Title:
A Christmas Carol
Format:
Animated television special
Country:
US / UK – the funding was American, but it was made in the UK
Production company:
Richard Williams Productions, for ABC
Year:
1971 (first broadcast on ABC on December 21st that year)
Length:
25 minutes
Setting:
Victorian London, and we are explicitly told at the start that it’s 1843 – the same Christmas that the original book was first published.
Background:
Made for the ABC television network in the United States as a one-off animated special, it was later given a cinema release, and actually won the Academy Award for “Short Subjects (Animated Films)” at the Oscars of May 1973. This apparently went down like a cup of cold sick with many in the film industry – given that it was originally made for television, and not for the big screen – and so the rules were later changed so that no production which had its debut on television rather than in cinemas could be eligible.
It remains the only adaptation of A Christmas Carol ever to have won an Oscar, of any sort.
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| A roll of the eyes for Nephew Fred's foolishness! |
Cast and crew:
There was clearly inspiration taken here from the 1951 live-action feature version of the tale, as that film’s Scrooge and Marley – Alastair Sim and Michael Horden – also take the same roles here. Michael Redgrave was enlisted to give suitable gravitas to the narration, while fans of British comedy of the 20th century will note the presence of Melvyn Hayes and Joan Sims as Mr and Mrs Cratchit.
Fans of British television science-fiction, such as myself, will also spot Paul Whitsun-Jones, who played the journalist James Fullalove in the original version of The Quatermass Experiment for the BBC in 1953, among the voice cast. Tiny Tim is performed by Alexander Williams, the son of director Richard Williams.
Williams was born and raised in Canada, but moved to Britain in the 1950s, where he produced most of his work. Perhaps his most internationally-recognised production role was as animation supervisor on the 1988 live action / animation mix Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. Distinguished Warner Brothers animator Chuck Jones also worked with Williams on the film, while Ken Harris is credited as “Master Animator”, while oddly but rather nicely all the other animators receive the credit “Craftsmen”. Although this does indicate, as a sad sign of the times back then, that no women were involved in this aspect of the production.
Doctor Who fans will recognise the name of Tristram Cary, who had worked with Williams before, as the man behind the music for the production.
Underdone Potato:
Perhaps unusually given that this version starts with a narrated introduction, it doesn’t begin with the “Marley was dead…” line which opens the book, which seems rather remiss of it.
It’s a condensed version of the tale, of course, perhaps most obviously demonstrated when Scrooge tells the two charity gentlemen that “You’re going to tell me…” about many people preferring to die rather than go to the workhouses and the prisons, rather than the men telling him that themselves. But for all that, there are lots of nice little touches on display, such as Scrooge’s eye-rolling at what he perceives to be the idiocy of all around him.
When Scrooge gets back to his house, there’s a very striking sequence that you could at first almost mistake for being a draft version left in the finished edit by mistake, where as Scrooge carries his candle upstairs the whole thing reduces to a monochrome-looking pencil affair. This isn’t intended as a criticism – as I say, it’s very striking and memorable, and certainly distinctive. It also effectively conveys in animated form the unfriendly and sparse nature of Scrooge’s set of rooms as described in the original book.
Marley retains his religious line about the star which led the “wise men to a poor abode,” which often falls by the wayside in other more expansive adaptations, so much so that on viewing another version I had forgotten it was in the book and thought it was added in by the adaptation. The helpless spirits trying to help those in need outside of Scrooge’s window are also present.
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| An example of the striking pencil-like animation work present at times |
The Spirit here is androgynous, as in the text, something achieved by using an intriguing but also slightly settling technique of it being almost literally two-faced, with most male and female aspects. It’s voiced by Diana Quick, another name that will strike a chord with certain Doctor Who fans for her later animation voiceover in the would-be-Who revival Scream of the Shalka in 2003.
