There are about as many adaptations of “A Christmas Carol” as there are rewritten covers of The 12 Days of Christmas (hrm, we should use that next year). With so many iterations of Charles Dickens powerful classic about regret, poverty and redemption, it’s easy to lose track of the story’s power in favor of simple familiarity. It’s also easy to lose track of its power when the adaptation sucks. Which adaptations should you know better, man? Not the ones on the Naughty list.
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1. A Jetson Christmas Carol
I had no idea that Rosie the Robot was so scary until I tried watching this special again after so long. I had fond memories of this when I was younger. I guess not everything holds up with time. The story was crippled by the format (The Jetsons was an animated sitcom, imagine a futuristic Flintstones), and the mortal peril that Astro found himself in seemed contrived. Unless the sprockets that Spacely Sprockets manufactures are extremely toxic, there’s no reason to believe that Astro would make a suitable stand-in for Tiny Tim.
2. Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol
This one isn’t as bad as it would seem. But for all its genuinely touching moments (including a duet between young Scrooge and Mr. Magoo playing old Scrooge, a full thirty years before The Muppet Christmas Carol’s duet between old Scrooge and Belle), I can’t get over the opening of the special: a song about how wonderful it is for Mr. Magoo to be back on Broadway. Furthermore, the title of the special would seem to indicate that the events of the story are happening to Mr. Magoo, but it turns out that he’s just playing Scrooge on Broadway, which is a rather convenient excuse to capitalize on a cartoon character.
3. The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange: Orange Carol
I admit I only watched this one because I wanted to talk about three good adaptations of “A Christmas Carol” in the Nice column, and I wasn’t disappointed by how dumb this was. Apparently, Annoying Orange is annoying and after getting visited by three spirits, he decides to be less annoying. I’m not exactly motivated to watch the rest of the series.
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1. Mickey’s Christmas Carol
There are two versions of “A Christmas Carol” that I used to watch and
enjoy with my family every year (well, three, but I don’t enjoy the Jetsons one anymore). This was one of them. One point in its favor was that there were enough Disney characters to fill the roles of most of the main characters in the original story, including an already-prepared Scrooge expy.
2. The Muppets’ Christmas Carol
And this is the other version. Before the Muppet franchise slid downhill and ended up slumming it for a number of years, they made a very good version of “A Christmas Carol” staring Michael Caine as
Scrooge. The Marleys were doubled, humans filled in for many of the important characters in a believable manner, and it even featured a self-aware and 4th wall-breaking narrator.
3. Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol
It’s not just the classics that are good, either. A couple years ago, the newly minted Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) was featured in his first Christmas special since taking over from David Tennant (who himself appeared in the first five Christmas specials). On an alien world, one miserly individual is all that stands in the way of a ship from crashing, which would kill the Doctor’s companions. In this special, we find out what it takes for the Doctor to change the heart of an alien Scrooge: he has to become the Ghost of Christmas Past.
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1. Bah Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas
You’d think an adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” where Daffy Duck plays Scrooge couldn’t possibly go awry, but sorry, you’d be wrong. It doesn’t attempt to do anything new with the concept, and worse, nearly all of its jokes fall flat. The characters don’t have their trademark personalities from the older cartoons either, which gives the entire thing no soul whatsoever. I only cackled (not laughed) twice throughout the entire experience, and it’s a disheartening experience for anyone that grew up loving the characters. That it came out around a time where the fantastic Duck Dodgers TV series was in syndication made it look even worse.
2. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
I’m noticing a trend here. My picks for worst adaptations seem to be the movies with great concepts with abysmal execution, and this is the worst of them. There’s nothing wrong with the concept of a man being haunted by his ex-girlfriends instead of the usual ghosts for the wrong he’s done, but it’s executed in the worst and most perverse manner possible. And the writers somehow made every character in the story insufferable. Even Jennifer Garner! I’d be surprised if Charles Dickens didn’t turn in his grave at the result, and haunt the writers. Speaking of which, that’s a good concept too.
3. A Jetson Christmas Carol
The Jetsons was a fine cartoon for its time, and the ‘Christmas Carol’ adaptation would have worked fine, but the concept is poorly executed. Its drama is far too bogged down in rudimentary and predictable jokes, and the Ghosts of Christmas couldn’t be more uncreative. If that isn’t enough to show how much they just didn’t care when they made this, the animation is also sub-par, even for 1985. There are other Jetsons works you should spend your time with instead, if you want more of them.
