Disney has done two feature movies of the Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. One featured the Muppets and Sir Michael Caine and it’s loved by many. The other featured Jim Carrey as Ebeneezer Scrooge and directed by Robert Zemeckis during his three-dimensional digital animation phase and is considered by some to be too scary to be a Christmas movie. But Dickens’ story wasn’t meant to be sugarcoated. There’s moments that are disturbing. We’re talking about a man who is visited by four ghosts, one of which is his former business partner trapped in his own purgatory of torture as punishment.
The story was supposed to be a morality play about how it’s never too late to turn your life around. Scrooge is an old miser curmudgeon who has allowed money and wealth to take priority. But we learn he wasn’t always this way and despite his ways, his employee, Bob Cratchit, and nephew, Fred, still talk positively about him. In the end, after realizing that he’s going to die lonely with people celebrating his death, he vows to turn his life around. And he also works to ensure the Cratchit’s weak youngest son, Tiny Tim, gets healthier.
In 1983 in mid-December, Disney released the half-hour short along with a re-issue of The Rescuers. The short would later be aired on TV. Scrooge McDuck (voiced by Alan Young) steps into the role of, well, Scrooge. Mickey Mouse (voiced by Wayne Allwine) is Bob Cratchit. Donald Duck (voiced by Clarence Nash) plays Fred. Jiminy Cricket (voiced by Eddie Carroll) is the Ghost of Christmas Past and Goofy (voiced by Hal Smith) is Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s deceased business partner who warns him to change his ways.
If you basically know the story, there’s no point in telling, even though the director, Burny Mattinson, who wrote the story along with Young and others, gets it down to the barebones. We see Scrooge sent back in time to the Fezziwig party where he he worked when he was young. Mr. Toad is Fezziwig and there’s cameos by Chip and Dale and Huey, Dewey and Louie as party goers who don’t speak.
There’s some creative casting. I liked how Jiminy is one of the Ghost as he is often seen as the voice of reason to Pinocchio. And the Weasals from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad play work perfectly as the gravediggers at Scrooge’s burial spot. Ratty and Moley play the collectors for the poor and you’ll see Skippy and Toby from the 1973 Robin Hood animated movie as children having fun on Christmas morning.
And just like Robin Hood, this movie is a perfect introduction to the story for people who haven’t become familiar with the story yet. There might be a little frightful scenes at the cemetery but this is still Disney and it’s tame. And unlike Rich Little’s A Christmas Carol, it’s not very dated with the comic/impressionist doing impersonations of people who have been dead for decades. It’s the perfect way to introduce your kids to the Dickens classic as well as well made and heart-warming at times.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 