This December marks its silver anniversary. Coming when the Walt Disney Company was at its absolute nadir, you can really say in hindsight it saved the company for all intents and purposes and cleared the way for the huge successes later in the decade. It also served as a smooth bridge between the old (Clarence Nash's final performance as Donald after 50 years in the role; Eric Larsen's supervisory role being one of the last direct efforts of one of the Nine Old Men) and the new (current Mickey Wayne Allwine's first performance in that capacity; among the first animating jobs for John Lassiter and Glen Keane). Twenty-five years and three major networks later, it still holds up well, the only real drawback being its relative brevity (that and where's Pluto? Surely they could have found some role for him), yet despite the short time, they still cram it with just about every emotion possible and do so with the utmost effectiveness; of all the countless adaptations of the tale, this version's Future is hands-down the scariest, and Pete, despite his position as the company's oldest character (going back to Walt's Alice comedies of the 20s in slightly different form), is never as intimidating as he is here--almost purely demonic at his worst. While Alan Young had leant his voice talents as Scrooge on the successful 70s record of the same name (that version featuring Merlin as Christmas Past and Snow White's Wicked Witch as Christmas Future), they weren't intially sure they wanted to bring him back, but eventually that sentiment prevailed, and thus Young's since become the definitive Scrooge. Plus it's good to see several comparatively peripheral characters get their moments in the sun, from Mole and Rat to Willie. They really need to think more like this these days and get the spark going again.
Who else has fond memories of this over the years?
Posted by pettyfan (Member # 2260) on :
I love Mickey's Christmas Carol. When I was a kid I had the book and record set and I also had all the stuffed animals (I think Hardee's had them). I found it on DVD last year with other Disney Christmas classics, and somehow wound up buying two of them. It's one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies.
