I find the 1971 made-for-TV adaptation very interesting.
As I mentioned, I had seen this a few times as a kid and it made an impression on me. It seemed like forever went by until I saw it again, but it was maybe only around 15 years, which doesn't seem so long now!
I like this a lot, but I hear (read) so often that this is the best version ever or at least the best animated version or it's the most faithful version ever, etc., etc., etc.
I'm going out on a limb here, but this I don't think it's any of those!
The whole thing sometimes comes off as an English Literature class. There's not much fun present. You admire it, but do you enjoy it?
I do think that the creators tried really hard to be faithful to the book and I appreciate those little details that they included. But they omitted a couple of key things from Scrooge's past and rushed through a lot of other incidents. As I mentioned before, I think you really need to be familiar with the source material to appreciate or at least understand a lot of what's going on.
I don't think that's just because it has a short running time. Some of the transitions are so abrupt that it's hard to tell exactly what's going on. I really like Michael Redgrave as the narrator, but he's way underused. They have him explain the part about the blind man's dog, but not much else. I would've liked more.
Another thing I think it could use is a musical score. Even just a few flourishes. The little fanfare when young Ebenezer imagines Ali Baba and the other characters is jarring becomes it comes out of nowhere.
All that being said, this thing is very stylish. The tracking shots and pans and all are really great. The drawings themselves look like etchings. It's really like a book come to life.
But... as much as I like this, it's not my "go to" for a 20-odd minute faithful adaptation. That honor still goes to the 1953 radio broadcast with Laurence Olivier.
There, I said it!
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