OK, so we're finally going to talk about the story elements that are included in the show within a show of "A Flintstones' Christmas Carol," an animated TV-movie from 1994.
The play as presented is actually quite faithful to the original novella. "Charles Brickens" was very prescient!
There are some things exaggerated for cartoony comedy, and many of the character names have been Flintstonized, but none of that gets in the way of the story. If a kid was watching this and did not know the story, they could follow along and come away with a good appreciation of what makes it so popular. You don't need to fill in any gaps yourself, as is the case with a lot of cartoon versions.
I just want to mention one more time that there may be some spoilers of the framing story ahead, as some of what goes on in that affects the cartoon actors and their play.
The story takes place in Piltdown, which I guess is because that's the place in England where a supposed caveman fossil (the Piltdown Man) was found. So, that counts as an English stone age city.
That is very clever!
Anyway, the opening scenes in Scrooge's office have all the elements in there. Bob Cragit is at a comically cold desk and Scrooge won't let him have any coal.
Scrooge's nephew (named Ned so as not to have Fred overload) comes in and has the usual back and forth with Scrooge.
The two charity collectors come in as usual, but they're wearing what looks to me to be Salvation Army type uniforms.
The dialogue is actually pretty faithful to the book.
Things get a little different when Scrooge leaves the office, however. A couple of kids are having a snowball fight and one of them accidentally knocks Scrooge's hat from his head and said hat subsequently gets run over by a wagon. This is seemingly inspired by the scene from the 1938 movie where Gene Lockhart as Bob Cratchit inadvertently ruins Reginald Owen as Scrooge's hat.
Scrooge has the kid picked up by a constable, but instead of sending him to the workhouse, he has the kid shovel the walk to his house. I guess this is to show that Scrooge is mean by making the kid do that shoveling on Christmas Eve, but I think it shows he isn't all that bad, because the kid did ruin his hat and Scrooge let him off with only that shoveling job as punishment.
The kid has kind of a Cockney accent, which is a rare nod to Britishness in this production. Maybe that kid grows up to be the Piltdown Man?
When Scrooge gets home, he sees Jacob Marbley's face in his door knocker, which is one of those effects that seems very ambitious if not impossible for a community theater show.
Marbley's Ghost comes in and he's transparent and floats around, warning Scrooge and telling him he'll be visited by more ghosts.
Some backstage drama leads to Wilma having to take over the role of the Ghost of Christmas Past. They go to Scrooge's school wear they see young Ebenezer, who is played by grown Fred wearing a schoolboy outfit!
His sister comes in. Scrooge calls her "Fanny," but the spirit does call her "Fan." Scrooge says when his sister died, he vowed he would never love anyone again.
But, as the spirit points out, he did fall in love again. This was of course, with Belle, who also winds up being played by Wilma!
Scrooge meets Belle at Fezziwig's party, as seems to be the norm for adaptations at this point. The scene where Belle won't dance with the other guys at the party seems directly inspired by the similar scene in "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol."
Of note is that Jacob Marbley is one of the other employees at Fezziwig's. Fun to see Mr. Slate with a toupee!
There are some shenanigans with snowballs from Ebenezer and Belle, which Charles Brickens point out is not in the script. Presumably in the script, but not from the book, is us actually seeing Ebenezer propose to Belle. But, of course, they break up.
The Christmas Past segment ends at this point. We do not see Belle married, which is good, as we'll see...
The Ghost of Christmas Present shows up as expected and he's a big, bearded giant. The actor playing him is called Ernie and we had previously seen him as a street corner Santa collecting for the Bedrock Mission earlier in the framing scenes. Ernie's a big guy, but in character he's somehow grown to gigantic proportions!
Scrooge and the spirit go through town and get in some dialogue that is remarkably similar to the book and left out of most adaptations.
Then they go to Bob Cragit's house, where Bob and his family dine on chickasaurus for Christmas dinner. Tiny Tim says just his one famous line. There's only one other Cragit kid, who's referred to as Martha and is perhaps younger than Tiny Tim for the only time.
Anyway, the opening scenes in Scrooge's office have all the elements in there. Bob Cragit is at a comically cold desk and Scrooge won't let him have any coal.
Scrooge's nephew (named Ned so as not to have Fred overload) comes in and has the usual back and forth with Scrooge.
The two charity collectors come in as usual, but they're wearing what looks to me to be Salvation Army type uniforms.
The dialogue is actually pretty faithful to the book.
