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dorkynerd23 · 3 months ago

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Why Green Eggs & Ham (GEAH) Is The Best Dr. Seuss Adaptation.🍳💚 (Analysis)

Hello Everyone!! Hope you're all doing good and well and everything's going well for you all. ♥️ Wanted to come here and discuss about a show, an incredible show that even after it's release and end, it's still a well-made and amazing show that still great all these years later, and the show I'm talking about and referring to is Netflix's Green Eggs & Ham, I'm gonna discuss about how it's the best Dr. seuss adaptation to date.

Now, before we discuss and talk about Green, Eggs & Ham, we need to talk about and mention the past Dr. Seuss adaptations and dive deep into them real quick. Now when it comes to adaptations to Dr. Seuss's work, most of the time it's either hit or miss, mediocre or just flat out terrible and awful. One thing I've gotta mention is that Dr. Seuss beforehand wasn't very open to adaptations to his work, with the reason being that he was worried and afraid that his characters would be used in context for things he didn't 100% and necessary didn't agree with. But that eventually changed when he came to the cartoon adaptations that we all know today and overtime would loosen up his views and allow more adaptations of his work. And the first adaptation of his work was an animated short called "Horton Hatches The Egg" (based on Seuss's book of the same name and this book came way before Horton Hears A Who, btw) which was released back in 1942 and going forward, Dr. Seuss would later begin working very closely with the adaptations to make sure they stay true to the book, to the source material and in 1966, Seuss would authorized eminent cartoon artist, Chuck Jones himself (who was a close friend of Seuss as they also served in World War II together) to make a cartoon adaptation short based on "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" which would become the Christmas classic we all know and love to this day, Chuck would also go on to eventually direct + produce adaptations of both "Horton Hears A Who" (1970) and "The Cat In The Hat." (1971)

Dr. Seuss sadly passed away and died at the age of 87 from cancer on September 24th 1991 and from that point until her own death in 2018, his widow, Audrey Seuss would have full licensing of her husband's work and eventually gave in to the temptations of hollywood adaptations of Seuss's work which would be the movie adaptations. Let's start with "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" which was released back in 2000, so to basically recap this film although I loved it as a kid and still kinda do, I see it as a guilty pleasure (now as an adult) and rewatched the movie not that long ago and I don't believe it's aged very well honestly.

There are some good things to this film such as Jim Carey as The Grinch himself, which is perfect casting and the makeup effects on him are incredible, you truly by him as The Grinch, there are some funny moments, I'll still watch it here and there around the holiday's and the set design is pretty good. But when you take off the nostalgiatic googles you can see the problems with the film, now..as I said, this film does have a good set design, but it's hidden underneath all of this murky colorless filter to the point it looks so dull to look at honestly, like there's not much life. Along with that, the movie is just incredibly meanspirited, almost everyone in Whoville is terrible (besides Cindy) and unlikeable, soulless and just care about materialism which I get is the point of the film, but it just goes against the message of the book, The Grinch shouldn't have to explain and spell out the message for the who's, HE'S the one who's supposed to learn the lesson not the other way around, but the movie just gets it totally backwards.

Now, although this film hasn't aged the best and there are so many issues with the film, there are some good elements to it, it's definitely not the worst Dr. Seuss adaptation and I'll still watch it sometimes around Christmas, but it just hasn't aged the best, but again..It's not the worst Dr. Seuss adaptation, no that goes to the next one we're about to discuss.

Alright, so in 2003 another live action Dr. Seuss adaptation was released, that being "The Cat In The Hat" starring Mike Myers. And I'll keep this short and simple as I wanna get this one out of the way, I also rewatched this film not long ago too and it still sucks years later, there is really nothing good about this film honestly. From the set design, to the acting, (especially from Myers himself) the makeup, especially the makeup and CGI. The jokes are also abysmal and this film doesn't capture anything from the source material and almost feels like a slap in the face and say what you want about The Grinch, at least SOME effort and decent stuff was added in that film, even not done the best exactly. But with this film, it's just awful and bad..you know a movie is terrible when Audrey herself said that her husband would've despised the film and prohibited any further live-action adaptations of Seuss's work because of how bad the film was. This film itself is honestly why Dr. Seuss was so hesitant and nervous to allow adaptations of his work and I still believe there is the worst Dr. Seuss adaptation to date, luckily the next few adaptations of Seuss's work (mainly when it came to the film adaptations) would be done in computer animation instead of live action.

