Dr. Seuss on the Loose

Dr. Seuss on the Loose (titled Green Eggs and Ham and Other Stories for the sing-along videocassette release) is an animated musical television special, cartoon first airing on CBS on October 15, 1973, and hosted by The Cat in the Hat who appears in bridging sequences where he introduced animated adaptations of Dr. Seuss children's stories The Sneetches, The Zax, and Green Eggs and Ham. The first two stories were based on the first two segments of The Sneetches and Other Stories, while the third and last story was based on the same name of a standalone book. Allan Sherman reprised his role as the voice of The Cat in the Hat from the 1971 TV special. This was the final project Sherman worked on before his death on November 20, 1973, barely a month after the original airing. On June 26, 2012, Warner Home Video released the special on a special edition DVD and Blu-ray.

Voice Actors[]

Allan Sherman – The Cat in the Hat
Hans Conried – Narrator, little Sneetch, one Sneetch, North-going Zax, South-going Zax, Fox
Paul Winchell – Sam-I-Am, Guy-Am-I, and some of the Sneetches
Bob Holt – Sylvester McMonkey McBean and other Sneetches
Mel Blanc - Additional Voices

Songs[]

Trivia[]

This is the only Dr. Seuss special to have three stories instead of just one-full length story. Green Eggs and Ham is meant to be the main part of the special, but because the book was short and did not have enough plot to fill out a 24-minute cartoon special, two other stories which are The Sneetches and The Zax from The Sneetches and Other Stories were added in as additional segments to fill out the run time. However, Green Eggs and Ham was the third and last story after those two stories.
- Of the three segments, The Sneetches took up the longest runtime of the special, making The Zax have the shortest runtime and then Green Eggs and Ham gets the second-longest runtime.
This is the last Dr. Seuss special until The Butter Battle Book to be based on any of Geisel's books.
The laugh Guy has near the end of the special is the same laugh Paul Winchell used for Tigger from the Winnie the Pooh series.
This special uses a custom "A Cat in the Hat Presentation" logo animated from scratch instead of the usual kind from the other specials. However, it does not have the "A Cat in the Hat Presentation" text as the yellow circle border is thinner, and even the end credits use the same logo from the beginning of the special.
On all VHS releases and the laserdisc until the 2003 re-release onwards, numerous edits were made.
- On the Sing-Along Classics release and the 1998 VHS reprint, the opening title sequence has the title card edited: The video title "Green Eggs & Ham and Other Stories" is plastered over the original title "Dr. Seuss on the Loose". The Playhouse Video VHS release however keeps the original title card intact.
- In some tv releases, during the Star-Off Machine sequence, several shots where a machine makes a Sneetch look hairy/wet/skinny, then getting pushed among colored windows in the dark, and the extreme close up shot of their eyes breaking the fourth wall again were cut, most likely due to being frightening for children.
- The scene where the daytime/sunset/night/sunrise/daytime cycle and the hurricane thunderstorm while the Zax were standing still was cut for unknown reasons.
On the laserdisc release, the Dr. Seuss on the Loose opening title sequence was cut and replaced with the "A Cat in the Hat Presentation" logo from the previous special and for unknown reasons, Green Eggs and Ham was also positioned as the first segment before The Sneetches and The Zax.
This is the only Dr. Seuss special to have been left unedited in its BFA edition, while the BFA opening/closing logos were added separately instead of being plastered over the DFE logo.
An eBay auction for a production cel of The Zax states that Chuck Jones worked on the special, which is false because Chuck Jones didn't work on anymore specials after The Cat in the Hat.^[1]
Despite Chuck Jones working at A.B.C. and P.B.S. at the time, and independent story adaptations that do not involve Dr. Seuss, many of his staff continued to work on The Lorax and Dr. Seuss on the Loose.
These cartoons feature an unusual split producers title card, with Friz Freleng taking Chuck Jones's former slot. This is unusual because David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng are credited together since Pink Panther. This arrangement continued as long as some of Chuck Jones's team was still involved.
This is, however, the final time that Maurice Noble worked on a Dr. Seuss Story. Roy Morita took over.
Absolutely none of the credits are at the beginning. The credits that are meant for the beginning are seen after the end credits.
This is the last animated appearance of the Cat in the Hat by DePatie-Freleng during Friz Freleng’s involvement. Due to the loss of Allan Sherman which aired posthumously, the character would not return until The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat in 1982 as the Cat is voiced by Mason Adams.

