Customer Reviews

Seuss Celebration (The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat / The Cat in the Hat / Green Eggs and Ham / The Lorax)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I came across this on my Library's website, and decided that with two kids who are 4, buying it makes more sense than borrowing it. I'm awaiting it eagerly, and posting this review because there's not much detail on the actual product listing here yet.

The library says that it contains:
The cat in the hat
The Lorax
Pontofell Pock and his magic piano
Green eggs and ham
Sneetches
Zax
Grinch night
The Grinch grinches and cat in the hat
The hoober-bloob highway.

This is a grrrrreat DVD. All the animated Dr. Seuss toons are here except for How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Almost 3 hours of Seuss on 1 DVD! The quality is excellent. I like this DVD most of all becasue it's very space-saving.

I love this DVD. I bought it to show my class The Lorax. BE CAREFUL! The title of this product has a mistake. This DVD, although it is great, DOES NOT HAVE How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It has two other shows starring the grinch, but not the most familiar one. With that in mind, it's a great DVD! Enjoy it!

UPDATE: The listing has apparently since been updated with the correct title - however I'm going to leave up my original review - anyway, I still love this DVD! :)

Although I sometimes doubt about translating books into movies/animation, I was positively impressed by the quality of Dr Seuss films. I purchased the DVD for "the Lorax" exclusively, which is a masterpiece (book AND film), but also loved many other ones, especially "the sneetches". All of them are fun, with the inimitable rhythm and humor of Dr Seuss... but I am amazed at the way he grasps serious subjects like the society of consumption, profit and greed distroying the environment (the Lorax), or like racism, social discrimination and stupidity (Sneetches)! Great for ages 4 to 100! Bravo Dr Seuss! Hope there were more people like you!

These are the Seuss features we all know and love. There's only one problem: the DVD transfer. So far I've only watched "The Cat In The Hat" and "The Grinch Grinches The Cat In The Hat". "The Cat In The Hat" seemed to be as I recall on television so many moons ago. But it's "The Grinch Grinches The Cat In The Hat" that the DVD transfer is pathetic at best. If you bought the original "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" DVD, you'll know what I'm talking about. The color is erratic. The color of the Grinch goes from brown to yellow to mustard to light green to dark green. The color of the Grinch's car goes from brown to blue to purple. I never saw this feature before, but I can say with near certainty that this psychedelic rainbow effect was not in the original airing, nor was it intended. It certainly detracts from the feature, making for a sub-par product (much like the original "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" DVD which I purchased but refuse to watch after seeing it once, instead relying on my old VHS where the colors are correct).

I found this movie at my local library. We could check them out for a week at a time. I believe we had this one three weeks. I has many short movies on the DVD. The music is very catchy. My four-year old watched it daily. After three weeks I had to return it, much to his dismay. Little does he know that this is one of his Christmas presents this year. It's nice to know that he will get an affordable gift that I know he will love. I would highly recommend this DVD.

Ted Geisel falls under the category of literary genius to me and I've been a fan of his books since a small child-
I am more convinced of this than ever after reading/hearing more about his life story and experiences! All signs point to the impression that he truly wanted most to use his great imagination and storytelling skills in childrens books not mainly to make money for himself, but to have a positive impact on society.

The long term influence some of Dr. Seuss's books can have on kids into their adulthood is hard to overstate. Who could forget the senseless greed and lonely destruction of the Lorax, the poor outcast Sneetches....the stubborn and silly Zax? The dangers of power and selfishness (The Oobleck, Yertle the Turtle).....the lessons of Solla Sollew, Horton, etc. The morals are so skillfully woven into the stories and unusual and entertaining artwork sometimes kids aren't even aware they are being taught useful life knowledge-- and some of it is quite useful and worth remembering, indeed! Things many "grown ups" should take a second look at, and some forget on a daily basis. The world might be a better place if all kids read these books.

I only recently rediscovered the animated shorts, many produced and written by Dr. Seuss himself, and this DVD is a great collection for any Seuss fan.

Let me say first that in my opinion, I have found Seuss's "seuss-ness" notoriously difficult for other artists or entertainers to recreate.....and almost to a one they fail miserably- falling into nonsensical wackiness, childish pandering or just plain stupidness. The Jim Carrey and Mike Myers movies, the new Horton cartoon, the "Seussville" puppet show, all of these were largely disappointments. But I'll allow these are mostly directed to bring "clownish sunshine" to children. What is missing I think most is the sort of timeless/clever insightfulness about Seuss that were directed to appeal toward adults as well as children- just like the old Warner Bros cartoons. (For example, his Sneetches story was actually a secret political statement about the Jews in Germany forced to wear yellow stars, WWII. The Lorax, about corporate greed after he saw stands of "Truffula-like" trees being senselessly mowed down in Africa....and of course the Butter Battle Book, about the nuclear arms race.)

But here I was pleased to find that the Lorax, which was one of my favorite childhood books (and I was surprised to find out, was Mr. Geisel's) was very well done in animated short, in my opinion is arguably better than the book itself. This one clip alone made buying the DVD worth the money.
The Sneetches, Zax, and Green Eggs and Ham were also well done. Of course, these also were produced and directed by the books author, and had the help of talented animator Chuck Jones.
I have read here complaints about the colors/transfers of some of these on this DVD version and I have to say I really didn't notice much of a problem, I thought the DVD porting of all the animations was fine. Although, I might think differently if I had seen a clearer or better version.

Now on to my complaints, lol. First of all, I am not sure why the most well known animated work, The Grinch Stole Christmas, is deliberately missing here-- also missing in the new Horton Deluxe DVD. Basically to have this key film you are forced to double up on the Horton story by buying three CDs and having two copies of the same movie. A marketing ploy, maybe, but just plain irritating! Curse you, Universal distributors, you already have plenty enough of my money.

The quality of animation in my opinion drops quite a bit with a number of the other shorts on this DVD - such as The Grinch meets the Cat in the Hat, Potoffel Pock's Piano and Halloween/Grinch Night. These last two clips I believe were so short-changed by the low quality animation rendering that they might have easily been classics on par with Grinch Stole Christmas- they are great little stories! Seuss's Halloween special was daringly imaginative, had great memorable songs and a good theme....but the whole production is just slightly messy and has a hasty thrown together look about it. Too bad! I both look forward to and fear a remake of these films.

All that being said, this DVD is a must for any Seuss fan to add to their collection, as well as a great gift for any kid, or nostalgic adult! 5 stars.

This video brought back so many of my childhood memories. For my 5 year old son it brought the Dr. Suess books alive. There is one flaw, there isn't a play all option, you need to return to the main menu after each cartoon.

I remember these videos from my childhood and now my kids are enjoying them too. My 2 yo son loves me to read the Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham over and over. I thought this would be a great visual addition to our regular reading and all three of my kids love it. Of course there are several more great stories on the DVD as well. A great way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dr. Suess. Plus, you can't beat Alan Sherman as the Cat's voice.

I am an Elementary teacher and purchased this DVD to enrich my Dr. Seuss unit about rhyming, poetry and social issues. The animation is wonderful, and it brings the stories my students have heard hundreds of times to life. Not to mention, each story has an important message. After reading "The Lorax" and seeing it on this DVD, we decided as a class to plant a tree for Earth day. For teachers or even parents with young children, Dr. Seuss inspires and teaches with rhyming, phonemic awareness and also important social messages. This DVD is more than cartoons, it is a wonderful opportunity to enrich young lives.