So, after the disaster and failure of The Cat In The Hat, we ended up getting some more film adaptations of Seuss's work which would all be animated and those being "Horton Hears A Who", (2008) The Lorax" (2012) and "The Grinch" (2018) and we've got another adaptation in the works based on Cat In The Hat that'll be released in 2026 by Warner Bros. But for now, let's quickly discuss the other film adaptations and I won't dive super deep into them, I'll just quickly go over as I don't exactly have a whole lot to say about them, honestly. Alright, so "Horton Hears A Who" was the next adaptation and was released back in 2008 and it's the debatably the best Dr. Seuss movie but that's not really saying a lot, and I'll definitely say that it's definitely decent but there's not much to it, there is some charm to it but overall it's just a fine film. It's not bad or god awful, but not all that great either, the film kinda feels all over the place with its story and humor especially but mostly as a whole as it seems to be struggling to turn a short story into a full length film which that's a criticism you can say for the other Seuss movies as well. Sure the animation is nice and often pretty to look at and there are some jokes that land, but this film is just alright and is watchable. I'll definitely say that this film AT LEAST does understand the message of the book and the animation has I said is great and pretty and actually does lend itself well to the Dr. Seuss world, but overall this film is okay, it's definitely better than Cat In The Hat and it's not insulting garbage but there are better films to watch, but I'd say give this a watch if you're curious and haven't seen it.

Let's move on and discuss both The Lorax and The Grinch which were both made by Illumination, instead of giving these two their own sections I'm gonna to just to discuss them in their own paragraph here, so hopefully that's fine, lol! Alright, so when it comes to The Lorax...overtime, it seems to be kinda decisive especially over the years with some either hating, loving it, or just not caring about it. I'm more in the hating and not caring for it category, now in terms of adaptations, this isn't the worst one over what we've discussed so far, but it's still a bad and not very good film. First off, this film clearly has cooperate studio meddling written all over it, and I'm not just talking about the product placement in the film's marketing, (which btw, is counterproductive and goes against the film's message!) but I'm also referring to the big hollywood actors casting and pop songs, and just trying just so hard to hip and not understanding the source material in the slightest, this film kinda feels like it was made so make money and just never to be talked about again, and also feels dated as well too. That's not the only issues with the film, there's also other problems as well from the casting like I've mentioned, and I know star casting has become a huge problem and talkative subject over the years but the casting for this film feels off, I mean you've got Zac Efron playing a 12yr and Taylor Swift, and no offense to these two, but they were very miscasted and you can tell they only got these two to appeal and become they're famous, and not only that, there's also how they wrote The Onceler and just 100% redoing his character and just making him into this emo guitar player, Ect. This film is another Dr. Seuss movie that doesn't understand the message of the book, the book didn't try to oversimplify the environmental message by simply, "Yeahhh, man and humanity sucks, ahhh!!" It just was never that simple, it's NEVER that simple even in real life, and the book did a great job starting a conversation rather than simply pointing a finger at someone. I'll definitely say that the animation is gorgeous and it's colorful and seems to capture some spirit of the world of Dr. Seuss but it just feels wasted on such a weak story, weak characters, a genetic cooperate villain that's there for the film's message and nothing more rather than a fleshed out character, and overall a forgettable experience. Again, although this film is a mixture of bad and mediocre, it's still not as bad as Cat In The Hat.

And now we finally have The Grinch from 2018, which was greenlit by Audrey before her passing. And I'll say that I do remember watching this film in theaters with my mom and thought it was decent for what it was, but after rewatching the film for this analysis, I'll say that while the film has some flaws, it's definitely decent for what it is, the film does leave out some of the best parts of the original book and ended up changing the message of the story in general, it's not like the message they were trying to teach was bad or anything, the intension is there and this film still is fun and very colorful and I can see some heart and decent soul put into it , it's definitely a decent and alright film, and I can understand why some loved and enjoy it and think it's a fine film and think it's a lovely sendoff to the Dr. Seuss movie adaptations. (For now, at least)

