Mickey's Christmas Carol

Title:

Mickey’s Christmas Carol
 
Format:
Animated short film
 
Country:
USA
 
Production company:
Walt Disney Pictures
 
Year:
1983
 
Length:
26 minutes
 
Setting:
Fantasy Victorian

Background:
By the 1980s the idea of making short animated features for theatrical release had almost entirely disappeared. Even cartoon feature films were not at their height at this period, a few years away from the Disney Renaissance and then the rise of CGI with the likes of Toy Story in the 1980s.
 
Short cartoons at this point were almost entirely made for television broadcast, and although Mickey’s Christmas Carol did go out on television in the USA the following year, for its 1983 release it was made for the cinema. Presumably it was designed as an extra incentive to drive audiences to the re-releases of some existing Disney films – it was paired with a re-release of The Jungle Book in the UK in October, and The Rescuers in the USA in December.
 
Mickey Mouse is, of course, one of the most famous animated characters ever to have been created, the iconic emblem of Disney itself. This, however, was the first time in thirty years that a cartoon starring the character had been produced for the cinema. It was adapted from an audio version of the story which Disneyland Records had put out in 1974, and was a critical success – Mickey’s Christmas Carol was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1984.

Cast and crew:
There is only one original voice of a Disney character present in the line-up – Clarence Nash as Donald Duck, the final time he would voice the character. There is, however, also a first here – Alan Young as the voice of Scrooge McDuck, who it will surprise nobody to know takes the role of Ebenezer in this version. He would go on to voice McDuck for many years, most notably in the successful DuckTales series.
 
Burny Mattinson both produced and directed the short. He’d started work at Disney as an eighteen-year-old in the mail room in 1953, and worked his way up to become an animator and storyboarder. He would later get to direct a full-blown feature for Disney with The Great Mouse Detective in 1986, and helped to write several of their hugely successful 1990s classics.
 
He also collaborated on the story here, along with voice artist Young, actor and writer Alan Dinehart, writer Tony Marino, and animators Ed Gombert and Don Griffith.
 
Underdone Potato:
I was surprised to find that almost all of the characters are referred to by their actual character names from the book, rather than their Disney character names – an early indication of how surprisingly close to the source material this version runs.
 
Close to other versions at times, too, with Scrooge having a gag here about Cratchit having had a lump of coal the previous week which was also present in the Loony Tunes version of just a few years beforehand.

 
Donald Duck turns up in the role of Nephew Fred, relentlessly cheerful even when sent packing by Scrooge. Two characters I didn’t recognise but are apparently Disney versions of Ratty and Moley from The Wind in the Willows play the charitable gentlemen, who get equally short shrift from Scrooge, and there’s a version of the usual “you’ll want the whole day tomorrow,” exchange with Cratchit.
 
The one piece of ‘casting’ I didn’t feel really worked was Goofy as Jacob Marley – he just seems too stupid for this Scrooge to have wanted to have anything to do with. Perhaps he had inherited loads of money which Scrooge swindled him out of? Who knows, but there is a nice bit of animation in this sequence, as Marley’s shadow follows Scrooge up the stairs once he arrives home.
 
Past:
The Ghost of Christmas Past comes in the form of Jiminy Cricket of Pinocchio fame. There’s nothing of Scrooge’s schooldays; instead, we go straight to his time as an apprentice with ‘Fezzywig’.

As is probably even usual, Belle is at the party – although oddly, more formally known as ‘Isabelle’ in this version, and played by Daisy Duck. He see her and Scrooge dancing, but a very specific ten years later it all comes to an end as he repossesses the ‘Honeymoon cottage’ she’s been waiting for him with because her last payment was an hour late!
 
Present:
‘Willie the Giant’ – no, no idea – plays the Ghost of Christmas Present, and there’s some fun material of him being so big that he opens up the roofs of houses as if they were toys; Scrooge’s to climb out of, and others to look into.

 

As with other versions starring anthropomorphic animals, there are moral questions ignored by the presence of the likes of roast turkey and suckling pig among the Christmas goodies laid out on the ghost’s table when Scrooge first meets him.
 
Rather less of a Christmas feast is to be had at the Cratchits, the one scene the Spirit shows Scrooge – with a mute Minnie Mouse playing Mrs Cratchit, and two other Cratchit children in addition to Tiny Tim, who does get the ominous ‘I see a vacant seat…’ line hanging over him.
 
Yet to Come:
I didn’t recognise the cigar-smoking stock villain who plays the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, but evidently he is called Pete and is a regular adversary used across many Disney cartoons. The cigar-smoking is relevant as there’s quite a nice touch where the mist which accompanies him on his arrival is revealed to be the smoke from his cigar.

Again this is quite a brief segment, which Scrooge showing the Cratchits mourning the death of Tim. As happens in one or two other versions, they are mourning him not at home but at his gravestone – and we pan across to see that it’s in the same graveyard as that of Scrooge, who is cast down into it and evidently into the fires of hell, with a touch of the 1970 version perhaps.
 
What’s To-Day:
There’s no boy at the window for Scrooge to shout down to, but he does meet the two charitable gentlemen outside, and showers them with money. After meeting Fred in the street and assuring him he is going to come round for Christmas dinner, he goes and buys up a lot of toys and, in a change made in several versions, goes around to the Cratchits’ house. In a scene which the Muppet version would later so very similarly, he initially pretends to be cross with Cratchit, before revealing his transformation and all ends happily.

Review:
I was struggling to think whether or not I’d ever actually seen a Mickey Mouse cartoon before this, although I eventually remembered that we’d been shown Fantasia at primary school once, so that counts. Really, though, I think Mickey is far more famous as a corporate symbol than he is as an actual character – far more people can tell you what he looks like than can actually tell you anything about him.
 
It’s a bit unfair that he gets top – indeed, eponymous – billing here too, given that he’s at best a supporting character, too. Surprisingly hard to take seriously given his voice, as well. To my modern ears, it just sounds like someone doing a parodied impression of the way that Michael Jackson used to speak.

 
That aside, I enjoyed this a great deal more than I had expected to. It’s a surprisingly faithful retelling of the story – compressed, of course, but with many of the main moments represented, and certainly not shy of tackling the issues of death in the original which other more child-friendly versions often try and shy away from.
 
As you’d expect from Disney, too, the whole thing has a touch to class and polish to the production which lifts it way, way above dross like the 1997 and 2001 animated versions, for example. I’m sure if you’re more of a Disney fan than I am, you’ll also enjoy spotting all kinds of cameos and guest appearances along the way as well.
 
In a nutshell:
Surprisingly good – a nice little version of the story.
 
Links:
Wikipedia
IMDb