Mickey's Christmas Carol
Mickey's Christmas Carol | |
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Directed by | Burny Mattinson |
Story by |
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Based on | A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Mickey Mouse by Walt Disney Ub Iwerks |
Produced by | Burny Mattinson |
Starring |
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Edited by | James Melton Armetta Jackson |
Music by | Irwin Kostal |
Animation by |
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Layouts by |
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Backgrounds by |
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Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Buena Vista Distribution |
Release date |
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Running time | 26 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Mickey's Christmas Carol is a 1983 American animated Christmas fantasy featurette directed and produced by Burny Mattinson. The cartoon is an adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, and stars Scrooge McDuck as Ebenezer Scrooge. Many other Disney characters, primarily from the Mickey Mouse universe, as well as Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio (1940), and characters from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) and Robin Hood (1973), were cast throughout the film. The featurette was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution on December 16, 1983, with the re-issue of The Rescuers (1977). In the United States, it was first aired on television on NBC, on December 10, 1984.[1]
Mickey's Christmas Carol was largely adapted from the 1974 Disneyland Records audio musical An Adaptation of Dickens' Christmas Carol. The musical featured similar dialogue and a similar cast of characters.[2]
The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1984, but lost to Jimmy Picker's Sundae in New York.[3] It was the first nomination for a Mickey Mouse short since Mickey and the Seal (1948).
Plot
Ebenezer Scrooge (Scrooge McDuck), a greedy and lonely moneylender of Victorian era London, resents the merriment of Christmas. On Christmas Eve, he refuses to give money to a panhandler outside his counting house, declines his nephew Fred (Donald Duck)'s invitation to Christmas dinner, and dismisses two gentlemen (Rat and Mole) fundraising aid for the poor. His overworked and underpaid employee, Bob Cratchit (Mickey Mouse), who Scrooge pays just a little extra to do his laundry, requests to have half of Christmas Day off, to which Scrooge reluctantly accepts on the condition that Cratchit is docked half a day's pay. That night, he is visited by the shackled ghost of his late business partner Jacob Marley (Goofy). Marley warns Scrooge to change his wicked ways or be condemned to suffer in the afterlife as he does and that three spirits will visit him during the night.
At one o'clock, Scrooge is visited by the
Filled with glee, Scrooge begins spreading happiness and joy around London, donating a sizable amount of money to the gentlemen's charity and reconciling with Fred. Traveling to the Cratchit house, Scrooge resumes his curmendougly persona by saying he expects more of Bob, then surprises everyone with gifts of a prize turkey, toys, and making Cratchit his partner. Tiny Tim says "God bless us, everyone" as the film ends.
Cast
Main cast
Voice actor | Character | Role |
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Alan Young | Scrooge McDuck | Ebenezer Scrooge |
Wayne Allwine | Mickey Mouse | Bob Cratchit |
Hal Smith (speaking) and Hannes Schroll (yelling) | Goofy | Jacob Marley's ghost |
Eddie Carroll | Jiminy Cricket | Ghost of Christmas Past |
Will Ryan | Willie the Giant | Ghost of Christmas Present |
Pete | Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come | |
Clarence Nash | Donald Duck | Fred, Scrooge's nephew |
Patricia Parris | Daisy Duck | Isabelle ("Belle" in the novella) |
None (characters have no spoken dialogue) | J. Thaddeus Toad | Fezzywig |
Minnie Mouse | Emily Cratchit | |
Millie or Melody Mouse[4]
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Martha Cratchit | |
Morty and Ferdie
Fieldmouse[5] |
Peter Cratchit | |
Dick Billingsley | Tiny Tim | |
Hal Smith | Ratty | Collectors for the poor |
Will Ryan | Moley | |
Wayne Allwine | Otto | Beggar |
Wayne Allwine and Will Ryan | Weasels
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Gravediggers |
Extras
Opening street scene
- The Big Bad Wolf, collecting for charity (voiced by Will Ryan)
- The Three Little Pigs, caroling
Party at Fezzywig's
- Lady Kluck, dancing with Secretary Bird
- Rabbit children, clapping
- Uncle Waldo; clapping, later dancing
- Grandma Duck; clapping, later dancing
- Horace Horsecollar, dancing with Clarabelle Cow
- Gus Goose, dancing with Clara Cluck
- Angus MacBadger, dancing
- Chip and Dale, dancing
- Cocky Locky, dancing
- Huey, Dewey, and Louie, decorating Christmas tree
- Percy and Patricia Pigg, dancing
Closing street scene
- Skippy Bunny and Toby Turtle, playing in the street
- Mother Rabbit and Grandma Owl, standing in the street
- Practical Pig, chasing two of the Three Little Wolves
- Cyril Proudbottom, pulling Donald's cart
The film also includes unidentifiable dog, fox, pig, squirrel, bear, raccoon, goose, and chicken characters. The DVD print reveals that the graveyard scene also includes tombstones containing famous performers, including Gladys Knight & the Pips, Bob Mills, and Warren Oates.
