A Christmas Carol (1994)
This is an animated version made by Jetlag Productions, which was a small animated film studio that worked on a few TV series, before releasing their own films. Most of their films are considered “mockbusters”. If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s when studios release movies that are deliberately made to look like they are the same title as a big budget studio movie. Next time you look at a department store DVD bargain bin look for titles like “Karate Panda” or “Frozen Land” for good examples. Jetlag put out a number of movies like this including knock offs of Pocahontas, Hercules, and the Lion King, all released at the same time as Disney’s versions. Jetlag also put out a couple of literary adaptations, one of which is A Christmas Carol.
It starts with a MIDI-sounding adaptation of Jingle Bells. A narrator tell us that Christmas was a time of giving, but for Scrooge, it was nothing of the sort. Scrooge was a mean man, but no one feared him more than his unfortunate clerk.
Scrooge screams at Bob with an incredibly screechy voice. Fred immediately arrives and they quickly argue.
When Fred gives his little speech, Bob tries to clap, and literally hits his hands together once before falling off of his chair and knocking over his ledger and ink. It’s funny in how unfunny it is.
One charity guy shows up and is dismissed. Scrooge lets Bob leave with Christmas Day off and heads home. His door knocker transforms into Marley’s face, which kind of looks cat-like for some reason and Scrooge puts on glasses to take a closer look. As he heads in to his home he hears some ghostly wailing and yells “I won’t have this!” and “Double nonsense.” The fire in the fireplace turns into multiple Marley heads awkwardly opening and closing their mouths while they make noise and then Marley’s ghost turns into some bolts of electricity cracking in the air that had me thinking Doc Brown was going to burst into the room with the DeLorean. (Note to self: There should be a Back to the Future comic where different timeline versions of Doc visit Biff and take him to different pasts, presents and futures to get him to change his ways at Christmas. If IDW Comics is reading this, call me!)
For some reason, all of Marley’s features like his hair and waist coat are floating upwards like he’s being pulled by a magnet. His voice is exactly how a child would imitate a ghost by drawing out each word, which makes it pretty unintentionally funny. Marley gives him the standard speech and floats out the window, where we see a bunch of spirits in chains just floating around, and the same animations loop over and over, while a really weird song (which I hesitate to call a song) plays where some ghostly voices tell Scrooge to change his ways and be good to others while the ghosts keep screaming. The sound of the song is drowned out by the screaming and it is much more annoying than it is creepy.
The Ghost of Christmas Past arrives and looks kind of like the Dungeon Master from the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, a little old man with white hair in a blue robe with a strange green hat. He flies Scrooge out the window with what looks like telekinesis and they arrive at Scrooge’s boyhood school. Scrooge surprisingly yells “Merry Christmas!” to his boyhood friends, and when the Ghost asks what good Christmas is to him, he says Christmas was a great time at the school, as everyone was happy and laughing. The Ghost then points out that there is one child who is lonely at this time, so why Scrooge would remember the good parts of Christmas is kind of odd.
He refuses to go inside to see, but the Spirit uses tendrils of smoke and then a wave of snow to force him in, which was a brilliant waste of the animation budget. Inside, he watches his younger self crying over a book and as time moves, Fan arrives to bring him home. Young Scrooge’s voice is clearly his adult voice actor talking in falsetto and sounding like he’s imitating a girl, which is really laughable.
The Spirit says they must move on, but Scrooge throws a tantrum saying “No, no, I want to stay here with Fan!” They move anyway onto Fezziwig’s warehouse party, which at least has about 15 party-goers in this version, but they all move back and forth repeating their animation exactly like it’s the animatronics on a Disney ride. The Spirit whisks him away again to the Belle break up, which is extremely short.
Scrooge grabs the Spirit to beg to be let go and he’s back in his bed grabbing his curtains. The Ghost of Christmas Present arrives, and a giant spectral hand appears under his bedroom door to coax him out, which looks crazy. He criticizes the whole spirit thing and a lightning bolt appears in his room to strike at him, and frightens him into apologizing to Marley. I don’t know why Marley apparently controls electricity in this version.