Differences from the Book(s)[]

The Sneetches[]

Before the scene where the Plain-Belly Sneetches met McBean, there was an original rhyme that was not in the book that came after "That's how they treated them year after year" which goes like this: "They got snubbed. They got snooted. Their bottoms got booted, while the Star-Belly Sneetches all taunted and hooted, 'They just are not suited! NO STARS UPON THARS!'".
Sylvester McMonkey McBean's truck is redesigned and larger in size in this special. Originally, in the book, the front of his truck is stylized like a motorcycle, while the back of the truck was a cargo box with the machinery/equipment stored visibly in a pile, plus all the cash he carried with him were also piled on the back of the truckload, with a money bag also hanging on the machines. In the cartoon, the front of the truck he drives now has a roof console, while all the Star-On/Off machinery/equipment and money were completely stored inside the truckload, and the side of his car also has the "Sylvester McMonkey McBean" brand label removed.
The Star-On and Star-Off machines were redesigned and looked different in the cartoon than in the book.
- In the book, the Star-On machine was a simplistic machine and yellow in color. In the cartoon, it was redesigned as a more complex machine and is red in color.
- In the book, the Star-Off machine was a simplistic machine and red in color. In the cartoon, it was redesigned as a more complex machine and is green in color.
In the book, the Star-On machine was positioned to the left, while the Star-Off machine was positioned to the right. In the cartoon, the left/right positions of the two machines were reversed – the Star-On machine was positioned to the right, while the Star-Off machine was positioned to the left.
During the scene where the Star-Belly Sneetches say, "We're still the best Sneetches and they are the worst," the Sneetches hold a protest meeting inside a cave, individually from the other group of Sneetches. This does not happen in the book as they still confront the other Sneetches during that line.
At the end of the cartoon, the Sneetches hold a marshmallow toast party again during the day. This does not happen in the book.

The Zax[]

In the cartoon, while the Zax had been standing still, several cutaways were written in: a daytime/sunset/night/sunrise/daytime cycle, a hurricane thunderstorm and rain, winter, and spring were added before the part where a town was built around the Zax.

Green Eggs & Ham[]

