Das gestohlene Herz

In a small town, everyone loves music. Boys on carts play flutes and in their homes, youngsters play fiddles, pianos, even accordions. Song fills the air as they prepare to sleep But a mishappen giant comes down from the mountains and steals their instruments, and growing ever larger, carries them to his cave to hang in a spider web.

Did Doctor Seuss know this example of Lotte Reiniger's work, and did it inspire him to write HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS? Other reviewers, even the person who wrote the notes to the blue-ray collection this appears on suggest it was intended as specific anti-Nazi propaganda. Perhaps, but it works as a straight fairy tale, about how music and joy inspire us, and that's more than good enough for me.