The Ghost of Christmas Present looks sort of traditional, but with a big purple robe and he moves Scrooge with a whirlwind of fruit to a street where he says that people keep Christmas in their hearts. They briefly walk inside a house and we see two people putting up a wreath and a Christmas tree, but no one speaks at all in the scene. It took me a little to realize that it was Fred, which was a pretty sad excuse for showing Fred’s party. Scrooge then goes to the Cratchits house where Bob arrives with Tiny Tim in tow. Interestingly this version of the Cratchits has 3 boys and 3 girls. Why they took the time to animate even more children than necessary is kind of strange. He says Tiny Tim is getting stronger and Scrooge says it doesn’t look like it. The Spirit says “Bob only says what he wishes is true”.
Scrooge pleads that Tiny Tim will not die and the Cratchits toast to Scrooge. The Spirit disappears and Scrooge awakens in his bed. Scrooge mentions that when all of this is over, he is buying new sheets and new curtains. At first I thought it was a “wet the bed” joke, but why would he need curtains? It’s just a plain weird thing to say.
He flings open the curtains and a pointy-finger grim reaper figure is standing there. “Are you the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?” he asked. When he gets no response, he says “I know. Stupid question.” and follows him out. We see two businessmen talking about the funeral that no one wants to go to. Scrooge says “I know these men, I’ve done business with them all!” But there were only two of them, so shouldn’t you say both?
They walk into Old Joe’s, where Mrs. Dilber, the laundress and the undertaker sell off his possessions. “Someone in this city must mourn this man!”, Scrooge cries and we get taken to the Cratchits. Scrooge is touched at the grieving for Tiny Tim. “What can the death of the man we saw have to do with the death of Tiny Tim?” He’s taken to the cemetery and pointed to his own tomb.
“I am the man who died!?” he cries. He makes his promises to honor Christmas and grabbing the spirit, awakens holding his curtains again. He jumps around and kind of laughs like Woody Woodpecker while he recollects what occurred.
He shouts to a boy to buy the prize turkey and heads out. We see the turkey arriving at the Cratchits and Bob suggests he only knows one man who could afford a turkey that big. Mrs. Cratchit says “You can’t mean Mr. Scrooge!” and they all laugh about it.
Scrooge finds the charity guy and gives his back payment donations. He stops at Fred’s where he asks for forgiveness for never visiting, and the party goers awkwardly golf clap for him. We then see Scrooge at his business the next day, where he pranks Bob and raises his salary. It ends with a song as Scrooge walks down the snowy street with the Cratchits and hugs Tiny Tim, all while a song about a “Very Merry Christmas” plays. A narrator reads the last few sentences of the story, but it amazingly takes out “God Bless us, everyone.” which I then realized Tiny Tim didn’t even say earlier during the toast. I guess this is an extremely secular version?
Overall, this is a pretty big stinker. Clocking in at only 48 minutes, I was still ready for it to be over with. The character designs are surprisingly kind of nice, they have a bit of an anime-like quality to the way they are drawn. But Scrooge is oddly given brown hair, rather than the traditional white or gray. With his pointed jaw and lean face, I found myself more than once thinking he looks a lot like Abe Lincoln, and the hair and top hat only added to the illusion. Scrooge’s voice is done way over the top and he sounds like someone impersonating a Decepticon from Transformers instead of a curmudgeonly old guy, but all the other voice acting is average. The actual movement of the animation is typical 90s TV cartoon quality. While the dialogue is sometimes fairly accurate to the source, it’s not particularly better than any other version, so there is practically nothing that really works for this version to make me recommend it over any other.
The Flintstones Christmas Carol (1994)
Okay, I’ll just address the age-old joke before I dive into this one. Why do the Flintstones celebrate Christmas, when it would not exist without the birth of Christ, and the Flintstones lived thousands of years before the birth would have taken place? I have no idea, other than that they live in a cartoon universe where cars and appliances exist in animal form and dinosaurs live concurrently with man, so this is clearly not our universe. Presumably this is a parallel universe where the caveman style of life survived to the equivalent of our modern-day and they had a caveman Mary, Joseph, and Jesus at some point in their past. There’s my ridiculous theory and I’m sticking to it!
