Disney’s Christmas Carol Blog
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is undoubtedly a classic holiday story! Dickens first published A Christmas Carol as a novella in 1843 and since that time, the story has been adapted for television, stage, radio, and of course, film. Disney has also made various adaptations of the story and I thought we could explore fun facts about those in this blog. Feel free to community on your favorites!
- Disney produced Mickey’s Christmas Carol in 1983, and it received an Oscar Nomination for Best Short Film, Animated that year. Featuring the voice talent of Wayne Allwine (Mickey Mouse), Alan Young (Scrooge McDuck), and Will Ryan (Pete/Ghost of Christmas Future and Willie the Giant) it was the very first film appearance of Wayne Allwine as Mickey Mouse and his first chance to work with future wife Russi Taylor as Minnie Mouse. (Though Taylor recorded some dialogue for the film, it wasn’t included in the final cut.) This film also marked the last appearance of Disney voice-over veteran, Clarence Nash, as Donald Duck, whom he voiced for over 50 years.
- Prior to the 1983 version, Alan Young collaborated with Alan Dinehart on a Disneyland Records Album called An Adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Performed by the Walt Disney Players in 1974. It was his first time voicing Scrooge McDuck and he continued voicing Scrooge McDuck for 32 years until his death in 2016.
- Disney’s next adaptation of “Christmas Carol,” was The Muppet Christmas Carol, which was released in 1992. The film was directed by Brian Henson, son of “Muppets,” creator Jim Henson, who also directed The Muppet Treasure Island (1996). In this film, Scrooge is portrayed by Michael Caine, who is also known to Disney fans for voicing Finn McMissile in Disney/Pixar’s Cars 2 (2011). Caine to this day considers the role of Scrooge to be one of his most memorable. Caine got along wonderfully well with Henson while the film was in production, being seriously impressed with Henson’s skills as a director. Before filming began Caine told Henson “I’m going to play this movie like I’m working with the Royal Shakespeare Company. I will never wink, I will never do anything Muppety. I am going to play Scrooge as if it is an utterly dramatic role and there are no puppets around me,” to which Henson replied “Yes, bang on!” “Muppet Christmas Carol,” was also the second “Christmas Carol,” movie that was filmed at the Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England. The first was the movie-musical, Scrooge (1970) in which Ebenezer Scrooge was portrayed by Albert Finney.
- Disney re-adapted “Christmas Carol,” for C.G.I. in 2009 with Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge and all three of the Christmas Ghosts who visit Scrooge on Christmas Eve. In this film, Bob and Emily Cratchit were voiced by Gary Oldman and Leslie Manville, who were married in real life from 1987-1990 and have a son together. This is also the first film that Robert Zemeckis directed for Disney since Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). In this film, Cary Elwes provides the voice of Dick Wilkins, Scrooge’s partner at Mr. Fezziwig’s. Elwes previously worked with Jim Carrey in Liar Liar (1997) and Robin Wright in The Princess Bride (1987), and Wright voices Scrooge’s sister Fan as well as his fiancé, Belle in this film. Fionnula Flanagan voices Mrs. Dilber, Scrooge’s charwoman in this film, and Flannagan also worked with Jim Carrey in the movie Yes Man (2008). In the initial release for this film Jim Carrey described it as “A classical version of ‘A Christmas Carol.’ There are a lot of vocal things, a lot of physical things I have to do. Not to mention doing the accents properly, the English, Irish accents. I want it to fly in the UK. I want it to be good and I want them to go ‘Yeah, that’s for real.’ We were very true to the book. It’s beautiful. It’s an incredible film.”
Of all these film adaptations my personal favorite is “The Muppet Christmas Carol,” because it was the first of these adaptations that I recall seeing as a child and I also enjoy the songs.
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