but those old Rankin Bass flicks are better left as memories...questionable ones. :-)
Phoebe: I love that one, too! I don't think I've seen that yet this year. Must do that...
Cele: You're the third or fourth person to mention the hippopotamus song. I've never heard that one. I'm gonna have to go to iTunes and check it out.
NG: They're horrible, aren't they? I think we were just politically, demographically, and sociologically oblivious as kids. And our parents can't be blamed, because that's the construct they grew up with and played into. I'm just glad we're a little more enlightened now!
Di: Hear! Hear! Hey, here's a bit of trivia for you from Bee. What department store invented Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer as a marketing ploy to draw shoppers into their stores?
Answer: Montgomery Ward
you've never heard the Hippopotamus Song? Girl you need to get a grip on Dr. Demento. I will send it to you. I have the CD
I wish I could get my hands on the sheet music for "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." I'd sing it far and wide. I heard it over the sound system in an Idaho restaurant while visiting in-laws and got all excited. They'd never heard of it before.
I caught part of the Rudolph claymation special while surfing. Despite loving all that stuff as a kid and watching every year, I found myself completely uninterested. Click!
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