A Christmas Carol

The first temptation is to define it as modest animation. And you are just wrong. Because it is a version for kids and this fact makes it just inspired adaptation, from the dog to the beautiful ghosts and the dialogues.

It has the virtue of impressive cast and it is not only about names but about the work of actors , Tim Curry and Woopy Goldberg being the most easy good examples.

A charming animation- the fair definition of it, nostalgia source for children of 1990 decade and smart crafted adaptation .

Indeed, nothing new , in essence but good kick for discover , for young readers, Robinson Crusoe or the facts of king Arthur.

So, little more than pleasant. And not exactly so...modest.

Sweet, entertaining, and underrated are the three words I would use to describe this Christmas Carol. The story itself is so famous that I won't bother with summarizing it and I highly recommend that the eight or so people who don't know it watch this film (if you can't find a copy, it's on YouTube). While there have been animated versions before and musical versions before, this is the only version I know of that is an animated musical (if you know of any other such versions, let me know), and I think it does both of these aspects very well, especially since I had an extremely hard time getting Santa's Sooty Suit out of my brain. Likewise with the animation, which is crisp and bright without being too bright. This movie sticks pretty close to the original and the few changes it does make actually work, such as Scrooge having an equally grouchy dog and Tiny Tim accompanying his father to work. The ghosts are very good as well, especially the ghost of Christmas Future, who reminds me somewhat of the Grim Reaper. The duet between a young Scrooge and Belle is very touching and bittersweet.

Ebeneezer Scrooge (Tim Curry) is a cold hearted miser who makes no secret of his contempt for the holidays as he runs his moneylending services with no room for compassion or humanity. Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his deceased partner, Jacob Marley (Ed Asner) who is now condemned to wander the Earth in the shackles he forged in life and tells Scrooge that a similar fate awaits him with an even longer and heavier chain. Marley offers Scrooge a chance to avoid his fate by telling him three ghosts, the Ghosts of Christmas Past (Kath Soucie), Present (Whoopi Goldberg), and Future who show Scrooge his long forgotten past, its effects on those in the here and now, and what may happen if he continues on his course unaltered.

A Christmas Carol is a 1997 direct-to-video film produced by noted TV animation company DIC Productions who will be familiar to many having grown up in the 80s and 90s with the company responsible for a number of noted Ips such as The Real Ghostbusters, the various Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons, and the early dubs of Sailor Moon among others. The film was released to little fanfare in October of 1997 through 20th Century Fox's home media label and received mixed to negative reviews from whatever critics actually bothered to watch it. Despite its quiet initial release, the movie would get some re-exposure in 2002 when it was aired on Nickelodeon as part of Nickelodeon's Sunday Movie Toons (aka DIC Movie Toons) a collection of animated TV movies DIC would broadcast on the network which eventually spurred a bare bones re-release in 2004 by Fox on DVD. There's really not much I can say about this 1997 A Christmas Carol as I've seen worse but I've also seen better, but with Tim Curry playing Scrooge it's not going to be boring.

If you've seen any animated project by DIC, you know pretty much what level of quality you can expect given the pedigree they've set for themselves with their various syndicated cartoon series that were produced with a "quantity over quality" mindset that was only occasionally elevated if there was strong writing underneath the material such as J. Michael Straczynski's work on The Real Ghostbusters that made that show of such high quality prior to ABC hiring consulting firm Q5 and crippling the show. Animated by South Korea's Han Yang Productions which has worked on everything from Disney Afternoon staples like Gargoyles to considerably lesser material like various Goodtimes and Golden Films produced knock-offs of Disney films, the animation is definitely on the lower end of the spectrum as it's made of very simple shapes, there's a lot of cycling, and there's some clumsy integration of light source effects and particle effects that clash with the animation. In comparison to some direct-to-video projects of the time it's a step down from certain endeavors such as Universal's Land Before Time films or certain Disney video productions.

