Forty Years?

Of course, I also re-watch 1983's "Mickey's Christmas Carol" every holiday season as well and it's always fun!

Hard to believe it's 40 years old this year!

The Cartoon Research website just posted a nice article about it.

Read it here!

Good info as expected from Cartoon Research!

"Disney Holiday Treasures" - Upper Deck (2004) - The Cards

We were just looking at the Upper Deck figures of Mickey and Minnie Mouse from "Mickey's Christmas Carol," but since Upper Deck is better know as a trading card company, they had some cards included with the figures!

Featured in the "Holiday Classics" subset of 2004's "Disney Holiday Treasures" was this card:

Then another subset was "Mickey Mouse's Christmas Carol: The Actors," which featured this array:

I love how the cards portray the gang as actors in the production of the show!

Here area  couple of the backs, which give a little inside information:

Lots of fun!

More McD!

Scrooge McDuck as Ebenezer Scrooge appears with all his Ghosts on this postcard featuring art by Chris Uminga:

Apparently it was originally sold at Disney them parks, but you can get it now online.

Pretty fun!

More Coffee!

If Scrooge needs more coffee, he can also use this mug:

It's shaped like the hat worn by Scrooge in the Jim Carrey Disney 2009 version of "A Christmas Carol."

Pretty fun!

A Good Deal?

I know these things are a racket:

But it still sounds like a good deal!

Sketchy!

This is cool...

It's a preliminary sketch by Carl Barks for  the 1960 Little Golden Book "Donald Duck and the Christmas Carol":

Here's the finished page:

Carl Barks was the master!

"He Said It!"

This clip from Disney's "DuckTales" TV show is fun:

Webby's reaction at the end is awesome!

He did say it!

Blitzin'!

You may recall that I mentioned way back when that the addictive matching game "Disney Emoji Blitz" added a couple of new emoji from "Mickey's Christmas Carol" last year.

Well, they were at it again this year, adding a new Tiny Tim emoji:

Adorable!

Still Gold!

Keeping the Mickey thing going, here's a coloring book from 1984:

The publisher is "Golden," so it must be related to Little Golden Books?

In any event, for those keeping score, that's Dewey doing the painting on the cover!

More McDuck!

This coloring book from 1994 seems interesting:

What catches my eye is that this is billed as "A Christmas Carol" rather than "Mickey's Christmas Carol" so how is the story presented?

I wonder if I can still get a copy for 99 cents?

Early McDuck!

Speaking of Scrooge McDuck, I thought it would be fun to take a peek at his first appearance!

It was in the Donald Duck story "Christmas on Bear Mountain," as presented in Dell's Four Color Comics #178 dated October 1947:

He was very Scroogey at first!

Uncle Scrooge was created by Carl Barks just for this story, but he proved so popular that he was given his own comic book!

Happy Fourth of July

Scrooge's nephew (Donald, not Fred) says Happy Fourth of July and Buy more bonds!

"The Voice of Firestone" (December 20, 1943)

Since we're hanging around 1943 and just ran into Metropolitan Opera star Richard Crooks, and since we're always in the Christmas spirit around here, why don't we stay and listen to Mr. Crooks on a "The Voice of Firestone" episode, as broadcast on NBC on December 20, 1943? (Rhetorical question!)

Give it a listen:

What a nice show! Beautiful music!

Firestone really got into the Christmas spirit! At the top of the page is an awesome comic book giveaway featuring stars from Walt Disney!

Included is Little Hiawatha, star of a 1937 "Silly Symphony" and then appearing in comic books:

And then look at all these cool gifts you could purchase at your Firestone dealer in 1943:

Firestone was still at it when I was a kid with a series of Christmas LPs such as this one, which everyone seemed to have back in the day:

Young Scrooge sighting!

Harvey Firestone, Jr.: Not a Scrooge!

Precious Moments - "Disney Mickey’s Christmas Carol" Figurine

 Here's a fun figurine from Precious Moments:

Precious Moments figurines are really on-model with their licensed properties!

Disney Emoji Blitz!

One pleasant way to relax between blog posts is to play games on one's phone!

