The 1969 Australian made-for-TV animated version of "A Christmas Carol" is fairly faithful to the source material, but, as expected, they omit some things and a few new things.
It has a generous running time of 45 minutes, which is plenty of time to tell the story, but this goes at something of a leisurely pace, so there are some curious cuts.
The program gets going with Marley's funeral, which Scrooge is reluctant to pay for. He gives only a couple of coins to the gravedigger(?), who throws them to the ground in disgust. Scrooge picks them up, so he made out on the deal.
This prologue shows we're getting a pretty mean Scrooge here!
A narrator advances us seven years and we see Scrooge walking to his office, being pretty surly to whomever he encounters in the street.
The story gets pretty faithful to the book now, with Bob Cratchit, Fred and the charity gentlemen all talking their turns being abused.
The odd thing is that Fred starts singing and Scrooge joins him, going back and forth, a la "The Stingiest Man in Town."
So, is this adaptation a musical? No, not really, as that's the only number. Very strange!
I don't find Fred's character design appealing at all, but I don't have to worry about that too much, as we never see him again after this scene. Scrooge does not see Fred's party with the Ghost of Christmas Present nor does he visit him on Christmas Day.
In any event, there's a strange scene added in where a shopkeeper makes a joke about Scrooge being stingy, which gets a laugh from assorted customers.
Meanwhile, Scrooge goes home, but does not see Marley's face in his door knocker.
He wouldn't have recognized Marley in is present state anyeway, as when Marley's Ghost appears, he has a flaming skull! This is one time when Scrooge should really be scared, but this Scrooge isn't all that impressed!
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| Who wore it better? |
Maybe Marley's Ghost should've ridden in on a chopper - that would've scared Scrooge!
Marley's Ghost warns Scrooge and advises him that the other spirits will appear one after the other.
The Ghost of Christmas Past comes along and he's got a long white beard, wears a robe and carries a staff. Not sure why he has a staff rather than a cap, but I get such a strong Noah vibe from him that I almost expect him to lead Scrooge onto his ark!
They go to the town where Scrooge spent his childhood, but leave without seeing lonely young Ebenezer at school. There's no Fan, so no mention of Scrooge's nephew.
Any talk of younger Scrooge being lonely is saved until they go to Fezziwig's, which is kind of odd, as usual Scrooge is happy there. Scrooge and the spirit have some interesting banter throughout this scene.
Young Scrooge does have a good time with Dick Wilkins and Fezziwig, but old Scrooge says they were "silly fools" to be so full of gratitude. This Scrooge is a tough nut, foreshadowing George C. Scott's take of 15 years later.
Belle was not at Fezziwig's aprty, so as in the book, we don't see her until the breakup scene. Old Scrooge shows no regret and we don't see Belle happily married, so we're done with the past.
The spirit asks Scrooge if he learned anything and Scrooge responds that he learned he was an "irresponsible fool" as a youth. Yikes!
Scrooge is back at home and seems really frightened at the first sight of the Ghost of Christmas Present, but regains his composure quickly and tells the ghost that he's anxious to end the ordeal.
This ghost also has a Biblical look to him. Moses, maybe? He carries a lantern rather than a torch. The lantern is in shape very unlike Plenty's horn!
They fly over Camden Town and Scrooge knows that Bob Cratchit lives there with his family.
When they enter the house Martha is already there, but she does hide when Bob comes in with Tiny Tim.
Martha looks about the same as Mrs. Cratchit, which I think can just be chalked up to uninspired character design.
In addition to Martha and Tiny Tim, I think there are just Peter and Belinda for additional Cratchit kids.
The Cratchits' dinner is about as expetced, but there's an extended argument when Bob proposes the toast to Scrooge.
Scrooge seems to soften a bit during this sequence, but the spirit says he'll have to learn the hard way from the next spirit and he pities Scrooge "in his unmerciful hands."
An interesting touch is that Scrooge keeps rubbing a coin through the scene, which he tells the spirit is the first sovereign he ever made. The spirit chides him for not spending it, but I actually think it's not that bad for Scrooge to keep it as a remembrance.
Anyway, Scrooge is back in his room when he meets the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Scrooge is pretty scared now, but the ghost doesn't seem all that threateneing. It just looks like a guy wearing a purple robe. The static animation is the problem.
We actually get a few scenes in the future, more than in any other sequnce.
We first see the other businessmen joking about Scrooge's death. One of them quips that maybe he died from trying to eat his money!
Next they go to Old Joe's where the laundress and charwoman sell Scrooge's stuff. Neither woman is called Mrs. Dilber. They also see Scrooge's body covered with the sheet.
Scrooge asks to see some emotion connected to "this man's" death, which would seem to indicate that we would see Caroline and her husband being happy that Scrooge died. Instead, the next scene is the Cratchit house after Tiny Tim's death. That's either a continuity error because there was a scene cut or just indifferent scripting.
Last stop is the cemetery where Scrooge sees his own grave, the marker of which has his birth and death dates, but they're a bit obscured.
Scrooge now sees the light and winds up back in his bedroom on Christmas morning.
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| Hey, Scrooge, would you please cover your mouth when you sneeze?!! |
He talks to the boy outside of his window and has him buy the turkey. Scrooge then takes the turkey and some other presents to Bob's house. He doesn't say anything about giving Bob a raise, but he does finally sneeze!
That's the end of a pretty faithful version of the story here.
Next, some additional thoughts...
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