Things get a little different when Scrooge leaves the office, however. A couple of kids are having a snowball fight and one of them accidentally knocks Scrooge's hat from his head and said hat subsequently gets run over by a wagon. This is seemingly inspired by the scene from the 1938 movie where Gene Lockhart as Bob Cratchit inadvertently ruins Reginald Owen as Scrooge's hat.
Scrooge has the kid picked up by a constable, but instead of sending him to the workhouse, he has the kid shovel the walk to his house. I guess this is to show that Scrooge is mean by making the kid do that shoveling on Christmas Eve, but I think it shows he isn't all that bad, because the kid did ruin his hat and Scrooge let him off with only that shoveling job as punishment.
The kid has kind of a Cockney accent, which is a rare nod to Britishness in this production. Maybe that kid grows up to be the Piltdown Man?
When Scrooge gets home, he sees Jacob Marbley's face in his door knocker, which is one of those effects that seems very ambitious if not impossible for a community theater show.
Marbley's Ghost comes in and he's transparent and floats around, warning Scrooge and telling him he'll be visited by more ghosts.
Some backstage drama leads to Wilma having to take over the role of the Ghost of Christmas Past. They go to Scrooge's school wear they see young Ebenezer, who is played by grown Fred wearing a schoolboy outfit!
His sister comes in. Scrooge calls her "Fanny," but the spirit does call her "Fan." Scrooge says when his sister died, he vowed he would never love anyone again.
But, as the spirit points out, he did fall in love again. This was of course, with Belle, who also winds up being played by Wilma!
Scrooge meets Belle at Fezziwig's party, as seems to be the norm for adaptations at this point. The scene where Belle won't dance with the other guys at the party seems directly inspired by the similar scene in "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol."
Of note is that Jacob Marbley is one of the other employees at Fezziwig's. Fun to see Mr. Slate with a toupee!
There are some shenanigans with snowballs from Ebenezer and Belle, which Charles Brickens point out is not in the script. Presumably in the script, but not from the book, is us actually seeing Ebenezer propose to Belle. But, of course, they break up.
The Christmas Past segment ends at this point. We do not see Belle married, which is good, as we'll see...
The Ghost of Christmas Present shows up as expected and he's a big, bearded giant. The actor playing him is called Ernie and we had previously seen him as a street corner Santa collecting for the Bedrock Mission earlier in the framing scenes. Ernie's a big guy, but in character he's somehow grown to gigantic proportions!
Scrooge and the spirit go through town and get in some dialogue that is remarkably similar to the book and left out of most adaptations.
Then they go to Bob Cragit's house, where Bob and his family dine on chickasaurus for Christmas dinner. Tiny Tim says just his one famous line. There's only one other Cragit kid, who's referred to as Martha and is perhaps younger than Tiny Tim for the only time.
Bamm-Bamm and Pebbles are as cute as ever, and it's good to see Dino as the family pet.
Bob proposes a toast to Scrooge and Mrs. Cragit really objects. Betty Rubble had plenty of motivation for that scene from Fred's backstage behavior!
The spirit next brings Scrooge to the home of his nephew, Ned. Ned and his guests play charades with Scrooge ultimately the punchline. But Scrooge doesn't mind as he's having fun and is delighted that Ned includes him in the fun.
I must say that I really like the characterization of Ned. He's one of my favorite nephews from any adaptation in any medium!
Now it's time for the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. This ghost is a hooded phantom as usual, but it's wearing a white robe here.
Scrooge and the spirits see a lot in this sequence. In a bit of a twist, it appears to be a policeman and a businessman discussing (what turns out to be) Scrooge's death and Scrooge does see a body on a bed. That businessman looks like he's played by Mr. Slate using a different voice.
When Scrooge wants to see emotion connected with that man's death, the ghost brings him to Old Joe's where the charwoman sells the bed curtains.
Then when Scrooge wants to see tenderness, they go to the Cragit house, where it's revealed that Tiny Tim has died. They end up at a graveyard where Scrooge sees Tiny Tim's grave and then his own.
But Scrooge finds himself back in his own bedroom. Curiously, when he's talking about the prior events, he mentions the window where Jacob Marbley joined the wandering spirits. We did not actually see that, however.
When Scrooge looks out that window, he sees that same kid that had ruined his hat and whom he made shovel his walkway. The kid hits Scrooge with a well-deserved snowball.
But he sends that kid to get the prize turkeysaurus, which is appropriately Flintstonesquely ginormous! Scrooge has it sent anonymously to Bob Cragit.
While Scrooge is heading over to Ned's house, he meets the charity collectors, but now one of them is played by Wilma! To stay in character, Fred as Scrooge calls her Belle. And he invites her to come along to Ned's house!