ALRIGHT!! Now we finally move on to the adaptation that this whole post is all about, let's finally discuss the latest Dr. Seuss adaptation that's been released out to date, that being Netflix's 'Green, Eggs & Ham' that was released back on November 8th 2019. Now, I'll honestly say that I remember going into this show I didn't exactly have many expectations as knowing how past adaptations have been in when came to Dr. Seuss and his work, I didn't know what to expect and thought this show was be really bad or mediocre at the least, but I remember hearing positive things about the show and seeing images and clips of the show got me rather interested and curious, so I remember going onto Netflix and checking out the show and after watching all 13 episodes of the first season I was pleasantly surprised by how damn good and well made this show is/was, like everything about this show is incredible from it's talented voice cast, from it's animation, (the show looks great especially since tv shows that are based on movies don't have the same budget as the films) from the characters, the story and just everything. You can clearly see all the hard work, love and dedication that went into this show and could tell that the ones working on the show truly cared about Dr. Seuss and his work and wanted to make a show not just for kids but something for almost everyone can enjoy. Everything thing in this world when it comes to the show just looks, breaths and 100% feels like Dr. Seuss, I also love and appreciate the references to other Dr. Seuss books and while the other Seuss tv shows and even the films themselves (except for Cat In The Hat) they were also able to capture nail the look of Dr. Seuss but something about Geah feels different, it truly nails the spirit and world of Dr. Seuss and it's just a beautiful looking show on every level, the animators really poured their love and soul into animating this show.

And it only gets better from here, there's also other amazing things about the show especially when it comes to the writing, characters and the story itself. And with this show, instead of 100% focusing solely on the story of the book, this show instead decided to change the story up and intertwine the original story into this new one. So, in this show, Guy-Am-I (played by Michael Douglas) is an inventor and who's very down on his luck mostly due to his inventions and dreams always blowing up right in his face, after one of his inventions fails his chance to going to Meepville, Guy decides to quit inventing and throw away the towel. Eventually, Guy runs into Sam-I-Am (played by Adam Devine) who's this chipper, loveable ball of sunshine who stole a creature known as The Chickeraffe ("Mr. Jenkins") that intends to return it to its natural habitat and have it reunite with its mother. But after getting their suitcases mixed up and when a mysterious agent duo known as "BAD GUYS" show up and attempt to take the Chickeraffe, this results in both Guy and Sam teaming up together in order to get to Meepville to save Mr. Jenkins and get him home. Now, while this story especially with its main characters, we've seen this type of storyline a million times before as it takes two characters with different personalities and putting them together as they learn to get along and know more about one another, being another typical buddy road trip formula. But it actually works very damn well with this show, throughout the first season, we see that Sam is able to have a huge impact on Guy and his life, in the beginning, Guy starts off as a closed off, grumpy frustrated individual who's very down on his luck and doesn't like anyone. Meanwhile Sam on the other hand, is very upbeat, loves life and is sweet and kind to almost everyone he meets and likes everybody. Again, while we've seen this type of thing many times before, this show does this type especially many other tropes that are shown in this show pretty well, and throughout the first season we actually see the characters grow, we see Guy starting to be more open and confident and even becomes more happier and even starts doing more with his life and trying new things such as inventing, friendship, family, love, ect.

And I think what also makes this formula work is the believable friendship and dynamic between Guy and Sam, it's incredibly well written and you truly do believe in their friendship and their dynamic and interactions is great!! The two clearly have an impact on another one another but Guy especially and while the first season was mainly focus on Guy and his journey, the next season gives a lot of focus on Sam when it comes to him wanting to find and reunite with his mom, but we'll get slightly more on that a little later! But Sam is also another great and well developed character and he's an example of an annoying character done right which can be a very tricky task, he's a character who's annoying but not annoying to the audience. Sam has such a likeable and loveable presence and charm, with some of that coming from Adam's wonderful performance, but I was never at all annoyed with Sam one bit and loved the depth they gave in S1 EP10 and showed his connections with Green, Eggs & Ham which felt powerful and heartwarming. And the Green, Eggs and Ham aren't there just to just be mentioned here and there, and to teach the message when it comes to Guy trying them, but also represents and shows just how important and strong Guy and Sam's friendship truly is. ❤️

