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Mickey’s Christmas Carol seems to fall right into
place because of its characters. Scrooge McDuck (Alan Young) has
the already recognizable character of Scrooge and Mickey Mouse
naturally has the lovable humility of Bob Cratchit. I also love
Donald Duck as Fred, Mr. Toad as Fezziweg, and especially Jiminy
Cricket as the Ghost of Chirstmas Past – which adds an interesting
dimension of the spirit as a conscience.
While other some of the adaptations geared towards children choose
not to depict Marley as a haunting ghost, Mickey’s Christmas
Carol is able to maintain the use of a ghost by using Goofy
as Marley and creating a more humorous, clumsy ghost.
The short length, like all other television adaptations, make
it difficult to develop much, but this one does alright considering
the time. And the animation, though somewhat aged, is warm and
well done.
The transformation of Scrooge is ably managed in its time. Scrooge
starts out pretty blatantly evil. He hoards over his money, gets
sarcastic with Fred, and tells us, “Marley left me enough
to pay for his coffin, and I threw him into the sea.” Though
far from subtle, Scrooge does undergo a fairly sincere change
of heart and truly finds joy in his new self.
I love Scrooge’s post-transformation self here. He gives
a bag of money to the petitioners, which is itself an impressive
gesture, but then keeps giving until its five times the first
and he keeps getting more and more excited as he does it.
While managing to be an affecting rendition in itself, Mickey’s
Christmas Carol is most endearing for its long-loved, appropriately
placed characters that really liven the screen.
Made for TV/Direct to Video
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