Dr. Seuss on the Loose! is an American animated musical television special, first airing on CBS on October 15, 1973, and was sponsored by Nestlé. This World Book Day book is filled with rhymes and extracts from some of Dr. Seuss’s best-loved books, including ‘The Cat in the Hat’, ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ and ‘Oh, The Places You’ll Go!’.
The first (and longest) story in the collection tells of a group of yellow bird-like creatures called the Sneetches, some of whom have a green star on their bellies. At the beginning of the story, Sneetches with stars discriminate against and shun those without, as shown by a star-bellied youngster being instructed by his parents, then going outside and ignoring a non-starred Sneetch saying a simple good morning.
The star-bellied Sneetches sing a song about their greatness by having a party on the beach, where the unstarred Sneetches are excluded. An entrepreneur named Sylvester McMonkey McBean (calling himself the Fix-It-Up Chappie) appears and offers the Sneetches without stars the chance to get them with his Star-On machine, for three dollars. The treatment is instantly popular, but this angers the Star-bellied Sneetches, who have not only lost their special status, they cannot discriminate which Sneetch is which. McBean does not share the prejudice of the Sneetches, only caring that he has paying customers, and offers another machine called Star-Off, which removes stars for ten dollars. Soon Sneetches are running from one machine to the next.