There's also other memorable and great characters in this show, we've got characters from the book such as the fox, the mouse, and then you have the goat, in this show they're all changed and are good in their own right. First you have the fox, named Michael, who's this an eccentric guy who's basically obsessed with green eggs and has a huge crush on a green chicken named Sandra, and it's just incredibly hilarious as hell and pathetic in a way but just funny, then you have the mouse who's basically a parody based on "Jean Valjean" from Les Misérables and the running gag with him is that whenever he talks, basically nobody especially Guy and Sam can't understand him and only hear squeaks, he also has this huge song that dives into his backstory and it's supposed to be sad but you can't help but kinda laugh at it. And then you have the goat himself, who's basically this unhinged, nonsense badass bounty hunter sent by Mr. Snerz and will pretty much stop at nothing until he gets and captures the chickenraffe. He speaks with a strong spanish accent and he's kinda like an antagonist but he's extremely memorable and fun, he also this pretty fun and great fight scene with Mr. Jenkins in S1 EP9 up on a snowy mountain and not only does the animation sand out during this scene but it's indefinitely entertainment, it's interesting that a Dr. Seuss adaptation of all things would have things along with other great things in this show.

Let's also talk about the other characters they added in this show, that being "The Bad Guys" and "Michellee and E.B." and the main villain of S1, "Mr. Snerz." These characters weren't in the original book and are entirely new characters but similar to the other characters, they're good in their own right. We've got the agents themselves, McWinkle (played by Jeffrey Wright) and Gluntz, (played by Jillian Bell) we've got Mcwinkle who's the serious guy who's on his last mission and wants to get the job done as soon as possible, while his partner, Gluntz is basically the optimistic rookie and basically the opposite from Mcwinkle. And again, while this show does use tropes that been done to death that get tiring, that's kinda the point and this show does new things and does these tropes well that it doesn't exactly bother me all that much, honestly. Mcwinkle is a good and interesting character, although he might seem cold-hearted and serious he does care about his job and also despite his gruff persona, he does care for animals and others and just wants to keep everyone safe and both he and Gluntz aren't bad people, they're just doing their jobs and are just flawed almost like all the characters. Meanwhile with Gluntz, she's just the absolute and I love the hell out of her, although she can act serious and tough, but she just so fun-loving and chaotic and she's the best girl. Really do love Gluntz though, she's plucky, sweet, and just hilarious and some of her moments of the show are my favorite!

Now we have Mr. Snerz, (played by Eddie Izzard) who's the main villain of the first season and he's basically this famous rich businessman who wants to have the chickenraffe and mount it to his wall, and he doesn't want him dead and want his head on the wall, no he just literally wants him tied to the wall so he can keep the chickenraffe there for the rest of its life so it can never escape, and Snerz did that with all the other creatures he owns. Now, I didn't have many opinions about Mr. Snerz in the beginning and thought he was fine but also thought he was gonna be this typical one dimensional bad guy who wants to steal creatures for money and all that jazz, the same type of villain we've seen before. But, he's not exactly like that, he can be just as funny as the other characters at times and has a interesting solid motive for doing what he's doing and it's shown through his backstory.

And then you finally have Michellee and her one and only daughter, E.B. Now, I'm gonna dive deep into these two the best way that I can especially with Michellee as I feel she's been hated for wayyy too long (especially by some certain shippers and fans in the Geah fanbase) and deserves so much better and I'll show that she's not as bad as some try to claim she is. Now, Michellee is very overprotective and cautious who wants her daughter to be safe and okay, while E.B. is a rebellious kid/teen who wants to explore and have fun and do things that kids around her age do. And again like before, while we've seen this done before, just like the show itself and both Sam and Guy themselves, Michellee and E.B. are great and developed characters and their relationship is very well done, they're also on their way to Meepville only for Michellee to enter a literal bean contest and they end up meeting with our main duo multiple times throughout the first season and we get a nice bond between the four main characters. Both Sam and E.B. form a sibling type dynamic/friendship meanwhile both Guy and Michellee form a relationship of their own, now..I'll definitely say that one of the flaws with this show was the ongoing misunderstanding when it came to Michellee and Guy which became frustrating and repetitive, and it doesn't help that most of Michellee's moments kinda resolve around this and I really do think it could've been handled better.

