What would Christmas be without a good ghost story?
What you say? You don’t tell ghost stories at Christmas? Well, why not! This is an old Victorian tradition that has fallen out of favor. But its still a part of our culture.
What about the Andy Williams song – The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Have you thought of the lyrics:
There’ll be parties for hosting
Marshmallows for toasting
And caroling out in the snow
There’ll be scary ghost stories
Look at that last line – There’ll be scary ghost stories …. People used to sit around the fireplace telling ghost stories for Christmas.
And think about the famous A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. It’s a ghost story. A Christmas ghost story. So maybe you do partake in some ghost stories. I’ve written about this – free public domain Christmas stories – and wanted to do a similar article for Horror Lasagna.
This time, I’m focusing on only A Christmas Carol. We have so many variations of this in video that I wanted to watch many of them and see how they rank. Without further ado, here’s the A Christmas Carol movies I’ve gathered and watched with what I liked (or didn’t like) about each.
There seem to be 2 types of these movies – the straightforward redemption arc and the comedy. You could say there is a 3rd – animated – but these mostly follow the other 2 types. Each of the movies below follows the story written by Charles Dickens to different degrees, but all get to the same end.
And I have a couple questions:
- When Bob and Tiny Tim went to church, why didn’t everyone go?
- Marley told Scrooge that he would be visited over 3 nights, but then the spirits do it all in 1 night. This makes sense so Scrooge wakes up changed on Christmas, but why say 3 nights originally and then have Scrooge be surprised they did it in one. I believe that the story was originally released as a serial and Dickens realized too late that it shouldn’t be 3 nights and had to kludge it at the end. No big deal, but shows that writers don’t always have it all figured out at the beginning of their writing.
Scrooge (1935) – Very early edition with a great score. I like the little preface at the beginning, which I supposed is something Dickens said or wrote in the original edition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrooge_(1935_film)
1951 – this one expands on the story with some scenes showing Ebenezer and how he is so non-Christmas and then his change. Like many in the early days, this one feels like a play. I have a soft spot for the black and white films and this one does justice to the story. The music and sound effects are particularly good.
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1954 – this one start Basil Rathbone who played a lot of great parts in black and white movies, but I always think of him as Sherlock Holmes. There isn’t much to set this one apart from the others and they cut out some of the spirit future stuff. Some nice chorale pieces though.
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1971 – This one is animated, as many of them are. What makes it interesting is that it has the same Ebenezer as the 1951 Christmas Carol – Alistair Sims. It even says at the beginning “being a ghost story of Christmas.” One of the best parts if that Chuck Jones was the producer, though it doesn’t look like Road Runner. The art is dark and somber, but I like the pencil-like animated style. It is short, but sticks to the story very closely. Nice showing of ebenezer recognizing the lessons he learns with the spirits.
1984 – I remember this one from when I was a kid. A full movie version with George C. Scott. I enjoy his Scrooge, almost maniacal. The additions they’ve made in this one help make it clearer the lessons that Scrooge is learning for the most part. Overall, it doesn’t feel stretched out compared to the shorter versions. They spend some time once he wakes up and show him as the redeemed man more than other versions.
The most difficult part is watching The Equalizer as Christmas present. 😉
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1999 – This is one of my personal favorites because it has Jean Luc Picard in it. 🙂 If you haven’t heard Patrick Stewart reading a Christmas Carol, you owe it to yourself to listen to that also. The slight additions in this version fit extraordinarily well. The dialogue especially seems like it was always there.
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2012 – This one didn’t please me. The lighting was too bright or too dark in most of it, just looked odd. It’s got ‘Charles Dickens’ reading the story, and when he is reading, it looks like common movie clips are used to fill in. This one is rough to recommend.
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2009 – The Jim Carrey animated version. Besides Carrey, there is such an amazing line-up of voices in this one. It’s a fine version and some of the ghost effects because of animation are nice. I’m not sure if I like this one or the 1971 animated version better.
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Mickey’s Christmas Carol – this is one of my favorites. While it may not have some of the wonderful graphics of the Jim Carrey animated or be as stylish as the pencil drawn version, it is one I watched many times as a kid and holds a special place in my heart. And it has Mickey and Donald!
I do like how they changed some of the dialogue to make it easier for kids to understand. There are quite a few characters that you don’t see often nowadays.
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Muppet Christmas Carol – another absolute favorite, though I saw it when I was older. I’m not sure which I like better – Mickey or Kermit – so just see both. This one is longer than Mickey, so you get more time with it and the Muppet humor. Statler and Waldorf as the Marley brothers is probably my favorite. Gonzo with Rizzo as the narrator always makes me chuckle. But nothing is better than Michael Caine as Scrooge. He knew how to act with Muppets and pulls it off remarkably. And it’s a musical. If you want to watch one with the kids, this would be my choice.
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