I think this is really fun, as who doesn't want Scrooge and Belle to somehow get back together, especially if it was never established that Belle had married someone else? And I know it's only characters in a play staged by cartoon "actors," but I like it!
Ned is surprised that his uncle brought a date along, but he's a good sport about it.
Next morning, Scrooge beats Bob to the office and surprises him by making him his partner and renaming the business to "Scrooge & Cragit." When Bob jokingly suggest they call it "Cragit & Scrooge," Scrooge agrees! Scrooge says there are "back payments" in there, a line he usually says to the charity gentleman.
It strikes me that the business changes from a "Mr. Potter" type to a "George Bailey" type. I'm guessing that's a conscious homage to "It's a Wonderful Life."
Amusingly, the same kid who did the shoveling and turkey buying is now in charge of sign painting, so that kid is busy. Luckily Scrooge keeps throwing him bags of money!
We go back to Charles Brickens for the wrap-up, then when Bamm-Bamm is supposed to say Tiny Tim's "God bless us, everyone," he gets a bit of stage fright, so Pebbles says it. Very cute!
So, what we have is a pretty faithful adaptation with the framework of a "Flintstones" episode. The spirit is pretty close to the original series.
I have to admit that I was skeptical of how a mid-90s project like this would be, but I think it's a blast and if you're a fan if the 'Stones, check it out!
Bob proposes a toast to Scrooge and Mrs. Cragit really objects. Betty Rubble had plenty of motivation for that scene from Fred's backstage behavior!
The spirit next brings Scrooge to the home of his nephew, Ned. Ned and his guests play charades with Scrooge ultimately the punchline. But Scrooge doesn't mind as he's having fun and is delighted that Ned includes him in the fun.
I must say that I really like the characterization of Ned. He's one of my favorite nephews from any adaptation in any medium!
Now it's time for the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. This ghost is a hooded phantom as usual, but it's wearing a white robe here.
Scrooge and the spirits see a lot in this sequence. In a bit of a twist, it appears to be a policeman and a businessman discussing (what turns out to be) Scrooge's death and Scrooge does see a body on a bed. That businessman looks like he's played by Mr. Slate using a different voice.
When Scrooge wants to see emotion connected with that man's death, the ghost brings him to Old Joe's where the charwoman sells the bed curtains.
Then when Scrooge wants to see tenderness, they go to the Cragit house, where it's revealed that Tiny Tim has died. They end up at a graveyard where Scrooge sees Tiny Tim's grave and then his own.
But Scrooge finds himself back in his own bedroom. Curiously, when he's talking about the prior events, he mentions the window where Jacob Marbley joined the wandering spirits. We did not actually see that, however.
When Scrooge looks out that window, he sees that same kid that had ruined his hat and whom he made shovel his walkway. The kid hits Scrooge with a well-deserved snowball.
But he sends that kid to get the prize turkeysaurus, which is appropriately Flintstonesquely ginormous! Scrooge has it sent anonymously to Bob Cragit.
While Scrooge is heading over to Ned's house, he meets the charity collectors, but now one of them is played by Wilma! To stay in character, Fred as Scrooge calls her Belle. And he invites her to come along to Ned's house!
I think this is really fun, as who doesn't want Scrooge and Belle to somehow get back together, especially if it was never established that Belle had married someone else? And I know it's only characters in a play staged by cartoon "actors," but I like it!
Ned is surprised that his uncle brought a date along, but he's a good sport about it.
Next morning, Scrooge beats Bob to the office and surprises him by making him his partner and renaming the business to "Scrooge & Cragit." When Bob jokingly suggest they call it "Cragit & Scrooge," Scrooge agrees! Scrooge says there are "back payments" in there, a line he usually says to the charity gentleman.
It strikes me that the business changes from a "Mr. Potter" type to a "George Bailey" type. I'm guessing that's a conscious homage to "It's a Wonderful Life."
Amusingly, the same kid who did the shoveling and turkey buying is now in charge of sign painting, so that kid is busy. Luckily Scrooge keeps throwing him bags of money!
We go back to Charles Brickens for the wrap-up, then when Bamm-Bamm is supposed to say Tiny Tim's "God bless us, everyone," he gets a bit of stage fright, so Pebbles says it. Very cute!
So, what we have is a pretty faithful adaptation with the framework of a "Flintstones" episode. The spirit is pretty close to the original series.
I have to admit that I was skeptical of how a mid-90s project like this would be, but I think it's a blast and if you're a fan if the 'Stones, check it out!
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