"Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol, The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special" (2020) - Darrell Van Citters

"Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol, The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special" (2020)
Author: Darrell Van Citters

So, this authoritative book on "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol" is now back in print in a softcover edition, revised in 2020.

And if, like me, you got some gift cards over the holidays, the math is simple: you need to get your mitts on this!

I've been aware of earlier editions for a while, but they tended to sell out quickly (usually before I was even aware) and people that have it aren't likely to part with it, so it's good to see it back!

There's a tremendous amount of material here. Just a great job by Darrell Van Citters.

I really like the production sketches that show how the project evolved.

Early versions of the script did include Fred, who is famously not in the show, as well as Fan, who was expendable because you don't need Fred's mother without Fred. (SPOILER ALERT: Fred does not look like Waldo!)

They were dropped early on it seems, but a sequence showing Belle with her family was apparently deleted fairly late. That explains the abrupt cut at the end of the Christmas Past sequence when the spirit says "one shadow more," but the scene ends without that shadow.

I think this definitively ends the argument I've heard/read occasionally that there's some longer version of the special that did include Belle family segment. It was never included in the finished project, but some people are "misremembering" as they had seen a similar scene in another version.

It's like the famous lost "spider pit" scene from "King Kong" (1933) that people insist they've seen on TV.

There are lots of other interesting things that I won't give away, but there's one takeaway for me that was surprise:

The Cratchit daughter is Belinda! I always thought it was Martha, as she seems fully grown, but character sketches identify her as Belinda. There are some preliminary sketches for Martha, but she was not included. Maybe so there would be fewer characters to animate?

So, for tons of fascinating tidbits, this book is highly recommended!