Title:
Mister Magoo’s
Christmas Carol
Format:
Animated television special
Country:
USA
Production
company:
UPA, for sponsors Timex, first broadcast by the NBC
network
Year:
1962 (first broadcast on NBC in the United States on
December 18th that year)
Length:
53 minutes
Setting:
Well… It’s complicated. There’s a framing narrative of Mr
Magoo appearing as the star of a stage version of A Christmas Carol in the then-present day, and the version of the Carol we see is the one Magoo is acting
in on-stage – presumably so that UPA could make sure their character wasn’t really seen as being as mean and nasty
as Scrooge is, in a similar manner to the Barbie version in 2008 where she’s
just telling a story. The on-stage version seen in the cartoon seems to have a
Victorian setting, and as with the 1949 US television version, shillings are
mentioned but the accents are mostly American. As they’re supposedly starring
in a Broadway theatre production of the story, however, this can probably be
accepted!
Background:
Mr Magoo is very much a second division animation
character, and in the UK at least has made a negligible impact on popular
culture. However, in the USA he seems to be more popular, despite his
adventures almost entirely revolving around his being very short-sited and
therefore bumping into things and having accidents – nothing with any more wit
or imagination than that. UPA had been producing Magoo cartoons since the
1940s, and not long after this special there was a short-lived weekly
television series starring the character.
Cast and crew:
Jim Backus takes on the roles of Magoo and
Magoo-as-Scrooge, having been the long-time voice for the character. Director
Abe Levitow had worked for various animation studios before joining UPA the
year before this special was made, and he would later have another brush with
the Carol – he worked as an animator
on the 1971 version which returned Alastair Sim and Michael Horden to the roles
of Scrooge and Marley 20 years on from their live action film. Scriptwriter Barbara Chain later worked on several animated series beloved of children of the
eighties, such as He-Man, Alvin and the Chipmunks and MASK.
Underdone Potato:
Much of the opening part of the story is taken up with
the above-mentioned framing device, with Magoo experiencing various mishaps as
it makes his way to the Broadway theatre where he is inexplicably performing in
the starring role in an adaptation of A
Christmas Carol. Once we’re actually into the story itself, there’s
pleasingly little of Magoo’s usual myopic bumbling, and it’s a surprisingly
straight adaptation. We see the two charity gentlemen, but no nephew Fred;
however, Scrooge’s line to Fred about being boiled with his own pudding and
buried with a stake of holly through his heart is given to Scrooge / Magoo as
he walks home, mumbling to himself.
Marley’s face is seen not just in the door knocker but in
Scrooge’s fireplace as well, and unexpectedly we do see something of the other
spirits Marley shows Scrooge out of his window. In a change to the book,
however, Marley only tells Scrooge when the first of the spirits will come –
the timing of the others is left as a mystery.
 |
| Scrooge Magoo |
Present:
In an adaptation that’s more faithful than you’d expect
to the source material, the reason for changing the order of the ghosts is a
mystery to me, but here it is – we have the present before the past, for no
purpose that I can fathom. As with the 1923 version, the Ghost of Christmas
Present looks very Father Christmassy here – although I suppose as we’re in an
American production, that should be Santa Clausy – with a long white beard. He
only shows Scrooge one vision, of the Cratchit family schmaltzing their way
through a dreadful song, ending with the Star of Bethlehem shining above them…
yeuch!
Past:
So after the present we now have the past. The Ghost of
Christmas Past itself is one of the more faithful versions, suitably
androgynous and with a flame burning over its head – although no cap with which
it can be snuffed out.
We see young Scrooge – who gets his own awful song – but
no Fan, although a sister is mentioned in a drawing of his family he’s done on
the school blackboard. We’re then off to the Fezziwigs’ party, and as with many
adaptations they’ve chosen to have Belle attending the occasion. Oddly, the Fezziwig-era
Magoo looks incredibly unconvincing – how the hell can you give an animated character a rubbish wig?
We see Belle breaking the engagement, and apparently
there was then also the scene of Belle and her husband, with him telling her
about seeing Scrooge – this is for some reason missing from the DVD version,
from which the version I watched was sourced.
Yet to Come:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is represented very
faithfully, a hooded, silent figure with skeletal-looking hands. Very much the
Grim Reaper, perhaps surprisingly so for a production which must predominantly
have been aimed at children.
Scrooge knows the names of the men who are discussing his
funeral. Old Joe and those who have come to sell things to him get their own
musical number, and as Scrooge and the spirit look in on this, a fleeing mouse
suggests – as the 2008 Barbie version did – that animals in the visions can
actually see them.
There’s also the visit to the Cratchits, to see the grief
over Tim’s death, and Scrooge being shown his gravestone.
What’s To-Day:
In my piece about the 1935 film version, I suggested it
might be the only adaptation where the boy in the street gives his “Walk-er!” response of the book to
Scrooge, but I have been proved wrong – he does it here as well, perhaps rather
surprisingly.
Scrooge send the Cratchits a big turkey, and then later
pops around himself – as is also done in several other versions, pretending to
be angry with Bob for not coming to work, before revealing it’s all a jape and
he has turned over a new leaf.
It all comes to an end with him handing out piles of cash
to the Cratchit family, which all seems a bit capitalist and not exactly what
Dickens had in mind.
 |
| Razzle-what? |
Review:
To give this version its due, it was a lot better than I
had expected it to be. There’s not much of Magoo’s short-sighted pratfalling
when he’s actually playing the part of Scrooge, and a lot more of the original
dialogue from the book survives here than you might expect from a children’s
cartoon version. It also looks very nice, in that you can see time, effort and
skill was invested in its animation – which is far superior to the rather
soulless CGI of, for example, the Barbie effort.
The songs are uniformly awful; sugary, schmaltzy messes
which serve to do nothing other than irritate and bring the whole things
grinding to a halt several times throughout the proceedings. If you thought
that some of the songs in The Muppets’ Christmas Carol were a touch on the syrupy side, that’s nothing compared to
everything you’re inflicted with here – and there’s nothing even remotely as
good as the Muppets’ superb opening number “Scrooge” with which to make up for
it.
This version possibly means more to American viewers, as
it has been regularly repeated on television there down the decades and Magoo
is a better-known character in that country than he is elsewhere. Outside of
the States, however, this is a pretty forgettable entry into the canon of Carols.
In a nutshell:
There’s a decent adaptation buried under here somewhere,
but it’s sadly obscured by crap songs and a boring framing device. The main
thought you’ll be left with after all this is “What the hell *is* ‘razzleberry dressing’ anyway?”
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