Bedrock Community Theater is putting on a production of “A Christmas Carol” and Fred is playing the role of Scrooge. He’s taking it a little too seriously, practicing his lines everywhere, with the dialogue he’s trying out being book accurate for the most part. He’s so into the role that he’s ignoring the feelings of his family and friends due to the clout it’s giving him. At the construction site, his usually mean boss Mr. Slate points out that he would make a better Scrooge, which is interesting, because I expected that to be the plot of the movie, but I guess they want the main character in the Scrooge role. This comes up a few times later, so it’s clear that the writers knew that Slate would make more sense as Scrooge too!
We are also introduced to a young blonde named Maggie who talks like a ditsy floozy and she says how excited she is for the love scene she does in the play and she reads some of her lines and then tries to kiss Fred, but is blocked by a stone tablet. Fred is just as excited as her for the “romance scene”, which I think is kind of awful since he’s married.
Fred tries reading the script while running the excavating dinosaurs and one of the dinos remarks “I thought our job was to chew the scenery.” I have to admit, that’s a solid joke.
Fred buys some last minute gifts for Wilma and Pebbles and tries to get them wrapped, but the line is too long, so he leaves them with a kid and asks him to get them wrapped for him in exchange for his lower call number and he rushes to the theater. Wilma chastises him because he forgot to pick up Pebbles from daycare and it’s clear she isn’t happy with Fred as the production begins.
Once he gets on stage, the story begins and transforms from a stage production into a seemingly real tale. The narrator reads some lines that are surprisingly straight from the book, including some that I’ve never heard read in any other version’s narration. Barney is in the role of Bob Cratchit (IN this version, Bob Cragit…ugh.) Nephew Ned (I guess it would be confusing if he was also named Fred) arrives and has the usual banter.
The charity guys arrive and Scrooge says he certainly can support them, but he WON’T!
As Scrooge leaves, a kid knocks off his hat which gets trampled by a carriage (much like the 1934 version, but without Bob). He calls a constable on the kid, who is caught, and Scrooge gives him the option of shoveling the snow from his building, or going to the workhouse. Mr. Slate appears as “Marbley” on his sabertooth tiger door knocker.
Marbley’s ghost arrives and gives his speech. This play they are doing oddly wobbles back and forth from extremely accurate book dialogue to odd fluff. Scrooge returns to bed, and the audience applauds and the curtain is drawn, and they seem to take a break, as Fred now comes off stage and is talking about how great a job he did. Barney changes costumes and the production continues.
The actress who was going to play the Spirit of Christmas past has the “Bedrock Bug” and is too sick to perform, so Wilma has to swap in, much to Fred’s surprise. The Spirit shows Scrooge his past as a boy, where he quickly swaps into the role of young Scrooge and sees Fan (who he mistakes for Pebbles) and he leaves with Fan. He’s taken to Fezziwig’s (who Barney is now playing). Wilma gets called offstage and Maggie, the floozy from earlier who was going to play Belle is also sick, so Wilma has to step into another role. Fred is surprised yet again, and Wilma asks in an angry tone if he wanted to do the love scene with the other girl instead.
We move forward in time, and we see Scrooge propose to Belle after a snowball fight. But then we move forward again to the breakup scene where Belle tells him that she has been replaced by the idol of greed.
The curtain closes and Fred heads offstage, where he tells Barney he is concerned because Wilma’s tears seemed real. Barney tells him he is acting like a real Scrooge by forgetting about Pebbles and being self-centered. He realizes he forgot all about the kid at the store holding his presents and the intermission only has 10 minutes left! He runs to the store, breaks in, tripping a “silent alarm” bird in the process and gets caught by his cop friend and taken back to the theater in time, with the presents still missing.
Christmas Present shows up as a big green robed fellow. He takes Scrooge to the street and sprinkles his torch and even gives the speech about bigotry that I haven’t heard in any other version. He takes Scrooge to the Cragits (played by Betty, Pebbles, and Bam Bam as Tiny Tim, along with Dino as a family dog). He is touched by Tiny Tim’s sentiment at church and is distraught at the Spirit’s assessment that he will die.
They move on to Nephew “Ned”, where they are playing charades and acting out “selfish” and “cheap” and ultimately Uncle Scrooge. (It’s interesting that there are so many variations of what game they are playing. I think we’re up to about 5 now.) Scrooge wants to stay, but time is short. The Ghost of Christmas Future arrives, which is just a hovering white robe.