Perhaps my favorite is "Disney Emoji Blitz," one of those insanely addictive matching games. I like this game because it features a ton of characters from the Disney conglomerate, with Pixar and "Star Wars" and Muppet characters joining in the fun!

They also feature seasonal emojis, such as this one of interest from last year:

And for this past holiday season, these two made their debut:

I think they did a great job with these!

Here's a little video of "Bob Cratchit Mickey" in action:

Play on! 

Happy Halloween!

 

Hope you have more treats than tricks!

More Golden Mickey!

So, the Little Golden Book version of "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1983) contained a scene that was not included in the cartoon itself.

This makes my thoughts stray over to the cover of said book.

The cover seen at the top is the newer edition and features a nice scene from the end of the cartoon.

The original edition, however, sported a scene not from the cartoon:

That cover shows Mickey, Minnie, Morty, Donald, Daisy and Uncle Scrooge seemingly in character singing Christmas carols.

A nice picture, but who does Daisy represent?

In the cartoon, she plays "Isabelle" (the Belle stand-in) and in he cover picture she's wearing outfit very similar to the one she wears in the breakup scene, although the coloring is a bit different:

But is she supposed to be Isabelle? She still seems young, while Scrooge is older, so it's not an older Isabelle.

Is she maybe Fred/Donald's wife? In the cartoon, it's not specified whether Fred is married or not, although he usually is in most versions, if not at least engaged. 

(I speculated before (here) that Daisy didn't portray Fred's wife in the cartoon because she was needed to play Isabelle.)

Or is the cast just having fun after shooting the show?

Or am I overanalyzing what was probably just meant to be a nice picture including the two big Disney power couples?

Well, yes, but I'm trying to make sense of it in the Mickeyverse!

What also makes things interesting is that there's a Big Golden Book which features the same characters as the first Little Golden Book, but Daisy's wearing a different coat (and a scarf):

Hmmm...

"Mickey's Christmas Carol" - A Little Golden Book (1983)

"Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1983)

A Little Golden Book

We stay in the world of "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1983) with the Little Golden Book adaptation.

No surprise that this title would be part of their library, as there have been lots of Little Golden Books featuring Disney properties, from the 1940s to the present day.

As is the case with these adaptations, this version of the cartoon is considerably condensed, with simple dialogue and exposition.

So, a lot of things are omitted, but... there is something particularly interesting included here - a scene not in the cartoon!

Check it out:

So, here Bob has already left the office before Fred came in and we see him having to rest on the way home due to the weight of Scrooge's laundry bag and we see him enter his house, greeted by Tiny Tim and Mrs. Cratchit! And Mrs. C gets a line!

Soooo... was this scene included in an earlier version of the script, the one that the Little Golden Book people worked with while preparing this book?

You wouldn't think they purposely added a scene that was not in the cartoon, right? 

And I understand that Russi Taylor (Minnie Mouse's voice artist for many years) had recorded dialogue for the cartoon, but none of the lines made it into the final cut. Was this line one of them?

Interesting to think about!

This makes me think of the first Little Golden Book to feature the Flintstones. It's a oddity because it featured Fred, Jr., a character who never appeared on the TV series, but was included in the advance material provided to the Little Golden Books staff:

Hmmm...

"Mickey's Films" Stamps - Ghana (1994)

"Mickey's Films" Stamps (1994)
Ghana

The African country of Ghana also got in the fun of Mickey Mouse's 65 anniversary with a set of stamps featuring "Mickey's Films" in 1994.

Their salute to "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1983) features this iconic image:

I absolutely love this special take on the classic Mickey opening card that begins the cartoon. I remember when I first saw "Mickey's Christmas Carol" and that image made me know it was going to be good!

Here's the classic, used from  through 1953:

Now back to the hunt for more stamps!

"Mickey Mouse Movie Clips" Stamps - Grenada (1993)

"Mickey Mouse Movie Clips" Stamps (1993)
Grenada

Here's another stamp from another Caribbean island, this time Grenada with one of its series of "Mickey Mouse Movie Clips" from 1993.

One of the stamps naturally features "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1983) with perhaps the most used "clip" from that cartoon:

Can't go wrong with that!

This set was issued for Mickey's 65th birthday. The cover here featuring "Mickey's Trailer," an awesome short from 1938 is equally awesome: