#mr. magoo's christmas carol

[princesssarisa]

I can't seem to find a stand-alone video of the 1997 song.

[the-blue-fairie]

@muzikalsiren this is Jodi Benson singing Winter was Warm from Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. It's the song Belle sings while breaking up with the younger Scrooge. A beautiful song poignantly sung.

[adaptations-polls]

Which version of this do you prefer?

[hekate1308]

25 Days Of A Christmas Carol December 11: Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol (1962)

directed by Abe Levitow, written by Barbara Chain, starring Jim Backus

Only thing to be said for the season. People feel obligated to pay their debts.

[subversivecynic]

Mr. Magoo could get it based on this Mr Magoo Christmas Carol cartoon we are watching.

[travsd]

60 Years Ago Today: Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol

60 Years Ago Today: Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol

December 18, 1962 marked the television premiere of the semi-classic Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. This is a Christmas special that I think must have seemed a lot more special during the first few years of its existence, when there were only a dozen screen adaptations of A Christmas Carol, and not a dozen to the twelfth power, as there are now. Watching it again this year, I was struck by its…

[valeriesolanasapologist]

Random Christmas thought:

The Mr. Magoo Christmas Carol is far superior to Spirited.

[jeremiahjefferson]

I Am Watching Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol On Peacock With My Mom @supermanbeyondsblog-blog

[juniperr-lee]

thanks to that mickeys once upon a christmas gifset i went and bought it today 🥹💞

[princesssarisa]

One thing I appreciate about Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, which never fully registered until my most recent viewing, is that unlike other cartoon Christmas Carol adaptations aimed at children, it doesn't make Scrooge an exaggerated villain in the opening scenes.

Well, maybe it does just a little... he does laugh and gloat as he counts his money, like a more stereotypical miser than Dickens's joyless, businesslike Scrooge, and sings a song about the "lovely sound" of jingling coins. But it doesn't make him dishonest or manipulative or exaggerate his abuse of Bob Cratchit.

Compare him to Scrooge McDuck in Mickey's Christmas Carol, who praises Jacob Marley for having "robbed from the widows and swindled the poor," manipulates the charity solicitors into leaving because "if you give money to the poor, they won't be poor anymore, and then you'd be out of a job," only gives Bob half the day off on Christmas Day, and makes him do his laundry for an extra ha'penny.

Or the Scrooge of Rankin/Bass's animated remake of The Stingiest Man in Town, who's shown laughing at his poor debtors when they can't pay him, feigning tears to guilt Bob into taking his Christmas holiday without pay (can you imagine Dickens's Scrooge ever pretending to cry?), frightening a little match girl into giving him two sets of matches for the price of one and then laughing at her, and making a rude face at a street vendor to provoke him into throwing food at him so he can eat for free.

Not that I don't still enjoy those versions. Mickey's Christmas Carol slightly exaggerates the whole story for comic effect, not just Scrooge's villainy – the above-mentioned details are just a part of its style of humor. The Rankin/Bass Stingiest Man also has its own charm, and it holds nostalgic appeal for me too.

But as several of us have pointed out, Dickens's Scrooge is never a cartoon villain – he's just the ultimate conservative businessman who cares only about his own business and profit. I appreciate that apart from the gloating money-counting song (which is catchy enough that I don't begrudge it), Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol stays true to that characterization.

[seat-safety-switch]

For a couple years, I worked in a video store in a small town. In many ways, this was the culmination of a childhood dream: routine, unchallenging labour. If you were a particularly annoying labour analyst, all I actually ever “did” was ring up rentals, restock returns in the morning, and clean the windows. Customer service has its own way of filling the space left by the actual work, though.

People who have worked retail are a sort of elite corps. For one thing, you’re never rude to another retail employee for the entire rest of your life. You’ve been in the trenches, too, and even if you somehow managed to escape, you’d still have had that shared trauma to know how bad that shift could get for that shelf-stocker at Maybe’s Drugs off I-40.

I have all the usual complaints, but there’s something else, too. My unique problem is this: I had this one customer who came in every Monday morning, asking for the same movie. We never had that movie, which is the crux of our conflict. He – and I can’t remember his name anymore, even if the electroshock therapy had been effective – never took “no” for an answer, and would come back the next week. He’d ask for the same thing, by title. No other details: no barcode, no publisher, no actors. Not even a description of the plot (he hadn’t seen it yet, obviously.) Now, this was before broadband internet was widely available, so I’d have to dial up after hours to America Online, and see if the movie had been added to their database. It never did, except one night I saw some folks talking about it in a video store chat room.

Their customers, too, were asking for this film. Insistently. After talking about it that night, we decided that we would form a bit of a trade union group. If any of us heard anything on this mysterious VHS, we would share the knowledge with the rest of the group. That retail-worker camaraderie at work again, you see. Nothing ever came of it, but I did end up becoming good friends with a manager at a Hobart’s Movies in Ames, Iowa, and we were even roommates for awhile before he got a new job at Seaworld. I moved on, too, making my slow, but inevitably in retrospect, drift towards the coast. Still, the whole thing bothered me. For years afterward, I would turn on my computer every Monday night, long after I had left the job, and search for any clue as to the existence of this film.

Once, on a day off, I called a librarian, who got pissy at me for even asking about it, and demanded to know who had put me up to calling her as a prank. I hung up in a panic, but she called back for hours. Obviously, she was also undergoing the same situation, and I felt shame at having brought a momentary pain to another proud Retail-American.

Now, video rental stores are a thing of the past. Even in small towns, they have been reduced to just a fond memory and an abandoned corner of a strip mall. Maybe my customer’s quest doesn’t matter anymore. The aggregation of the world’s knowledge into one hissing, unseen beast at the centre of our collective technological hallucination is complete. If they don’t have it, pick a different one. All I know is that, one day, someone will find a copy of this movie, and I’ll be able to go back to that town and shove it in the ground where the video store once stood. On that day, I can finally rest, freed from the slavedriver that is Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol.

[grey-gazania]

Get to Know Me

Tagged by @spiritofwhitefire! Rules: Answer the questions and tag 9 people you want to know more about.

Favorite color: Black (once a goth, always a goth)

Last song: "Dragonfly" by Android Lust

Last movie: Uh. I haven't watched any movies in a while. Might have been Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol with my mom over the holidays.

Currently reading: The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

Currently watching: Nothing

Currently craving: Scallion pancakes

Coffee or tea: Hot chocolate

Tagging @thelordofgifs, @thescrapwitch, @tirion-picture-gallery, @vidumavi, @melestasflight, @cuarthol, @swanhild, @hhimring, @leucisticpuffin, @emyn-arnens, @polutrope, @that-angry-noldo, @ermingarden, @welcomingdisaster, @swanmaids, @elfscribe, @sallysavestheday, @zealouswerewolfcollector, @angelica-ramses, @pixieinthesky, and anyone else who wants to do it -- @ me and say I tagged you!

[silvergrapefruits]

Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol (1962) https://www.tumblr.com/sidekickclubhouse/168827504738/mr-magoos-christmas-carol-1962

[twistedtummies2]

