A Christmas Carol (1971) is an animated cartoon adaptation of Charles Dickens' venerable novella which was a made-for-television production originally shown on ABC television in the United States.
Production
A Christmas Carol was directed by Richard Williams and its visual style is also largely due to Ken Harris, credited as "Master Animator". It starred Alastair Sim as the voice of Ebenezer Scrooge — a role Sim had previously performed in the 1951 live-action film Scrooge. Michael Hordern likewise reprised his 1951 performance as Marley's Ghost in the same film. Michael Redgrave narrated the story and veteran animator Chuck Jones served as executive producer.
Visual style
This adaptation of A Christmas Carol has a distinctive look, created by multiple pans and zooms and by innovative, unexpected scene transitions. The visual style, which is unusually powerful, is inspired by 19th century engraved illustrations of the original story by John Leech and the pen and ink renderings by illustrator Milo Winter that graced 1930s editions of the book. The intended audience does not include the youngest children and some regard the film's bleak mood and emphasis on darkness and shadows as making it the most frightening of the many dramatizations of the Dickens classic.[1]
Academy Award
Originally produced as a 1971 television special, A Christmas Carol was considered so excellent that it was subsequently released theatrically (thereby rendering it eligible for Oscar consideration). This film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for 1972 and, to this day, remains the only film adaptation of the story to be so honored. However, some industry insiders were unhappy that a short originally shown on TV was awarded the Academy Award, which led to the Academy subsequently changing its policy, disqualifying any shorts that were shown on television first.
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References
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