Since this is the last day of 2011, I decided to end the year on a festive note with one of my all-time favourite animated Christmas specials.
One of the most often overlooked and least known of all Christmas specials is the “Mr. Magoo Christmas Carol”. It was the first animated holiday program ever produced specifically for television, originally airing on December 18, 1962, and predates “A Charlie Brown Christmas” by three years.
Copyright 2004 Sony Wonder
Freely adapted by Barbara Chain, from Charles Dickens’ famous short story ”A Christmas Carol“, Mr. Magoo’s Christmas story centers around the myopic character Mr. Magoo.
Read the original Dickens classic story here.
With his bumbling and zany antics, and his nearsightedness that gets him into all kinds of trouble, the character Mr. Quincy Magoo is voiced by the late and great Jim Backus (he of Thurston Howell III “Gilligan’s Island fame), and this version of Dickens tale has Magoo returning to Broadway to star as the lead character, Ebenezer Scrooge, in the musical stage production of the story.
DVD Covers for Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol
As he drives down streets, going the wrong way on a one-way street, Mr. Magoo sings “It’s Great to be Back on Broadway”, all the while narrowly being run down by fast-moving drivers who seem to expect such behaviour from Mr. Magoo.
After going to the wrong back door entrance of a building across from the theater, Mr. Magoo finally arrives in time to get the show started.
And what a show it is.
Mr. Magoo is suitably good as the grouchy, penny-pinching, miserly Scrooge who never lets a moment pass without uttering his famous statement: “Bah, humbug!”
We all know the original story of Scrooge, Bob Cratchit and his family, and especially crippled Tiny Tim (who, incidentally, was played by another cartoon character—Gerald McBoing-Boing), but, some liberties have been taken with it due to time constraints on the original televised cartoon. Though in the original Dickens story the ghosts that come after being warned of their visit by Scrooge’s late business partner, Jacob Marley, are the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, the cartoon starts off with the Ghost of Christmas Present, then the Ghosts of Christmas Past, and finally, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Also excised are the following: no reference is made to Scrooge’s nephew Fred or the allegorical twin children, Ignorance and Want; Scrooge’s sister Fan (mother of Scrooge’s nephew Fred), seen in the Christmas Past sequence, is omitted; and two of the post-redemption scenes of the short story are amalgamated into one scene, so that Scrooge visits the Cratchit family instead of his nephew Fred and his family, and in a self-deprecating way, raises Bob’s salary instead of waiting to do so at work the day after Christmas.
Scrooge goes back, and forward in time via the help of the three Ghosts, and looks at the losses in his life, sees how he impacts the present, and realizes the horrible fate that awaits him if he does not mend his ways.
Waking up the next morning, he is ready to bring joy and happiness to all those in his world.
Directed by Abe Levitow, the story stars the voices of Backus, Jack Cassidy, Royal Dano, Les Tremayne, and Joan Gardner, among others. The musical score is wonderful, with the original songs written by the Broadway team of Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics). In addition to “Back on Broadway”, the songs include the catchy “Ringle, Ringle”, as Scrooge counts and hoards his money, to “The Lord’s Bright Blessing”, sung at the beginning of the production by Cratchit and his family, and again at the end by Scrooge and the Cratchit family. To add a note of fun, there is the dream sequence that features ”We’re Despicable (Plunderer’s March)” as sung by the trio who rob Scrooge of his possessions before his body is cold and in the ground. “Winter was Warm”, is a poignant song sung by Belle to Ebenezer when he refuses to marry her because she is not rich enough for him.
Then there is the lovely but sad “Alone in the World” as sung by a young Ebenezer Scrooge as he sits all alone in a deserted classroom since no one wants him. While going back in time with the Ghost of Christmas Past, Scrooge commiserates with his younger self by singing along on this song.
Available on DVD and Blu-ray, “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol” from Classic Media, is a 53-minute show that was produced by the Rankin-Bass Studios, and is a must-see for the whole family, and definitely deserves a place as an annual holiday special at Christmas time.
Enjoy.
He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!
-from Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”
Ann
My favorite of all time as well.