"A Christmas Carol" All-Star Team - Day 18

The next member of our All-Star Team is the Ghost of Christmas Present.

He seems to be a popular character, representing what we love about Christmas.

Since he's a giant, my favorite Ghost of Christmas Present is an "actual" giant - Willie from "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1983):

I really think it's brilliant that starting with the original LP from 1974 that they went to the stable of Disney characters for their own giant to play the giant ghost!

I had previously discussed in this post how Willie was the giant in the "Mickey and the Beanstalk" segment of the 1947 Disney feature "Fun and Fancy Free." He was supposedly just a fictional character in the story that Edgar Bergen was telling, yet he appears in "real life" in an amazingly meta moment!

He's an easy choice for my team and represents "Mickey's Christmas Carol" very well!

Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) - Part 4

Naturally I have a few more things to say about the 1983 featurette "Mickey's Christmas Carol!"

I do think this is best approached as a fun romp through the story. It's interesting to see the little twists that they put on the familiar incidents and characters.

I've read some reviews over the years where the reviewer seems to think that the material isn't treated seriously enough, but when the cast is composed of anthropomorphic cartoon animals, what do you expect?

I like the way that the characters seem like actors playing roles. As I mentioned earlier, this seems to be in the Mickeyverse, with some other characters mixed in.

The inclusion of Willie the Giant from "Fun and Fancy Free" (1947) makes me think of that movie and how "Mickey's Christmas Carol" could have been a segment in one of those Disney "package" films of the 1940s.

Goofy and Willie are billed on the poster, but Jiminy is billed onscreen.

"Fun and Fancy Free" itself is important because it gives billing to Mickey, Donald and Jiminy Cricket as if they are actors, which implies that they're playing roles in the "Mickey and the Beanstalk" segment.

Mortimer Snerd acts like a giant peeking in is no big deal!

That they exist in the "real world" is further shown when Willie lifts off the roof of Edgar Bergen's house looking for Mickey.

Then Willie starts romping through Los Angeles while Jiminy Cricket watches. It's all so brilliantly meta!

This also puts Jiminy in the Mickeyverse for the first time, which eventually led to his appearance as the Ghost of Christmas Past.

It all comes together if you think about it enough and that's what I'm here for!