Christmas is my favorite time of the year; I love everything about it. Decorating the tree, spending time with family, watching snow fall, presents, and all the traditions each family has. Christmas has inspired countless filmmakers to create movies about the holiday season, and some of my favorite films are Christmas movies. To celebrate the season, I've compiled a list of my favorite 12 Christmas movies or specials, and there will be a review of one of them every day, a countdown from 12 to 1. Check back every day until Christmas for a new Christmas review!
The 12 Films of Christmas
(click on a title to read the review)
12:
Elf (2003)
11.
A Christmas Story (1983)
10.
A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
9.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966)
8. Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983)
Charles Dicken's
A Christmas Carol is one of the greatest stories ever told. It's much more complex than an evil old man turning to a life of philanthropy. It's a story about a man who is given the chance to examine his life from three view points, and as the reader discovers more about the life of Ebenezer Scrooge, Scrooge himself learns too. It's an incredibly deep, poignant story that shows both the darkest and brightest sides of humanity, and ultimately delivers a message of hope not just for people like Scrooge, but for society itself. I don't even need to explain why it's so important; just look at the sheer number of times it's been adapted or retold since its publication. No other story has been this often quoted or adapted, and there are many versions that I love. For this list, I kept my selection of
Christmas Carol adaptations down to three (bonus points for whoever can guess the other two).
The first is the 1983 animated short-film
Mickey's Christmas Carol. It's hard to pack this story into a 24 minute short, and admittedly, a lot of the depth and complexity of the Dickens story is lost in translation. But the skeleton of the plot is there and the story is told incredibly well in its brief run time.
The best part of the Disney version is the use of classic Disney characters. Mickey is Bob Cratchit, Donald Duck is nephew Fred, Goofy is Jacob Marley, Jiminy Cricket is the Ghost of Christmas Past, the giant from Mickey's Beanstalk is the Ghost of the Present, and Big Pete is the Ghost of the Future. But the best character in
Mickey's Christmas Carol is the one created for the short: Scrooge McDuck.
If you were a kid in the eighties or nineties, then chances are you sing the theme song to
Duck Tales by heart and are familiar with Scrooge McDuck. He's a great character, and while I haven't seen Duck Tales in years, I often have fond memories of the adventures Scrooge and his nephews would get himself into. Not to get off topic, but in the nineties Disney Channel was chock full of great shows, Duck Tales being only one example. Now there's
Hannah Montana...thinking about it just depresses me, and I better stop myself before I go off on a rant.
Anyway, this great character originated in
Mickey's Christmas Carol (actually he originated fifty years prior in a comics series, but this was the first time he was fully animated with voice) and to me, that's what makes this short so memorable. Alan Young's performance as Scrooge, in this or on
Duck Tales, is just spectacular. It's one of the most memorable animated character voices you'll ever hear, and he's in top form in this short.
The short, which premiered theatrically in front of
The Rescuers, retells the Dickens story in a concise manner, using one or two scenes for each Ghost. They pack a lot of material into these 24 minutes, and while some of the depth is lost, there are still a lot of surprisingly powerful and well done scenes. Classic lines are kept and the overall sophistication of the writing is beyond that of most Disney shorts. The part that has stuck with me since I was little is the graveyard sequence at the end, which starts off eerie, becomes creepy, and ends in a downright scary plunge into flames for Scrooge.
The animation is better than any other animated short on this list. It was created for theaters, and was thus animated in widescreen 16:9. It's hard to find a DVD of the short with this aspect ratio in tact, but I do know the theatrical version is present on
Mickey in Living Color-Volume 2. If you can find a widescreen DVD of the short, do so, because it's incredibly well animated and you don't want any of the detail lost to cropping. London is animated richly and with a brilliantly muted color scheme. The characters have rarely looked better and some of the animation is very atmospheric (the graveyard scene being the best example).
Mickey's Christmas Carol was the way I was introduced to the story, and if you have young kids, then I'd say this is the best way to show them the story. It's simplified, but a lot of the power is still there and it's a great starting place to get familiar with the story. I know it's an effective adaptation because to this day I associate the Ghost of Christmas Future sequence with a flaming pit, and the image of Scrooge McDuck falling into said pit is burned into my brain. Find a DVD or look out for it on Disney Channel; this should be part of everyone's annual holiday tradition.