A Christmas Carol - 1969, television

Title:

A Christmas Carol

Format:

Animated television special

Country:

Australia

Production company:

Air Programmes International

Year:

1969 (that’s the copyright on the endboard, although the first screening I can find evidence of was on the USA’s CBS Network on December 13^th 1970)

Length:

45 minutes

Setting:

Victorian England

Background:

A day after we had the first Canadian Carol on the blog, we now have the first Australian one! Air Programmes International were one of the very first successful animation studios to be established in Australia, so much so that most of their key staff were lured away to setup the Australian arm of Hanna-Barbera.

This production part of a series called Family Classic Tales, animated versions of well-known literary classics suitable for a child audience. The Carol and others were purchased for broadcast by the CBS network in the United States in their similarly-named Famous Classic Tales strand, which ran in late afternoons or early evenings on Sundays.

G'day, strewth, etc...

Cast and crew:

Director Zoran Janjic was a major figure in Australian animation circles. He had worked on The Beatles cartoon series which had been made in Australia in the 1960s, and directed several of API’s classic literature adaptations. In 1972 he left API to head up Hanna-Barbera’s Australian division, before forming his own company, Zap Productions, in the 1980s.

Beyond a few other similar animated collaborations with Janic, both for API and for Hanna-Barbera, scriptwriter Michael Robinson doesn’t appear to have may other credits.

As you’d expect from an Australian production, Australians fill most of the voice acting roles. Ron Haddrick voices Scrooge – he’d briefly been a first class cricketer in the 1950s, alongside an acting career which had begun when he was a teenager in the 1940s. Haddrick would go on to voice Scrooge for a second time in another Australian animated version in 1982, rather cornering the market in Australian animated Scrooges!

British actor Bruce Montague provides several of the other voices – he is probably best known for playing the ‘other man’, Leonard, in the 1970s BBC sitcom Butterflies.

Underdone Potato:

In common with one or two other versions, such as the 1999 Patrick Stewart version or the 2009 Jim Carrey effort, we get a flashback to Marley’s funeral. I wonder if Robert Zemeckis might have seen this at some point, as in common with the Carrey version there is a bit of business with Scrooge being expected to give a tip – to the gravedigger rather than the undertaker in this case – but it could simply be coincidence. Interesting that there is a sexton featuring, though, given Dickens’s pilot run for Scrooge with Gabriel Grub in The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton.

I’m not sure whether or not I simply think this because I knew going into it that this was an Australian production, but even trying to be as objective as I can I do think that despite the Victorian England setting, Haddrick does sound quite Australian as Scrooge. Most of the other voices do keep an authentically English flavour, however – including Nephew Fred, who rather unexpectedly suddenly starts singing partway through his appearance. Scrooge starts singing back at him, which made me think it was a musical version which surprised me as nothing I’d read about it suggested that. However, this turns out to be the only song in it, aside from diegetic carols. It’s almost as if they thought about making it a musical, got one song in and then decided they couldn’t be arsed.

There’s no face for Marley on the door-knocker, but when he does finally appear in Scrooge’s chambers he’s far more gruesome and ghoul-like than he is usually depicted. His face is more like a skull, or perhaps The Scream, with little or nothing of his human features remaining.

Jacob Marley, or The Scream...?

Past:

The Ghost of Christmas Past isn’t the figure described by Dickens. Instead, he more resembles a schoolchild’s stereotypical image of god, as an old man with a long white beard. Another factor which made me wonder whether this version was an influence on the 2009 Disney version was the fact that I thought I detected an Irish accent from the character at times, the same country Jim Carrey chose to make his Ghost of Christmas Past from in that version. But I think I could be mistaken – it could just be an Australian attempt at aiming for and missing some variety of British accent.

There’s no school scene, instead we go straight to Fezziwig’s. Unusually for a screen adaptation, Belle isn’t introduced early here and instead comes in at her usual place in the book, her leaving Scrooge. It’s quite a short version of that scene, however, and then we’re back to Scrooge’s bedroom.

Special guest appearance by god.

Present:

The spirit in this section does look very like it’s just the previous on with a wig on. Having less variety among the spirits does seem like a bit of a shame, as I think it makes the story feel just that bit smaller.

All through the production there is a running bit of ‘comedy’ business with Scrooge trying to take some snuff, but being unable to get a sneeze out. The spirit tells him that he is “too mean to give away a good sneeze,” setting up a resolution for this rather pointless little addition to proceedings at the end.

There’s only really one vision shown here, Christmas at the Cratchits. It’s quite a full version of it, one might even say over-long, especially as it means we don’t have a visit to Fred’s for any fun and games.

Erm... are you sure you're not just the other bloke with a wig on?

Yet to Come:

The spirit is in its traditional form, although as in some other versions looking perhaps rather more like a monk than the Grim Reaper. It also has some rather extravagant hand gestures at times, but perhaps they felt that was needed for a silent spirit.

We see the gentlemen discussing Scrooge’s death, and his belongings being sold to Old Joe, and Tim’s death being mourned. We then get the scene with his grave, before its back to the bedroom and back to ‘reality’.

What’s To-Day:

Scrooge doesn’t go mad praising anybody and celebrating, but runs straight to the window, throwing some money down to the passing boy to go and buy a turkey. The boy points out that he could just run off with it, but Scrooge insists that he trusts him – and that besides, it’s Christmas.

Despite the charitable gentlemen and Nephew Fred having featured in the early scenes, none of them make an appearance here, with Scrooge going to the Cratchits’ house as his only festive visit. Somehow he’s found places open where he’s able to buy presents or them in addition to the turkey, as well.

The running gag about the snuff finally comes to an end here, with a follow-on from the Ghost of Christmas Present’s remarks as Scrooge is indeed finally able to let out a good sneeze.

Review:

The animation here lacks the style of its near contemporary, the Richard Williams version from 1971, but it’s not badly done, and there are some atmospheric designs and sequences, such as Scrooge walking home and of course Marley’s ghost.

All the same, it doesn’t feel like the most sumptuous adaptation ever made, and while most of the performances are good and Haddrick’s certainly couldn’t be called bad as such, I do think that he does sound too Australian in the role when it comes down to it. Of course, there’s no reason why this version of Scrooge couldn’t actually be Australian, especially as we don’t see him as a boy in this version, but if he is it’s never commented upon.

Indeed, perhaps it might have been more interesting to have a full out-and-out Australian version, set in the colony in Victorian times perhaps. But that might have been a bit much, especially given they had an eye for international sales, so probably wanted to provide as traditional a version as possible.

In a nutshell:

Not bad by any means, and certainly far better than several other animated versions from later years. But neither can it be said to be a classic – decent, but there are many better versions.

Links:

IMDb