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1. Mikey’s Christmas Carol
If you were a kid when this adaptation released, it was one of the most endearing and emotional experiences around, animated or not. Chances are, you hadn’t seen any other adaptations yet, and your parents wanted to show you something that you could relate to. If you’re an adult, though, then…well, the same criteria applies. Because why wouldn’t it? The characters aren’t playing the same parts they are in other cartoons, but they were cast in a way where they wouldn’t feel out of place. There’s also some fan service in the form of brief appearances from obscure characters from older movies. It may not have the depth and wealth of content that other adaptations have, but it has the heart. And yes, that’s cliché and sappy, but it’s true.
2. Scrooge (1951)
This was the first “real” adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” I saw, and I didn’t like it on principle. It’s old! And it’s not even in color! That’s a silly preconception, but I was a silly kid when I first saw it, so it fit. Looking at it again, though, I realized that it’s one of the best adaptations around. It was the first one I saw that didn’t dance around the stronger and more tragic concepts represented in Charles Dickens’ classic story. Yet it’s also a heartwarming tale that everyone can admire.
3. The Muppet Christmas Carol
As much as I admired Mikey’s Christmas Carol (and still admire, really), this one was even better. The Muppets’ typical excellent sense of humor and drama combination is assisted by Michael Caine’s excellent portrayal as the Scrooge. It actually managed to balance its dramatic shifts better than the Disney iteration, which is quite an achievement. It’s worth a watch from everyone, regardless of age.
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1. Muppet’s Christmas Carol
The third mention for the muppets today, but now they’re in the other column!? That’s right. Muppet’s Christmas Carol makes my naughty list because it marks the beginning of the franchise’s long wandering in the desert that happened when it’s corporate overlords decided that original muppet moves (far and away the best ones) weren’t worth doing when retelling existing stories was good enough (see also: Muppet Treasure Island, Muppet Wizard of Oz, that remake of It’s a Wonderful Life that showed a world without Kermit) that, thankfully, finally appears to be over.
2. The Fat Albert Christmas Special
This one plays the topic a little fast and loose, considering the special played “A Christmas Carol” fast and loose as well. In the end, the Cosby Kids have a run in with the miserly property magnate Mr. Tyrone, who threatens to destroy their clubhouse as it lies on his (expansive) land and is the way of his development plans. Eventually, the landowner is made to mend his ways after a good talking to, and becomes a more generous person. While I give the special props for trying to update the story when most just make their adaptations period pieces, the process of updating mucks it all up. The addition of the needy family seems to just weigh down and distract the narrative, and they only seem to exist in order to provide actual stakes of the clubhouse’s execution that were otherwise minor. Their part in the story is as forced as the heel-face turn of Mr. Tyrone needed to resolve the plot.
Dishonorable mention:
Check this Naughty and Nice from last year for my thoughts on Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol
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1. The Stingiest Man in Town
While you usually can’t throw a snowball without hitting a good dozen or so Rankin/Bass Christmas specials, only once did they adapt “A Christmas Carol.” Why they changed the name to something so obtuse is beyond me, but they did well with the special itself. Despite it being geared for kids with musical numbers (the instrumentation is forgettable, but the lyrics extremely clever), this adaptation spares nothing when it comes to the ghastly tone and high personal stakes of the original.
2. Scrooge: The Musical
This double adaptation (it was later remade for the stage) was my first live-action glimpse at “A Christmas Carol.” And it is delightful. Despite not being an animated (or puppet’d) adaption, it is musically enhanced with some of the best and catchiest songs I’ve ever heard in any adaptation. Albert Finney makes a perfect Ebenezer Scrooge, believably delivering both his coldest of humbugs and his warmest of reforms. It also goes where few adaptions do, showing Scrooge a sample of Hell itself where Jacob Marley (played by Alec Guinness who no doubt used the role to practice for his spiritual appearances as Obi-Wan Kenobi) introduces Scrooge to his brand-new chain.
Honorable mention:
Check this Naughty and Nice from last year for my thoughts on The Real Ghostbusters: X-Mas Marks the Spot
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