Top 12 Ghosts of Christmas Yet to Come

It’s funny how Christmas Eve sees us covering arguably the scariest and most unnerving of the Three Spirits of Christmas, at the end of our journey through some of the side players for Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” The irony is almost hilarious. I speak, of course, of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, a.k.a. The Ghost of Christmas Future. The Third Spirit is interesting in that he’s arguably the most well-remembered and exciting of the three ghosts: he’s the dark and brooding payoff on Scrooge’s journey, and getting through his section of the tale - the most gut-wrenching chapter of the entire story - is a challenge for the audience, especially for younger viewers or readers. While the black cloak the Ghost wears in the book symbolizes the shadow mystery of the future - emphasized by the fact the Spirit never speaks, and only the tiniest gestures and nuances give away any indication of its thoughts or feelings - it has never been lost on anyone that the visual representation very closely resembles the iconography of the Grim Reaper. What’s interesting about the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come is that they have honestly changed the least out of all three Ghosts in how they’ve been visually represented over the years. While there have been some minor changes here and there, most versions of the character stick with the same visual basics of a dark figure in a black hooded robe, with only their hands - or even just one hand - visible. Yet, at the same time, along with Christmas Past, the Spirit of the Future is one that artistic people LOVE to toy with in various ways, from more simplistic to more wild concepts, which creates a sort of paradox. You can always tell which Spirit is meant to be the Future in every good take on the Carol, but it’s always fun to see the little additions and changes each rendition brings to the table. There’s not much more to say (fitting for a typically mute character), so let’s just jump right in: in honor of Christmas Eve (still ironically), these are My Top 12 Favorite Portryals of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come!

12. Charlie B. Barkin, from An All Dogs Christmas Carol. (Purely for the sheer INSANITY of this one. That, and the song he gets is catchy…yes, he sings. I told you it was insane.)

11. Czeslaw Konarski, from Scrooge (1951). (While simplicity can be used to great effect, I feel this one is a little TOO simple, hence why he takes a lower tier. But he’s still quite impactful.)

10. D’Arcy Corrigan, from A Christmas Carol (1938). (This version has such a great entrance, just for a start.)

9. Robert Hammond, from Scrooged. (Further proof this movie is basically “A Ghostbusters Christmas Carol.”)

8. Tim Potter, from A Christmas Carol (1999).

7. Paddy Stone, from Scrooge (1970).

6. Pete, from Mickey’s Christmas Carol.

5. The Version from Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol.

4. Jim Carrey, from A Christmas Carol (2009). (Really cool concept having the Spirit act as Scrooge's literal shadow. They did something like that many decades before in the 1935 version, but it's way better here.)

3. The Version from The Muppet Christmas Carol. (Puppeteered by Don Austen and Robert Tygner.)

2. The Version from A Christmas Carol (1971).

1. Michael Carter, from A Christmas Carol (1984). (I love the detail on how, as the sequence goes on, the ghost gets closer and closer to Scrooge, symbolically showing how his future is getting ever nearer.)

[hrodvitnon]

Some Abraxas Christmas Qs from me again this year! ;) (1) What are five Abraxas characters' favourite Christmas films? (2) Any characters' Christmas traditions?

Ohoho! Or rather... Ho ho ho~

Just about everyone loves The Muppet Christmas Carol! Who doesn't? "If being mean's a way of life you practice and rehearse/ Then all that work is paying off, 'cause Scrooge is getting worse./ Every day, in every way, Scrooge is getting worse!"

Vivienne will always pop in Miracle on 34th Street or Home Alone. If she's feeling weird, The Green Knight will also get a viewing. Hey, it's set during Christmas!

San enjoys more action-oriented Christmas movies like Anna and the Apocalypse, or Violent Night. Though he also really likes animated movies like Klaus or Arthur Christmas.

Madison's go-to holiday flick is How the Grinch Stole Christmas... but only if it's either the Chuck Jones animated special or the live action Jim Carrey movie!

Mark will flip-flop between Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol (due to watching it with his parents as a kid) and A Christmas Story. (He will argue till the cows come home that Die Hard isn't a Christmas movie because the holiday is incidental at best and it doesn't impart any classic Christmas values!)

Maia will say she likes the classy old movies like Meet Me in St. Louis... but her favorite holiday movie/guilty pleasure is actually The Knight Before Christmas. (Incidentally, that's also Ren's favorite Christmas movie. But not because he thinks it's a good movie! He just familiar with Christmas being a couple's holiday in Japan, and he just happened to end up stuck with Maia one year and they killed time watching Netflix!)