The Spirit shows him to two men discussing the funeral, then to the corpse in bed, then to Old Joe’s where two women and a man quickly sell some of Scrooge’s possessions. Finally, to the Cragits, where Scrooge is moved by Tiny Tim’s death. They quickly move to the graveyard where he is shown his own grave (which reveals he is “Eboneezer Scrooge” in this version), but he awakens in his bed and says some more oddly accurate dialogue about his reformation.
He goes to the window and sees the boy who he made shovel his sidewalk, but the boy hits him in the face with a snowball, which he says he deserved. He asks the boy to buy the biggest turkeysaurus in the window and bring it to the Cragits.
He runs into the charitable guys, but one of them is Wilma! (She explains the other charity guy is sick now too). He plays it off as though she is Belle, and invites her to Nephew Ned’s (much to the director’s dismay, who bemoans that none of this is in the script and throws his copy to the ground). They go to a surprised Ned’s house, who happily accepts them.
He then runs into Bob and offers to make him his partner. Poor Bam Bam can’t get out the final “God Bless us, everyone.”, but Pebbles helps him out. As the curtain drops, the cast drops Fred and calls him out for his bad behavior. He apologizes and reconciles with Wilma, and the boy he left at the mall drops off his presents in time. He ends up feeling sick with the Bedrock bug, but Wilma points out it only lasts 24 hours, so he’ll be able to be ready to go to her mother’s Christmas dinner, which makes Fred sick to his stomach as he runs off stage.
This one felt like what Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol should have been. It uses the framing device to actually do things with the characters and have a plot outside of the normal Christmas Carol, and even intercuts the “performance” with more character stuff and plot. It’s really bizarre how there is some narration and dialogue that I haven’t seen in any other film version, so props to them for including some of that stuff and it is certainly better than most of the animated versions I’ve watched. They hit the major notes and most of it is done well, especially since we sort of get two different redemption stories that both involve Christmas in different ways. The stuff outside of the “Christmas Carol” part is pretty watchable and while I usually found most of the “modern stuff in the stone age” jokes lame in the cartoon series as a kid, some of the ones in this special are pretty inventive and funny. At only 1 hour long, there are certainly worse versions to watch, so I give this one a passing grade!
A Christmas Carol (1997)
This is an animated version released by DIC Entertainment, a studio most well known for creating the Inspector Gadget cartoon series, along with the Super Mario Bros Super Show and some Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons. Scrooge in this version is voiced by veteran character actor Tim Curry.
The film begins with the narration “Folks say life is a song, for some that means a ditty, for others, a dirge, but at the holiday season, we all sing a carol… a CHRISTMAS CAROL.” (How forced that was got a good laugh out of me.)
People in London sing an original song, “Tell Me a Tale About Christmas”, while the street goers dance and celebrate. Bob Cratchit (voiced by Michael York, who I only know as Basil Exposition from Austin Powers) is humming the song while he works. A random boy looks inside Scrooge’s business window. Scrooge is angered by the humming and scolds Cratchit. The boy watching from the window tries peeking through the keyhole, but in this version, Scrooge has a large bulldog named Debit, who comes barking at the door to scare him away.
Fred arrives and a lot of the language here is “dumbed down”. For example instead of Fred asking why Scrooge is dismal, he asks why he is grumpy. Scrooge says numbskull, instead of idiot, etc. It just seems like a lot of the Victorian-era flavor is being dried out for the sake of kids watching. When Scrooge says someone should be buried with a stake of holly through their heart, an anthropomorphic mouse in the safe he is using faints at the prospect of such a thing. Not even 5 minutes in, and we’ve got a comedic bulldog and a mouse, we just need a cat to go full Tom and Jerry.
Fred kindly picks up the mouse and pets it while he gives his speech in defense of Christmas, while Scrooge literally covers his ears (while Debit does the same) and when the mouse awakens, it jumps on Scrooge’s desk, who grabs a book to smack it with, which scares it away into a mousehole, where Debit chases it and smacks into the wall. It’s already going full Tom and Jerry it seems.
Fred leaves and the charity guys show up. When they ask about Marley, Scrooge points to a portrait and says he has been dead for seven years. The portrait is oddly modern looking, with a man in a green suit and tie with a modern mustache. I don’t know what was going on with that character design. He scolds Cratchit for arriving with one fewer lump of coal then he ordered while they talk.