In the book, Sam riding a dog and a tiger was seen coming out from around the hallway, but in the cartoon, he was seen entering in and out of empty doorways.
In the book, Sam used a fishing rod-like toy with a mechanical glove hand to send the platter of green eggs and ham to Guy from the distance. In the cartoon, he simply pops up from behind Guy's chair to offer him green eggs and ham.
In the book, Sam and Guy are inside while Sam uses a couple of hand rods to point "here" and "there". In the special, Guy simply leaves his home before this, and Sam pops up from a trapdoor beneath the grass. For "here", Sam simply points his finger on the ground, and for "there", he uses a measure tape-like device that reels out a mechanical hand that runs its fingers all the way far out behind Guy.
In the book, Sam and the mouse interact with Guy from the house window. In the cartoon, Guy opens the front door to a house before encountering Sam and the mouse.
- Also in the cartoon, Guy actually slams the house door when he says "I would not like them in a house." Additionally, he does not say his following two lines after he runs off saying "I would not like them anywhere!"
In the book, when Sam and the fox interact with Guy from a box, the box they are standing in is hanging from a tree branch. In the cartoon, the box falls from above and sits on the ground.
In the cartoon, Guy says "No" twice before explaining where he does not like the green eggs and ham – during his encounter with a fox in the box and while in the train. He doesn't say this word in the book.
- Additionally at one point, after the fox gets chased away by the hound dogs and fox hunters, Guy also says "I would not eat green eggs and ham" when Sam shoves them up to his face (shortly before he heads off and then gets rammed by the car) – which he also doesn't do in the book.
In the cartoon – all of the following which is not in the book, after Guy says "No, not in a box, not with a fox...", the fox runs for his life and gets chased away by a bunch of hound dogs and also a couple of horse-riding fox hunters. This happens three more times in the special whenever Guy says anything about eating with a fox; after Guy opens a door to another passenger car in the train, after Guy halts his handcar before a railroad signal (the only time this happens when he didn't mention it), and while Guy sings to Sam about finally accepting to eat the green eggs and ham. Additionally, the fox and the dogs, along with the goat and the mouse, also sing as a group choir to finish off the ending song before Guy says "I do so like green eggs and ham. Thank you, thank you, Sam-I-Am."
All the animals were riding with Sam in his car in the book, but not in the cartoon, in which only one animal appears individually and they only appear in a group with the dogs near the end.
In the book, the grass changes from white to red to yellow at times, but in the cartoon, it remains green.
In the book, Sam was driving the car in a right direction. In the cartoon, he drives it to the left, followed by multiple cutaways where he is driving the car across multiple hills, then it heads right when approaching the tree.
In the book, the tree was colored yellow, but in the cartoon, it was colored reddish-magenta.
In the cartoon, when the car landed in the tree, Sam ducks inside the car for some reason, then pops back out of it when suggesting to Guy that he may like the green eggs and ham in a tree. Guy also peers down and shocked when he is on the edge of the car and the tree. They don't do this in the book as Guy continues to argue with Sam, even after the car got stuck in the tree.
The train as seen in the book was a rather simplistic-looking train with only one passenger car hooked to it. The engineer was more of a who-like creature and two parents and their child were seen sitting in the passenger car. In the cartoon, the train was slightly redesigned with a steam dome added behind the smokestack, a coal tender attached to the back of the engine and the passenger car placed behind the tender – with two extra passenger cars attached. The engineer also has a more human-like design and the parents and their child were absent, so the passenger cars almost look like that they are empty with no people as they should have been.
- Also, in the cartoon – unlike the book where the car falls off the tree and on top of the train, Guy jumps off from the car that stays stuck to a tree for an unknown reason. Instead of the car landing on the top of the train, Guy just lands on the observation of the train, where he sits inside the dining car of the train to wait for lunch at a table and later goes to another passenger car of the train where he sits in one of the passenger seats, while trying to get away from Sam until the train goes through a tunnel that is recolored red, instead of being light blue like in the original book.
- Similarly, after Sam asks him about eating in the train, Guy does not say any of the following lines from the book after saying "Not here or there! Not anywhere!".
In the book, Sam and Guy are still physically visible in the dark, but in the cartoon, only their eyes can be seen in the dark, just like with several shots during the Star Off Machine sequence in The Sneetches segment.
In the book, the car falls off the tree and stays on top of the train's passenger as Sam and Guy (along with Fox, Mouse, and Goat) go on a long train voyage. Eventually, after going through a tunnel and a hill, the train runs off a poorly designed railroad and collides with a passenger ship (which is, the "boat"). All passengers on both vehicles survive and take part in Guy's culinary celebration. The cartoon is more implicitly violent; the train, whose engineer appears to be asleep at the throttle, charges down the ship's funnel, causing both vehicles to sink to the bottom of the ocean. While Guy wades to shore, no one else emerges from either vehicle. So it might be presumed that all hands in both crews might have ether drowned or swam to another shore offscreen.
- Similarly, instead of staying on top of the passenger car throughout their train voyage in the book, Guy just mysteriously uses a handcar to carry on with his voyage across the well designed railroad until he lands into the funnel of the passenger ship.
  - Additionally, after Sam asks him about eating in the rain, Guy does not say any of the following lines from the book after saying "I would not like them, Sam, you see!" in the rain. Also, on the boat, Guy also does not continue his dialogue from the book after he says "Not in the rain, not on a train..." due to him being interrupted by the train approaching the boat, much to his horror.
One line from the book (on the page showing a wide shot while they are riding the train) where Sam asks Guy "You do not like green eggs and ham?" and Guy says "I do not like them, Sam-I-Am." is not included in the cartoon.
In the book, the goat was inside the car, but in the cartoon, Sam rode the goat over to Guy after he halted his handcar in front of a railroad signal.
- Additionally in the cartoon, after Guy tells Sam he "would not, could not, with a goat", he then says an extra line he didn't say after that in the book, which is "I will not eat them here or there. I would not eat them anywhere."
In the book, the boat's windows were white on the inside and were shaped like circles, it has a flagpole on the front of the ship, and the captain was seen steering the boat from the back outside the ship. In the cartoon, the boat was clearly redesigned, the windows were now colored black and look more square-shaped (despite having round edges), the ship now has two lower platforms instead of one. There are two poles (one now behind the middle portion of the ship) added rather in between lower platforms of the ship – which looked more antenna-like and had no flags attached, two smaller smokestacks are added (one on the back of the ship where the captain as well as the ship's steering wheel originally was, and another beside the funnel), and extra holes are added beneath the three passenger windows. Also in front of the passenger room, there appears to be a control room where the captain is supposedly in, even though the captain was never physically seen in the cartoon as he should have been.
In the book, while Guy celebrates with Sam about eating green eggs and ham everywhere, he is in the water with everyone else and later heads back up the grass hill with Sam. In the cartoon, after the train sinks the boat, Guy heads out of the water rather before he manages to try the green eggs and ham and instead of a grass hill that serves the last location in the book, the cartoon ends at is where he ends up on an island and Sam pops out of a treasure chest (much to Guy's surprise, thinking there is real treasure inside the chest until otherwise) before telling him "You do not like them, so you say."