"Mickey's Christmas Carol" Starring: Alan Young, Wayne Allwine, Hal Smith, Will Ryan, Eddie Carroll Directed By: Burny Mattinson Rating: G Studio: Walt Disny Studios Release Date: December 16 1983 Run Time: 24 minutes
Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983)
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It's the same old classic Charles Dickens story with an all star Disney cast. Uncle Scrooge McDuck is appropriately enough Scrooge and is visited by his dead partner and 3 spirits one night to remember the joys of Christmas
Mickey's Christmas Carol is a twenty-four minute animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and originally released in the United Kingdom on October 20, 1983 by Buena Vista Distribution[1]. The film was released in the United States on December 16, 1983 as an accompaniment to a re-release of The Rescuers.
It is an adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, featuring Scrooge McDuck as his namesake and inspiration Ebenezer Scrooge and Mickey Mouse as Bob Cratchit. This film was based on a 1972 audio musical entitled Disney's A Christmas Carol.[2]
Mickey's Christmas Carol was the first new Mickey Mouse cartoon made in 30 years after The Simple Things. It was also broadcast on TV on NBC from 1984-1990, CBS from 1991-1998, and ABC in 2000 and 2003 and PBS in 2004 - Present
While all of Victorian England is in the merry spirit of Christmas, along with collecting for the poor, all on the mind of Ebenezer Scrooge (Scrooge McDuck, voiced for the first time by Alan Young) is all his money he makes in the town counting house and making more of it for himself (apparently, Scrooge charges people 80% interest, compounded daily). While Scrooge's selfish and greedy thoughts cascade in his head, Bob Cratchit (Mickey Mouse, voiced for the first time by Wayne Allwine) continues to work long and hard for him, though he is overworked and underpaid (a mere two shillings and a hay penny a day), and collectors Basil of Baker Street and Dr David Q. Dawson, along with other beggars on the streets, are kindly asking of a simple donation to the poor. Scrooge insists however, that he should not make a donation as he tries to convince Basil and Dawson that if he does, the poor won't be poor anymore and they will be out of work.
Even his cheery nephew Fred (Donald Duck, voiced for the last time by Clarence Nash, making Donald the only character voiced by his original actor) invites him for a wonderful Christmas dinner, but Scrooge rejects the invitation. However, the night before Christmas, the ghost of Jacob Marley (Goofy), Scrooge's once-greedy-and-cruel counting house partner, enters Scrooge's home and warns him that if his greedy and selfish behaviour continues, he will be forced to carry heavy chains for all eternity when he dies, just as has happened to Jacob himself as punishment for the way he treated people when he was alive (In Scrooge's case they would be seven times heavier than Marley's chains!).
Horror-stricken, Scrooge pleads him for assistance, and he learns from the ghost that three spirits would visit him later that night and he must do everything they say, or his chains would be heavier than Jacob's. At the end, as Marley is still Goofy, he prevents himself from tripping on Scrooge's cane, which is on the floor, but falls down the stairs after going on a busted step.
That night, while Scrooge is asleep, the Ghost of Christmas Past (Jiminy Cricket) arrives in Scrooge's bedroom and takes him back in time to his early adult years, when he enjoyed Christmas, had many friends and a girlfriend named Isabelle (Daisy Duck). However, after ten years, Scrooge had become more caring towards his money than Isabelle. When she asks if he was still willing to marry her after waiting for many years in a honeymoon cottage, Scrooge's greed breaks her heart and her relationship with him with, "Your last payment on the honeymoon cottage was an hour late! I'm foreclosing the mortgage!" Shortly after, Jiminy Cricket takes Scrooge home, leaving him feeling dreadful for his actions after saying "Remember, Scrooge, you fashioned these memories yourself".
Not long after the first visit, the Ghost of Christmas Present (Willie the Giant) pulls Scrooge in his hand. He arrives with wonderful things to eat, like Turkey, Mince Pies, and Suckling Pigs. Willie visits scrooge to show him all the misery Scrooge has caused. That is, Scrooge sees that Bob and his family are living in poverty, and that Bob's young son, Tiny Tim, is ill and that if this hapless life of the Cratchit family does not change, Tiny Tim will not live to see another Christmas. However, just when Scrooge is desperate to know the truth, the Ghost of Christmas Present leaves him alone, and Cratchit's house vanishes.
Within seconds, however, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (Black Pete) appears and takes Scrooge to a cemetery, revealing that Tiny Tim has died. Scrooge then realizes he can no longer treat others around him with a heartless disposition. Along with Tim's death, the ghost also reveals Scrooge's grave, which has just been dug and is soon to be filled. When it seems Scrooge is already about to die by being thrown in his soon-to-be-grave (at that moment the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come reveals himself to the viewers as Pete), he pleads for his life, and promises he will change his ways while hanging on the rope that is on the edge of the grave and looking down into his soon-to-be-coffin that looks like the gateway to Hell. Then as the rope snapped, he apparently falls into the coffin.
The next thing he knows, he's back in his house, opens the windows and sees that it is Christmas morning, believing the spirits have given him another chance. He hugs a pigeon that was at the window, gets dressed (with his pajamas underneath) and cheerfully goes about town generously donating money to the collectors for the poor (100 gold pieces to be exact after twice thinking what he just donated was not enough), and greeting all with a friendly disposition. As well as telling Fred that he will go to his Christmas Dinner after all. At first, when he visits the Cratchits, he tries to psych them out that he hadn't changed at all, but then offers toys for Bob's children, and gives Bob a raise and a promotion in the counting house. The entire Cratchit family is overjoyed, "God bless us, everyone!" (Famous quote from Tiny Tim), including Scrooge. At that rate, Scrooge becomes Tiny Tim's second father and treats him well.
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