He dismisses them and when they ask him to relent, he sics Debit on them who chases them out of the business. Closing time comes and Tiny Tim arrives at the door. Scrooge grabs his cane and yells “Beat it beggar!”, but Bob stops him telling him it’s his son. Scrooge says he has no idea he had a family (C’mon, how long has Bob been working there!?) and in a moment of sentimentality says “He is rather…tiny.” Even mean-old Debit seems to like Tiny Tim.
Bob leaves and Scrooge closes up the shop and walks home, watching Tiny Tim and Bob sliding on the ice for fun, which he shakes his head at. He makes his way to a tavern and orders “Hash for me, scraps for my dog”. The barmaid and a tavern fly comment that he’s so cheap getting the same thing everyday. The barmaid than breaks into a song “Random Acts of Kindness”, which does not have a very Christmas rhythm to it, it almost has a spooky beat. Scrooge himself joins in with verses arguing against charity and helping others. As he leaves he gives his 19th century Yelp review, “Waitress, here’s the only tip you’ll be getting from me, find a new chef, your hash isn’t fit for a dog.” What a jerk. Everyone celebrates him leaving.
He walks past a mother with her infant in a cold alley who begs “Please sir”, and he just keeps on walking. He finally gets home and his lion door knocker becomes Marley’s face, still with that Teddy Roosevelt mustache. As Scrooge reads in his bedroom, a tile on his fireplace morphs into Marley’s face, who says Scrooge’s name. Debit even barks at the face, but Scrooge won’t believe it. He calls himself a “dunderhead” and says there is no such thing as spirits. His door unlocks itself and Marley arrives. His body even looks like Teddy Roosevelt!
Scrooge sics Debit on him, but he can’t bite the ghost. When he says there is more of gravy than of grave, Marley gets filled with green light like he’s going to turn into the Hulk and scares Scrooge into lighting his butt on fire in the fireplace. Marley shows him the woman and child from earlier outside his window, where two spirits try to give her ghostly bread and blankets to no avail.
“You’ll be haunted by three ghosts”. “No deal”, says Scrooge. He even says he likes chains, so he doesn’t care.
The Ghost of Christmas Past shows up and looks like a young boy in a blue suit and voiced by Kath Soucie ,whose voice you recognize from dozens of different cartoons and is played like a stereotypical street urchin (Aye guvna!). He pulls Scrooge outside, and Debit bites his robe and tags along. He’s taken to his school days (Debit sees a cat in the schoolhouse, but it’s just a shadow of the past and he can’t chase it. We were so close to going full Tom and Jerry!)
He sees himself reading alone and sees his imagination’s version of Robinson Crusoe appear out of the fire. Young Scrooge sings about how he is on his own in the song “When Shadows Fall”, and he uses shadow puppets to create various storybook tales to keep him company.
Time moves to a teen Scrooge and Fan arrives, who is clearly voiced by Kath Soucie as well. Young Scrooge leaves with her, and the Spirit points out that her goodness lives in Fred now. The Spirit says they will see another kind soul and Scrooge is taken to Fezziwigs. Young Scrooge and Dick Wilkins clean up for the party. Scrooge recalls being treated like a son and goes to pet Debit who recoils from his touch. Geez, not even his own dog trusts him.
He enjoys the party and is moved forward to his time with Belle, voiced by Jodi Benson, who played Ariel in Disney’s The Little Mermaid. He says he has a surprise for her, it’s small and round and gold and holds the future. She happily guesses a ring, but he says no, it’s the first profit from his business. Smooth…
Belle immediately begins to sing a duet with Scrooge (I’ll Cross This Bridge With You) where she talks about the future, but Scrooge sings about how they need money to live well. By the end of the song they part. Old Scrooge asks to not be shown anymore, he grabs the Spirit to beg him to stop, and the Spirit turns into his curtains.
He yells to the Spirits, “No more!” and goes to sleep. Debit tears up and eats some of his blanket, because that’s funny, I guess? The Ghost of Christmas Present arrives and for the first time is portrayed as a woman, but still tall and in green robes, voiced by Whoopi Goldberg. Scrooge begrudgingly goes along flying outside, leaving Debit behind. He asks “Why should he be accused of being selfish when Christmas is a selfish holiday?” “WHAT?!” screams the Spirit who drops him in shock.