As for traditions, the Russells always had a game of finding a hidden pickle ornament on the Christmas tree, and whoever finds it gets an extra gift later. Vivienne and her mother used to make homemade ornaments and magnetic decorations to put on the fridge. Ren has an unusual not really holiday-related tradition where he assembles one new Gundam model around Christmas, because as a boy he told his dad that when he grew up he wanted to build a giant robot like the ones on TV... so one Christmas, Serizawa gave Ren his first Gundam model as a present. It helped inspire Ren to become the engineer he is today.

[nkatr84]

Scrooge: Old Vs New

There’s a few posts I wanted to make. The new Guardians Of the Galaxy Holiday Special. Disenchanted. Slumberland. Wednesday. That one Moon Knight fan fic sitting in my drafts. But I’ve got to talk about this.

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol on Netflix came out this year in 2022. While Critics haven’t been too kind to it (I’ll get to my theory why in a second) y’all on Tik Tok and Tumblr have been losing your minds. You’re falling in love with the music (particularly Later Never Comes). But mostly…many of you have this reaction.

The surprising hottie in question being this rendition of Ebenezer Scrooge.

And I get it. As is tradition in animated takes of Dickens immortal classic, the animators clearly took inspiration from their voice actor Mr. Luke Evans. And Mr. Evans is a very handsome man. So I’m right there with you guys simping over an old man with a sexy voice.

But! I would be remiss if I failed to educate my fellow fangirls, fanboys and all between that this movie…is technically a remake.

Directed in 1970 by Ronald Neame, Scrooge was nominated for Four Academy Awards and won a Golden Globe. Quite an achievement in a time when movie musicals were fading in popularity. And it’s composer Leslie Bricusse (who also helped bring Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to life) was an executive producer and helped write the screenplay for this new version. And since he passed away last year, the animated film is dedicated to him.

Of the original eleven songs, five were carried over to the new movie. Happiness. I Like Life (with updated lyrics). Beautiful Day, Thank you Very Much and I Will Begin Again. Yet while the original movie received generally positive reviews from critics, the new movie only holds a 40% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. What’s the difference? I mean the animation is very nice. Sometimes downright gorgeous. Obviously the music works. I’ve heard people praising both the new songs as well as the older ones. And they actually add depth to the original story.

Well if I had to guess, the new version is very much catering to kids versus families. The Ghost of Christmas Present has cute little Minion like critters. They cut the line of Scrooge saying, “If They (the poor) would rather die then they better do it. And decrease the surplus population!” I guess because it’s too mean? Speaking of, they give Scrooge a dog named Prudence. I guess to show the kids that he’s not all bad. He has a cute doggy! He’s kinda indifferent to the dog but hey! Don’t look at the scary imagery of Scrooge watching his own ghost rise from his grave! Look at the puppy! Look at the puppy! I mean Mr. Magoo kept the mean lines in as did the Muppet’s. Plus they trusted kids with the scary stuff.

Yeah as cute as those reindeer antlers on her looked at the end, Prudence was definitely a studio note and serves no purpose. She could be cut and you wouldn’t miss anything. Plus I’m not a fan of the opening number. Too peppy and modern. I wished they had done an update of the song that opens the 1970 movie, “A Christmas Carol “

Plus I love this song from Cratchit. It’s so Christmas… I wish this one made the cut.

But I do like the new version. Later Never Comes goes way harder than “You” and Luke Evans really balances out Scrooge being an old curmudgeon and a man who knows and regrets his choices. Plus the whole thing is animated like a dream. I love Luke Evans singing “I will Begin Again.” It’s a song of hope, passion and joy. And when Albert Finney’s Scrooge sings it …well… he tried…I can’t post it here but trust me. Luke Evans is a major upgrade. They make up for it with the finale in the 1970’s version where they almost reprise every song in the movie. Plus my parents always like how they made Albert Finney up to really look like a miser than doesn’t cut his hair or even clean his nails or his house. And technically Albert Finney was a sex symbol back in the day. Where he played both the old and young versions of Scrooge. So having a sexy Scrooge is technically precedent…

So give the original movie a watch if you like this one. It can be it’s own kind of goofy at times, but it’s definitely worth a yearly viewing. As is the new version on Netflix.