In terms of the movie itself it covers the main points of the story without quite nailing the atmosphere (save for maybe the Ghost of Christmas future). Due to the animation style that seems more geared towards something slapsticky and simplicity including the inclusion of Scrooge's dog Debit the foreboding tone usually present in the first act of this story isn't all that well realized with Ed Asner's appearance as Marley not all that frightening or impactful despite Asner's best efforts. The three ghosts are a mixed bag with the most disappointing being the realization of Ghost of Christmas Past played by Kath Soucie whose design as a young boy is rather lacking and it just looks like a reused asset from DIC's Liberty's Kids. Surprisingly though I did enjoy Whoopi Goldberg as the Ghost of Christmas Present and considering Goldberg's personality and prior roles such as playing Guinan on Star Trek: The Next Generation she fits this role very well and the filmmakers do add an interesting touch with the character aging during the segment before she fades away which was more than I've seen with some adaptations of this story. Tim Curry being Tim Curry, his voice is basically gravy when it comes to any animated project as he makes good stuff even better and mediocre or bad things tolerable. While Curry's take on Scrooge is undeniably hammed up, that's kind of the whole point when it comes to casting Curry in the first place and despite that Curry does bring to life the emotional moments even in the Ghost of Christmas Future scene which respects the darkness of that scene with Curry doing quite well with the material. The movie's also a musical and it's not a particularly good one as the songs are all pretty bland and forgettable despite Tim Curry singing his heart out.

A Christmas Carol pretty much gave me what I was expecting so I wasn't annoyed or irritated at it, but I'm also not going to go out of my way to revisit it either. If you're a Christmas Carol completionist and you just want to see every version you'll definitely get some entertainment value from the presence of Tim Curry and at least the story maintains the focus where it should be, but in terms of the tone, atmosphere, and approach that helps make this story there are far better versions such as Mickey's Christmas Carol or the Richard Williams Christmas Carol that despite being shorter and omitting more are more spiritually (no pun intended) faithful to the material.

"Christmas Carol" is my favorite story for the Holiday Season, and I usually enjoy checking out new adaptations of the story, but this one SUCKED!!!! I guess the real reason why I am disappointed is that the voiceovers were such a top-notch cast.

This is not the best Christmas Carol I've seen, The Alastair Sim, George C.Scott and Muppet versions are versions I prefer. But this 1997 animated film is much better than the 2001 film which was also animated and had Simon Callow and Kate Winslet, that would have been decent had it not been so dull.

This Christmas Carol is not perfect. There are parts of the film that drag, especially the first 15 minutes or so. Also while I have seen much worse animation as some of the colours and backgrounds are better than expected, there are some shortcuts with the occasionally awkward character design and the frames are quite simplistic.

Flaws aside, this film I think is charming, worthwhile and underrated. The incidental music is absolutely beautiful, while I quite liked the songs actually particularly Santa's Sooty Suit and the very touching duet between Belle and young Ebeneezer. This version is not the most faithful, there are some changes, specifically the character Debit who I was in two minds of whether he was really that necessary to the story and the fact the ghost of Christmas Present ages throughout.

There are some changes though that I think worked, particularly the bit where Robinson Crusoe appears as a spirit and the part where Tiny Tim is reading the same book and Scrooge is reading along which really quite touched me. Even with the changes though, the spirit of the classic story is there. The crucial scenes are there, you do empathise with Scrooge throughout, the ending is marvellous being very heartwarming and as well as some added dialogue(the Mr Grumpy Face line is very funny) some of the film's writing is lifted from the text of the book as you can see in the scene in the beginning with Fred and the ending at Bob Cratchit's house.

The voice cast is top notch. Edward Asner is a good Jacob Marley, Michael York is very spirited and Jodi Benson is also touching. Support wise, the best for me was Whoopi Golberg who embodies her character very well and seems to be having a great deal of fun. Best of all is Tim Curry in the title role, right from the voice to the delivery of the lines, he is just wonderful.

Overall, while it is not the best or most perfect version there is, I enjoyed it a lot. 8/10 Bethany Cox