Production
This was the first original
Reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 8/10 based on 8 reviews.[7]
Film critic Leonard Maltin said that rather than being "a pale attempt to imitate the past", the film is "cleverly written, well-staged, and animated with real spirit and a sense of fun".[8] Robin Allan stated that the film calls to mind the similarities between Walt Disney and Charles Dickens, in terms of both the work they produced and their work ethic.[9]
However, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert of At the Movies gave it "two thumbs down" as they were both disappointed. Siskel felt there was not enough emphasis on Mickey's character, in spite of the title, and that it did not rank with most of Disney's full-length animated features. Ebert stated that it lacked the magic of visual animation that the "Disney people are famous for" and that it was a "forced march" through the Charles Dickens story without any ironic spin.[10]
Mickey's Christmas Carol was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Animated Short Subject of 1983,[11] losing to Jimmy Picker's Sundae in New York.
Colin Greenland reviewed Mickey's Christmas Carol for Imagine magazine, and wrote that "it is surprising how entertaining this is, perhaps because it is actually a Scrooge McDuck movie (of course), with the effete rodent very much in a minor role as Bob Cratchit".[12]
Releases
Mickey's Christmas Carol premiered in the
The aforementioned broadcasts in the 1980s and early 1990s spanned a full hour, with the first half consisting of the following older cartoon shorts: Donald's Snow Fight, Pluto's Christmas Tree, and The Art of Skiing. Each of the four items in the program was preceded by a narrative wraparound segment in which one of the Disney cartoon characters (Donald, Pluto (with Mickey translating), Goofy, and Mickey, respectively) would talk about his favorite Christmas, thus leading into the cartoon in question. From 1988 onwards, The Art of Skiing was excluded from the annual broadcast, replaced at the end of the hour by one segment or another. The 1993 telecast, for example, featured a behind-the-scenes featurette on The Nightmare Before Christmas. Later broadcasts simply reduced the timeslot to half an hour, showing Mickey's Christmas Carol by itself.
A clip of this film in Swedish was shown on Donald Duck's 50th Birthday to illustrate Donald's international appeal.
This short film was featured in Disney's Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse. The shot of Mickey holding Tiny Tim's crutch is also seen in the opening of Epic Mickey.
Home media
The short was released several times on VHS and LaserDisc throughout the 1980s and 1990s. It was released in the Mini-Classics line on September 28, 1989, September 25, 1990 and October 7, 1994. It was re-issued in the Favorite Stories line on October 2, 1996. Some releases featured The Making of "Mickey's Christmas Carol" as a bonus.
The short is also featured, without its opening credits, in the direct-to-home release,
See also
- List of Christmas films
- List of ghost films
- List of A Christmas Carol adaptations
- Mickey Mouse (film series)
Notes
- ISBN 0-8108-2198-2. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
- ^ Dickens' Christmas Carol by Disneyland Records at MouseVinyl.com
- ^ Oscars (2016-02-04), Short Film Oscar® Winners in 1984, retrieved 2019-07-11
- ^ The film does not specify which mouse plays her.
- ^ The film does not specify which mouse plays whom, but the 1974 musical identifies Tiny Tim as Morty.
- ^ Disney News Magazine Fall 1984: Walt Disney Productions
- ^ "Mickey's Christmas Carol". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
- ISBN 0-452-25993-2.
- ISBN 0-253-21353-3.
- ^ At the Movies, December 1983
- ^ Oscars (2016-02-04), Short Film Oscar® Winners in 1984, retrieved 2019-07-11
- Imagine(review) (9). TSR Hobbies (UK), Ltd.: 45.
- ^ "Mickey's Christmas Carol Blu-ray + DVD Review (30th Anniversary Edition)". www.dvdizzy.com. Retrieved 2019-07-11.