She says she’ll take him to somewhere to prove that isn’t true. She takes him to Bob Cratchit’s house. Scrooge points out how meager they live and the Spirit chastises the salary Scrooge provides. Bob says that Tiny Tim behaved as good as gold, even better. Scrooge is confused that something is better than gold. Ugh.
Bob offers a toast to Scrooge and Mrs. Cratchit gives her usual retort, which then turns into a reprise of “Random Acts of Kindness”, which still has kind of a dramatic undertone to it instead of sounding happy. He watches Tiny Tim read by the fire, and the Spirit asks him if it looks familiar, drawing a parallel to young Scrooge earlier. Scrooge even notices he is reading Robinson Crusoe and begins to get into the story.
Scrooge openly wishes he had a family to spend time with. But the Spirit points out he had Fred and takes him to his house, where Fred is putting on an impression of Scrooge to the amusement of the party goers. He mentions his mother’s love for him and he notices how much Fred looks like her (which I believe they just stole from earlier live action versions and probably assumed was in the novella, as this isn’t an actual detail in the story).
The party goers start singing about Santa Claus in a song called “Santa’s Sooty Suit”. Scrooged is apparently amused by it, with such brilliant lyrics as “scrubba dubba dub dub dub, dub dub dub”. The Spirit reveals that it has aged and it disappears. Scrooge finds himself in a purple void, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come appears as a floating blue robe with bony hands.
It takes Scrooge to the exchange, where he hears two businessmen mocking the funeral and is then taken to his body, where a woman and a man are pilfering the belongings from his bedroom. The woman even takes his slippers off his feet. Scrooge asks for tenderness and the Spirit makes a JJ Abrams lens flare effect that takes them to the Cratchits, where they mourn Tiny Tim.
Scrooge is distressed and is quickly taken to the cemetery and is shown his place in it. As he begs for a chance to live a different life, the Spirit leaves him alone at this grave. Another lens flare and he realizes he is home in his bed. He gives Debit a hug and kiss and says Debit has another chance too! He begins to sing “I Have a New Song of Christmas”.
He goes to the window and calls to the boy that Debit scared earlier and asks him not to be afraid and to purchase the big turkey. He walks the street wishing people a merry Christmas much to their surprise. He sees the charity guys, who run away in fear, but he chases them down and asks them to come back. Debit grabs a hold of one of their pants legs, and Scrooge apologizes and tells them to come to him tomorrow. They ask why he wants to donate now and he says “It’s too late to do it when you’re dead.”
As he walks away, he remarks to Debit that he likes this new feeling but that smiling will take getting used to. Fred and his wife arrive at the Cratchits and say they received word to meet Scrooge here. Bob is worried over that news. Scrooge helps Debit look meaner and then pulls his typical Bob prank where he raises his salary. The boy arrives with the turkey and a fiddler comes as well for a party, where Scrooge promises that he and Fred will teach them “Santa’s Sooty Suit”. I prayed that he would not reprise it for my sake.
Scrooge and Tiny Tim both give a “God bless us, everyone” and a narrator closes out with the last bit of the story.
This one isn’t the worst animated version, but it also doesn’t really use animation to its advantage either. Its character designs are okay, if not a little too modernized, but the animation is stiff and not very appealing to look at, when you have versions like Mickey’s Christmas Carol that are 10 years older and 100 times better looking. The most glaring thing with this version is the very cartoony addition of Debit the dog, who serves no real purpose except for some slapstick that isn’t very funny. In fact, once we get to the Ghost of Christmas Present, he’s ditched until the end and I noticed the story was much more streamlined and the dialogue was better once he was gone.
The voice acting is just alright. I’m a big fan of Tim Curry. He’s got serious comedic and dramatic chops, which unfortunately are put to waste here. I wish we had gotten a more serious take on a Christmas Carol with him as Scrooge, as I think he would have done a fantastic job. The other voice actors don’t really get much time or chance to add anything to their roles. This isn’t the worst rendition, but it’s certainly not the best either.
Next time I’ll be looking at the Patrick Stewart version and an animated version that inexplicably has Nick Cage in it. Thanks for reading, and have a merry Christmas!
