One of the things that makes "Mickey's Christmas Carol" so much fun is that in addition to the big Disney cartoon stars in the cast, there are a host of others along for the ride.
I look at this as taking place in the Mickeyverse, with the main group (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy) going over to England to shoot this cartoon, where they met up with the casts of "Robin Hood" (1973) and "The Wind in the Willows" segment of "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mister Toad" (1949).
In the lead role, of course, is Scrooge McDuck. Alan Young (star of TV's "Mr. Ed") does a great job with his voice. He had originated the voice characterization on a 1974 Disneyland Records with the awkward title "An Adaptation of Dickens' Christmas Carol Performed by the Walt Disney Players." Phew!
Scrooge McDuck, like Quincy Magoo, has a "real-life" nephew. Fortunately for Mr. McDuck, his nephew Donald is a much better actor than Mr. Magoo's nephew Waldo. So, we have Donald Duck as Fred. What's really great is that Clarence Nash, who created Donald's voice back in back in 1934 was able to play Donald one more time here!
One more Duck has a featured role: Daisy. She plays the Belle role, named Isabel here. Since she was committed to that role, there was no one available to play Fred's wife, so we don't know if Fred is married or not.
Mickey Mouse has his name in the title, befitting his superstar status, but he has a supporting role here as Bob Cratchit. That's probably the second biggest part.
His girlfriend Minnie Mouse plays Mrs. Cratchit, which Minnie must like, as she finally at least gets to act as Mickey's wife! She does not have any lines in the show.
Mickey conveniently has a couple of nephews, as so many cartoon stars do. Apparently Morty plays Tiny Tim and Ferdie plays the other Cratchit boy, perhaps Peter. Whatever the case, this is probably the mst adorable Tiny Tim ever!
Minnie herself has a couple of nieces, one of whom plays the Cratchits' daughter. It could be Melody or Minnie playing Martha or Belinda.
 |
| Goofy as Marley's Ghost tells Scrooge to expect three spirits! |
Goofy appears as Marley's Ghost. He was probably cast in that role because he looks the part, but his genial nature doesn't make him seem that he would've swindled widows and such as Scrooge says!
 |
| A scene from "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mister Toad." |
The cast members of the earlier "Wind in the Willows" adaptation get some good parts here to help give a little British feel to the proceedings with so many American cartoon stars involved.
Water Rat and Mole are really well-cast as the gentlemen attempting to collect for charity.
Mr. Toad makes a great Fezziwig. He has the look and temperament. He doesn't have any lines, but plays the fiddle at his party.
And a couple of the weasels make appropriately sinister gravediggers in the Christmas Future segment.
We can also spot Angus McBadger from the Mr. Toad gang at Fezziwig's party and Cyril the horse appears with Fred (Donald) at the end.
 |
| Grandma Duck also joins in the fun! |
In keeping with the British feel, several members of the "Robin Hood" cast pop up as extras.
The three spirits are all from the Mickeyverse and are also well-cast.
Jiminy Cricket, breakout star of "Pinnochio" (1940) plays the Ghost of Christmas Past. His experience with acting as Pinnochio's conscience serves him well here. For a little guy, he has always had a huge presence in various media.
The Ghost of Christmas Present is supposed to be a giant, and they already had one on the payroll in the "person" of Willie from the "Mickey and the Beanstalk" segment of "Fun and Fancy Free" (1947). He seems to mix up his lines from the two roles a bit, but he's probably still rattled from that fall from the clouds and he never could pronounce pistachio anyway! Jiminy Cricket introduces and appears in "Fun and Fancy Free," so he knew already had worked with Willie prior to this production.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is the scariest spirit of all, so who better to play that part than Pete, Mickey's longtime adversary. He's the rare G of CYTC who speaks and maybe the only ever to smoke a cigar. But who's gonna tell Pete there's no smoking on the set?
There are a lot of other classic Disney characters in cameos, which adds to the fun.
So, we have a great cast assembled. What kind of script were they given to work with?
No comments:
Post a Comment