"A Christmas Carol" - Wonder Books (1957) - Intro

"A Christmas Carol" (1957)
Adaptor: Arthur Beckhard
Illustrator: C.A. Murphy
Wonder Books - New York

Staying in the "Getting Kids to Read Classics" world, we land upon this adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" published by Wonder Books in 1957.

I do have my mitts on this particular item and I think it's a lot of fun, starting with the cover (shown above) which somehow screams "1957!" to me!

It's another of those books that have an illustration on every page with accompanying text. The ratio is a bout half picture/half text, which does make this more of a book for older kids than the Little Golden Books, which are mostly pictures.

The text here is a pretty straight-forward rewrite of the original story, certainly geared toward 'tweens, but I wouldn't say dumbed-down.

These excerpts give you a good idea of the feel of the whole thing:

Next, we'll look at some more of the illustrations...

Classics Illustrated Revisited

We get back into the comic book, I mean graphic novel world with this "new" edition of "A Christmas Carol" from Classics Illustrated.

I think it's just a reprint of the old story from 1948 (discussed here)with the color zhuzhed up digitally:

It's Number 53 in the series even.

But.. it has a snappy new cover as seen at the top of the page.

What's most interesting is that Marley's Ghost is totally Leo G. Carroll from the 1938 version of "A Christmas Carol," (which featured Reginald Owen as Scrooge)!

Not "inspired by" or anything, it's just straight-up him!

Perhaps I will get my mitts on this edition to see what it's all about.

Or not!

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:

"Dickens' Christmas Stories" Stamps - Anguilla (1983)

"Dickens' Christmas Stories" Stamps (1983)

Anguilla

We skip ahead one year to1983, the actual release year of "Mickey's Christmas Carol," for these stamps that ostensibly feature Disney characters in scenes from Dickens Christmas stories, but  a couple of them are straight out of the cartoon!

They were issued by Anguilla, another British territory, this one in the Caribbean.

Take a look:

I like them a lot and appreciate that the two scenes here were not part pf the Turks and Caicos set, bit I'm sure that's just a coincidence!