Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas
"You're as cuddly as a cactus / You're as charming as an eel, Mr. Grinch." See, I think those are compliments. Nothing against this story's final moments of uplift and Who-manity, but it wouldn't be so wonderful without the nine-tenths in which the green meany's heart is two sizes too small. Theodor Geisel created a villain for the ages, and this Chuck Jones animated adaptation captured his stage-baddie delight, right down to the delicious voiceover by Boris Karloff. Bringing a brilliant book to life is often regrettable — let's agree to forget that the 2000 movie adaptation ever existed — but this lusty, garishly colored, good-hearted cartoon was a wonderful, awful idea.