"A Christmas Carol" (1997) - Part 3

There are, of course, other characters featured in the 1997 direct-to-video version of "A Christmas Carol" besides Scrooge and his dog Debit.

The usual suspects are here and the voice cast actually contains some well-known personalities.

Tim Curry stars as Scrooge and does a good job in the role. He's probably still best known for "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975) from early in his career, but he's a versatile actor who's also done a lot of voice work. He's British, but doesn't have too much of an accent.

Michael York does have more of an accent and he's a good choice for Bob Cratchit. I think of "Logan's Run" (1976) first when I think of Michael York, but he's had a long career as well. The year 1997 must have been interesting for him, as in addition to this production, he also started appearing in the "Austin Powers" movie series!

The biggest name involved is Whoopi Goldberg, who voices the Ghost of Christmas Present. I'm not really sure what she's going for with her accent, but I don't really care for it. Way too much rolling of the Rs. The character design doesn't really seem to be based on Whoopi's physical appearance, but it does add some diversity.

Another big-ish name in the cats is Edward Asner, best-known as the spunk-hating Lou Grant on "The Mary Tyler Moore" and "Lou Grant" TV series. He plays Marley's Ghost here. His most famous voice acting was in "Up" from 2009 and he's still active at age 90!

The character design for Marley's Ghost is odd, though, as he doesn't seem Victorian. His hair and mustache and suit seem somewhat old-fashioned, but not as much as Marley should. More of a Teddy Roosevelt vibe.

Also in the cast is Jodi Benson as Belle. Jodi is well-known in animation circles as the voice of Ariel in "The Little Mermaid" (1989), one of the Disney features that I think this video aspires to, but can't really reach the level thereof.

She's cast here so that Belle can sing a number with Ebenezer as part of he breakup scene. It's a nice number, in the tradition of "It Might Have Been" from "The Stingiest Man in Town" (1956) and "Winter Was Warm" from "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol" (1962) and anticipates "When Love is Gone," the song ultimately cut from "The Muppet Christmas Carol" (1999).

One more cast member of note is Kath Soucie, an extremely prolific voice artist who lends her talents to the Ghost of Christmas Pat, Fan and Mrs. Cratchit.

The Ghost of Christmas Past character design might be the oddest of all. It seems to be a kid and the suit and exaggerated Cockney accent would seem to make him Pearly.

All in all, this is a pretty good voice cast and whatever problems this animated feature may have, it's not with the voices.

Next, what are those problems?