Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983)
Mickey’s first appearance in theaters in 30 years.
Brief Backstory
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is one of the most beloved stories of all time and has been subjected to a huge variety of adaptations, some range from being full length movies to being short subject cartoons. While there do exist a sizable chunk of cartoons based on the story, including Mr. Magoo and the Muppets (Technically the Muppets don’t count as cartoons) the most famous of the group (and this even extends to the film adaptations) is Mickey’s Christmas Carol. Mickey’s Christmas Carol was a huge deal back in 1983 as everyone’s favorite mouse (Not Jerry from Tom And Jerry) hadn’t been on the cinema screens since way back in the early 1950s with Pluto’s Christmas Tree and the Simple Things being his last few shorts.
Even with that distinction, Mickey’s Christmas Carol is a frequent guest on favorite Christmas cartoons lists (often close to How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer) for being a breakout appearance for Scrooge that he immediately became one of the 1980s greatest cartoon characters (despite his first appearance being in the 60s in Scrooge McDuck and Money and even back into the 1940s) thanks to the success of DuckTales. Scrooge McDuck has often been used as a slight inspiration for other money worshipping characters such as Mr. Krabs from SpongeBob SquarePants and Carter Pewterschmit from Family Guy.
Story
Ebeneezer Scrooge, a cranky and stingy businessman is visited by three ghosts to reveal the error of his greedy ways and encourage him to rethink his life before he ends up like Jacob Marley, his late partner.
Random Facts
Quite a lot to go through here but this is because along with Frosty the Snowman and the Little Drummer Boy, this was one of my most watched Christmas cartoons.
Unlike other appears of Scrooge McDuck, Scrooge is seen as a greedy businessman cheating people.
Not the first time Alan Young voiced Scrooge. That was actually some time in the early 70s on a record which was an audio retelling of the Christmas Carol tale. Alan Young would continue to voice Scrooge until he died in 2016.
Earlier airings of this special featured several cartoons prior to the start of the cartoon (Donald’s Snow Fight and Pluto’s Christmas Tree). Both cartoons are featured on A Walt Disney Christmas an old compilation of Christmas affiliated shorts that came out in the early 80s, which also featured a part from Melody Time. You can find it easily on video – however do not buy the first edition; it’s missing two shorts.
First appearance of Clarabelle Cow, Clara Cluck, and Horace Horsecollar in quite a long time not counting in the Mickey Mouse Club intro way back in the 50s (excluding Clara Cluck, she didn’t appear on the mickey mouse march song unlike the other two). Symphony Hour in 1942 (notorious for Mickey pulling a gun on Donald Duck) was their most recent appearance in theaters to date prior.
First Mickey Mouse short since 1953’s the Simple Things, seen on Disney’s Cartoon Classics Limited Gold Edition: Mickey Mouse (the first set, not the second).
Characters from Robin Hood, Pinocchio, Aristocats, Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, etc. show up in this.
Unlike other adaptations except one other one from 2009, Mickey’s Christmas Carol is the only one to have Ebeneezer Scrooge end up being sent to hell.
Composed by Irwin Kostal, composer for Mary Poppins and just prior to this re-composed the soundtrack to Fantasia in 1982.
First paired with a re-release of The Rescuers in 1983 and then later put on television a year later. You can see a behind the scenes mini movie of this on the oldest home video copies.
This was prior to Jim Cummings voicing Pete and Bill Farmer voicing Goofy, so their voices are different here.
Clarence Nash’s final voicing credit for Donald Duck, ending a roughly 50 long years of voicing him. He doesn’t have many lines and you can really hear that he didn’t sound too healthy.
Nash and Young aren’t the only members who died; most of the cast has died unfortunately – but with a cast where most were 50+ years old and a cartoon that’s closing in on its’ 40th anniversary, that’s just something to expect. Even some of the younger members at the time (Wayne Allwine and Will Ryan) are deceased and only one I think was close to 10 years old at the time.
Although named Mickey’s Christmas Carol, Mickey isn’t around as much but on the other hand it’s likely referring to Mickey’s universe.
Siskel and Ebert didn’t like this. Eh, can’t please everyone.
Random Opinions
Mickey’s Christmas Carol serves as a serious lesson in not being a greedy prick.
I find the grave scene a lot more serious than other versions whereas in other versions I’ve seen Ebeneezer Scrooge just goes “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!” unlike here.
This should’ve won an award, not get nominated and lose. Given John Wayne’s only single Oscar it just comes as no shock that I personally think the award system is a joke.
I didn’t think the scene where it was shown that Tiny Tim died from his illness was funny. While not the saddest moment out there for Disney standards that image of Mickey crying should be shown to people in congress – since most of their actions seem to fuck up the general population.
Pros
- Faithful adaptation to the classic tale.
- Character voices are perfectly done.
Cons
- Title’s a little misleading; it should be “Disney’s Christmas Carol” given how Mickey doesn’t exactly have as big of a role as Scrooge does.
Rating: 9.5/10 – Amazing
How the Grinch Stole Christmas might be a classic but I will always take this over that. One of my favorite Christmas cartoons. Equivalent quality to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
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