The flashback to the past is achieved with an effect that might need a warning to the epileptic on it these days. In what’s something of a recurring theme, despite being a short version of the story Williams again includes something often omitted from longer versions – in this case, the young Scrooge’s love of fantastical literature, which isn’t explicitly talked about but shown almost in “thought bubble” form as he sits alone in the school.
When Scrooge becomes a little melancholy at the sight of Fezziwig’s party, there’s a nice visual flashback to his own poor clerk, Bob Cratchit. And in another nice animated touch, at the scene of his parting with Belle we get the same irritated rolling of the eyes we saw earlier in the older Scrooge, showing that he is now set on that path and not the man she fell in love with.
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| A two-faced Spirit! |
Present:
The Spirit here is much as usually described and seen. He tips his Christmas spirit onto passers-by to improve their mood, again something not necessarily always included, and we are also treated to some of the rarer visitations he and Scrooge make during the course of the book. We see the miners marking Christmas, and also in a lighthouse and on a ship at sea in a storm.
These sea-going sequences, with the Spirit and Scrooge flying over them, put me a little in mind of the flying sequence from the famed 1982 animation of Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman. Although I can’t say for sure, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they were at least partly an inspiration for the animators of that production, whether consciously or otherwise.
You’d think that, given this is an animated version and thus likely to appeal to children, Ignorance and Want might be omitted here, but Williams pleasingly makes no effort to pull the tale’s teeth, and they are in place at the end of the sequence.
Yet to Come:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come slides up in an almost liquid manner, and is suitably unsettling. Although it’s a brief encounter, Williams again manages to squeeze quite a lot into it, and there are some very effective scene changes which might almost be attempts at Scrooge’s subjective point of view as we melt between one vision and the next.
It’s intriguing that the spirit’s hand – here a sort of cross between thinly-skinned and actually skeletal, and again looking almost like monochrome pencil work – falters a little in its pointing at the grave as Scrooge beseeches and pleads with it.
What’s To-Day:
Unusually, the boy outside the window isn’t sent to the poulterer’s to go and fetch a turkey for the Cratchit family. When Scrooge encounters the two charitable gentlemen again, he actually doesn’t – there is only one of them present as he happens to walk by in the street, which I suppose is a bit more realistic an encounter.
It all ends as with the book, with Scrooge surprising Cratchit in the office the next day, rather than going to the Cratchit household as in many other versions.
Michael Redgrave provides the closing narration, which as usual is sourced from the book’s final paragraph. In an odd choice of performance and direction, however, he rather throws away the “who did not die,” aside about Tiny Tim. I know it’s an odd line anyway, as of course Tim, like everyone, will have died eventually, but there is usually at least some emphasis given to the “not” bit, almost like a sort of pantomime delivery for the reassurance of the audience.
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| "We're walking in the air..." |
Review:
I was pleasantly surprised when I watched this again, having seen it once before many years ago on television when I was a child. I didn’t retain any strong memories of it from that viewing – which was unusual, as the other versions of the Carol I saw when I was young all made very strong impressions upon me indeed.
I say I was pleasantly surprised because this is an excellent adaptation of the tale. Despite its short length, Williams manages to balance the story quite well, and it never feels too rushed, unlike the longer BBC live-action version from a few years later. The animation is also excellent, much more accomplished and distinctive than some of the cheap-and-cheerful rubbish of some of the feature-length animated efforts that were to follow. It is also notable for making a conscious effort to try and evoke the original John Leech illustrations for the story in places, perhaps most notably in the depiction of Bob Cratchit.
Whisper is quietly, but from a personal perspective I’d also say this is the best version of the Carol to star Alastair Sim in the lead role…
In a nutshell:
A very good effort, and certainly the best animated version of the story. Its short length and general adherence to the book would make it a very good adaptation for teachers to use in the classroom if they wanted to introduce children to the tale and still have time in a lesson to discuss it with them afterwards.
Links:
Wikipedia
IMDb
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