Better known under his pen name as DR. SEUSS,
has been the one man who's whimsical rhymes as well as his Cartoony Style of artwork that delighted us all since our childhood.
But one thing the man has been critical of is ADAPTATIONS OF HIS OWN WORK.
It's been said that the only good adaptations of his works are those he personally worked on.
Well.... that was according to this Facebook Article I read where this one person posted saying that the only good adaptations of Dr Seuss works are those that he worked on personally.
But what that person on Facebook posted didn't know about is that Seuss himself was initially reluctant to allow his work to be adapted into animation or Live-Action at first but he did eventually permit them shortly after the USA entered WWII in December 8 1941 and he relaxed his policies as he aged.
One of the very first of these DR SEUSS adaptations to happen came from WARNER BROS. themselves.
No... Not the Rabbit Hole.....
Rabbit Hole is more Cartoon Network but that didn't exist until 1992 when Betty Cohen and Ted Turner created the channel, and that was originally meant to house the HANNA-BARBERA libraries until the decision to create original programming commenced.
1940s Warner Bros. is actually referred to as Termite Terrace.
Anyway,
The first Dr. Seuss adaptation to come from Termite Terrace was....
And who's unit made the cartoon?
Why none other than Bob Clampett...
Bob Clampett, my personal favorite Termite Terrace animator
(as well as John K's Favorite animator)
he made this cartoon featuring the Famous Elephant who's always faithful.
Ironically though, Clampett's unit decided to paint Horton's skin Pink instead of his usual and realistic Grey because...
"Three-Strip Technicolor. That's what.
They've said what they said and said what they meant.
An Elephant's faithful, 100%!!!"
John K.'s not going to like this revelation since he disliked Purple and Pink colors to begin with......
But he's retired so what's he gonna complain about.....
Anyway, Horton wasn't the only contribution to Warner Bros. that Dr. Seuss was involved with...
Shortly after the U.S entered WWII, WARNER BROS. won a contract to produce a series of Instructional films for the U.S Military during that time.
These are referred to as the PRIVATE SNAFU instructional films.
The name SNAFU refers to it's acronym:
SITUATION NORMAL: ALL FUCKED UP.....
though most Radio and printed publications water down the second-to-last phrase as
ALL FOULED UP.
Pretty fitting name for a title character since the purpose of the SNAFU cartoons is to show through the Character's Idiocy what and what not to do during times at War, especially when employed at the Military.
After PRIVATE SNAFU, Dr. Seuss would hide himself from doing anything remotely animation related with the exceptions of such things like GERALD MCBOING-BOING, and the various TV specials based on his work.
ONE of the most famous being HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS in 1966.
The reason this TV Special is so famous is not because we have BORIS KARLOFF as Mr. Grinch himself but rather that it was animated by CHUCK JONES.... or more like it was directed by CHUCK JONES in collaboration with Dr. Seuss & CBS while JONES' animators did all the heavy work.
After that, Geisel himself would work on other tv specials between 1966 to 1991.
Many of them not from CHUCK JONES but rather from DePatie-Freleng Enterprises.
Amongst these specials Include
THE LORAX,
THE CAT IN THE HAT,
HALLOWEEN IS A GRINCH NIGHT,
THE BUTTER BATTLE BOOK by Ralph Bakshi,
Daisy Head Mayzie,
And many others.
But anyway, about the Haphazards,
It's stated that the only reason any DR. SEUESS adaptation can be good is if the man is personally involved....
or his living family members are involved.
And that hasn't always been the case since 1991 when the man himself passed away.
So a lot of the adaptations based on anything DR. SEUSS can either be hit or miss.
It can be a success like the live-action GRINCH movie with Jim Carrey,
or it can be a pukefest like is the case with Mike Myers The Cat in the Hat.
Do the point where Geisel's widow Audrey refused to let future Live-Action films
based on Seuss property be made for the foreseeable future.
And it certainly can't be helped with the fact that now Illumination has all the rights to do anything with DR SEUSS.
but luckily so far, we've only had two from Illumination based on any DR. SEUSS property released so far.
Those were
THE LORAX in 2012,
&
THE GRINCH in 2018.
All the other Illumination films are either based on the Minions,
Singing Animals,
or
bring Mario into the big screen.
Aside from that, the only other stand outs aside from HORTON was
Green Eggs and Ham which debut on Netflix in 2019.
Animation is always better with MICHAEL DOUGLAS in a voice role.
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