But the way I've seen some of these fans especially when it comes to GuyXSam shippers, say that Michellee is a awful and terrible person is just frustrating as hell and ridiculous. It reminds me when it came to The Owl House, some tried to claim that Camilla was a terrible mom, which is downright not true and it shows people don't get it. While yes, Michellee was overprotective and her being too clingy only caused her to push her daughter away and feel alone, but the point of the show and the story itself is to NOT judge something or someone before giving it a try, without giving it a chance and these characters DO ACTUALLY GROW AND DEVELOP!! Over the course of the show we do see Michellee slowly learning to get out of her shell and try new things, and allowing her daughter to have fun, we learn that Michellee used to be a painter years ago but when her husband unfortunately died (when E.B was very small) she gave up her dream and moved on and this is possibly why she started to become more protective of her daughter, as she didn't wanna lose her either. Michellee clearly loves and cares about her daughter with all her heart, she's not perfect and she's very flawed (just like all the other characters in the show) and we do see her starting to be more open and by the end of the season, and even through some moments of Season 2, we see she's developed and has grown. Michellee isn't a bad parent, NOT in the slightest, she's a caring and loving parent that only wants to keep her daughter safe but she doesn't realize that doing so only pushed her daughter away and made her feel alone, and I really do by the mother/daughter relationship between her and E.B. and find it believable, like all the other characters, they are very flawed and the point of the show is for them to change, grow and give new things a try! (^-^)

Meanwhile with Guy and Michellee, although the two didn't get along and hit it off at the start due to Michellee being unimpressed with Guy's inventions due to them literally exploding, as the show went on and the more times the two met up one another one they start seeing that they actually have some things in common. Both are quiet, keep themselves, along with being reserved, and despite the annoying and cliche misunderstandings and writing choices when it came to how their dynamic was done in during some points from the first season, the relationship between both Guy and Michellee is honestly rather sweet. It's nothing too deep or groundbreaking, but they definitely are cute, adorable and just wholesome together and you do genuinely believe that the two do love and care about one another, both Michellee and Guy go through the same character arc's only with slight different circumstances, with both characters starting off not trusting the world or anyone around them and wanting to be left alone but both eventually learn the importance of not being afraid to try new things! 🙂🩷

Now, I'll quickly mention the second season real quick and while this season definitely isn't as good and amazing as the first one was, it's still a decent nice watch and there are some elements of the second season that I did enjoy. Firstly the animation is still incredible and well done and there is still clearly effort and love poured into the show even if this season wasn't as good as Season 1. And I did love some of the new characters they added such as Looka and Pam (Sam's Mother) and thought they were interesting and fun enough characters and I did love what they did with Pam. Although, she does follow into a trope we've seen before, what they did with her was still well down and you can clearly tell that she does love and care about Sam and similar to all the other characters, she's flawed just as them and isn't perfect, but she's not a bad parent or a bad person either, and while with Looka, although I don't have a whole lot to say about him exactly, I still really liked him and found his relationship and romance with E.B. very cute and adorable and I really do love their dynamic with one another and ship them, but as for the other characters I do think they could've been handled a little bit better but they're still fine enough characters on their own and I do think the route they went with the story also could've been handled better and could've been a little darker especially as the story they went with for S2, was based and took inspiration from another Dr. Seuss book called, "The Butter Battle Book" which was an anti war book that was written during the Cold war and I think they really could've done something different and make it more darker, but what they went with was fine and okay for what it was, but I think it could've been handled better and now certain characters act and are underutilize was also an issue with the second season, but for what S2 was its definitely a decent effort and they could've done something so much worse, the soul and heart of this soul is still there even if it lacks in some places, it's still a good season and I like it for what it is despite its flaws and issues, I still enjoy it. 💙

Overall, Green Eggs & Ham is an incredible and wonderful show that's very underrated and should be discussed and talked about more, this is a show that truly understood the message of the book and the source material itself. This show took inspiration from a short book and expanded upon the message and fits perfectly to not just the Green, Eggs & Ham but also to the characters as well too as we see them try new things and develop over the course of the show and I think the lesson of the book can apply to all of us as well too honestly. Live life to the absolute fullest as it's filled with many opportunities and about discovering new things but in order to that, you'll have to get out there and do what you love and just give new things a try and don't giving up and keep trying, even when life is tough, difficult or feels rather pointless, keep pushing forward and trying things! You can tell everyone who worked on Geah, truly care about Dr. Seuss and this book and wanted to do the show justice and they 100% succeeded. Even after the show's conclusion, this show is still amazing, delightful and just absolutely wonderful, it's filled with so much love, passion, it's well crafted and it's just a masterpiece honestly and it's most definitely the best Dr. Seuss adaptation!

If none of you haven't seen this show before or even heard of it, I'd highly recommend this show as it's a great and fun watch and it's 100% worth your time. This show is for everyone and even if you aren't that familiar with Dr. Seuss, you'll still very much love and enjoy this show. Please everyone, give this show a try and check it out, it's worth it. 🫶🩷

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