Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol

Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol
DVD Cover for Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol
Directed by	Abe Levitow
Produced by	Lee Orgel, executive producer Henry G. Saperstein
Written by	Freely Adapted from Charles Dickens, by Barbara Chain
Starring	Jim Backus Morey Amsterdam Jack Cassidy Royal Dano Paul Frees
Music by	Walter Scharf, songs by Jule Styne, Bob Merrill
Distributed by	Classic Media, Inc.
Release date(s)	December 18, 1962
Running time	53 min
Language	English

Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol is a musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' famous short story A Christmas Carol. It was the first animated holiday special ever produced specifically for television (1962),^[1] and the only one until Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was first shown in December 1964. It later became the first episode of a TV series entitled The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo, in which the Mr. Magoo character became an actor in dramatizations of various well-known stories.^{[citation needed]}

Overview

Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol was produced by the UPA animation studio in its declining days. Commissioned and sponsored by Timex, it first aired on NBC on December 18, 1962.^[2] Although the special led to the Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo television series, the studio ultimately found it could not adapt to the rigors of mass-producing cartoons for television.

The program was broadcast as a TV special many times during the Christmas season from the 1960s through the 1980s — though not always on NBC — before being released on VHS in 1994 and on DVD in 2001. The original 53-minute running time is often cut to make room for additional commercials, primarily by removing the framing device about Magoo himself.

Audiences and critics consider this program to be a holiday classic, due in part to the original songs of the Broadway team of Jule Styne (music) and Bob Merrill (lyrics), who collaborated on the musical (Funny Girl) soon after their work on the special.^[1] As recently as December 25, 2006, many listeners told the National Public Radio program Talk of the Nation that Mister Magoo was their favorite Ebenezer Scrooge.^[3]

The story is the familiar Dickens tale with Mr. Magoo (voiced by Jim Backus) cast as Scrooge, and Gerald McBoing-Boing (in a rare speaking role) as Tiny Tim. The cartoon is written as a Broadway theatre play, divided into acts with an actual stage curtain. In the often-cut opening and closing, the near-sighted Mr. Magoo arrives at the theatre, takes his bows with the other actors, and accidentally demolishes the stage scenery at the end. The 19th century English characters Ebeneezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, etc., are thus not seen directly, but instead are portrayed by fictional American actors playing their parts. They generally have no British accents. The comic song "We're Despicable" is set at the grimmest part of the drama, and self-consciously breaks into the story.

The special was once spoofed in an episode of The Simpsons.

Comparison with the book

The credits for the cartoon state that it is "freely adapted" from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. This adaptation mostly serves to shorten the story to fit the television special's one-hour time slot. The Ghost of Christmas Present appears before the Ghost of Christmas Past, and no reference is made to Scrooge's nephew Fred or the metaphorical children Ignorance and Want.^[4] Nor is Scrooge's sister Fan seen in the Christmas Past sequence. Two of the post-redemption scenes from the book are rewritten and combined, so that Scrooge visits the Cratchits instead of Fred, and threatens Bob (as a self-mocking prelude to raising his salary) at home rather than waiting to do so at work the following day. At the same time, however, the remaining scenes are remarkably faithful to the original, with characters often speaking the lines as Dickens wrote them, and little or no simplification of the language to suit a younger audience living over a century later.^[1] A number of references to Scrooge's (more accurately Magoo's) poor vision are sprinkled through the story, a nod to the Magoo character, but except for the beginning and ending pieces which occur outside the framework of the Dickens story, there are none of the usual Magoo catastrophes.

Cast of voices

Note that sources differ on credits for the Laundress, the Charwoman, and the Ghost of Christmas Past, with June Foray sometimes credited for each.^[6][7] However, Foray has stated on several occasions that she was not in the show at all.^{[citation needed]} Other sources credit Joan Gardner as the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Songs

The cartoon's framing device consists almost entirely of Jim Backus as Quincy Magoo singing "It's Great To Be Back On Broadway", thus explaining in song that the character Magoo is portraying a character in a Broadway theatre production.^[1]

"Ringle, Ringle", Scrooge's theme song about "coins when they mingle", is half-sung by Jim Backus as Magoo, and serves to delineate the character's change of heart. Initially he appreciates the coins aesthetically and for the wealth they represent, while Jack Cassidy as Bob Cratchit sings in counterpoint that "it's cold, it's frightfully cold", and musically begs Scrooge to spare the expense of "just one piece of coal" to warm him. Later, in a musical reprise, Scrooge sings that the coins are "meant for passing around" as he spends the coins to help the Cratchit family.

Joan Gardner as Tiny Tim ("played" by the animated character Gerald McBoing-Boing) sings of "razzleberry dressing" and "woofle jelly cake." in "The Lord's Bright Blessing". The Cratchit children's requests for better food, a tree and presents are countered by Jack Cassidy as Bob Cratchit singing of what the family has, in his view: "the Lord's bright blessing, and knowing we're together" - a togetherness that Scrooge lacks.^[1]

In the Christmas Past sequence, Backus/Magoo as Scrooge sings in poignant duet with Scrooge's younger self (sung by Marie Matthews)^[4], left behind in boarding school after all the other children have gone home for Christmas.^[8] "In perhaps the most touching moment... Magoo is transported back to his childhood, where he stands side-by-side with his youthful self. He watches his 'child' sing Alone in the World, tracing his hand on the blackboard, hoping to find a hand of his own to hold... the quavering elderly voice blending with the clear, sweet youthful one, the invisible Magoo putting a transparent arm around his 'child'." ^[9]

A hand for each hand was planned for the world

Why don't my fingers reach?

(Lyrics source with screenshot.)

Jane Kean as Belle, once beloved of young Scrooge, sings of the cooling and hardening of his feelings toward her in "Winter Was Warm", a song of lost and yearning love. She is saddened that he has chosen gold over her, and he protests that that is the "way of the world", as he forlornly tries to cling to her. Broadcast television airings starting from the late 1980s cut the scene in which Belle sings "Winter Was Warm", despite the fact that the theme permeates the score as bridging music.

Veteran voice actor Paul Frees sings two roles in "We're Despicable (Plunderer's March)". The laundress, charwoman, and the undertaker go to Old Joe's rag & bone shop to sell the items that they have taken from the newly-deceased miser "with him lyin' there", and gleefully cackle their way through such lyrics as, "We're rep-re-hensible. We'll steal your pen-and-pencible".

For a finale, Scrooge and the Cratchitts sing a reprise (with happier lyrics) of "The Lord's Bright Blessing".

A longstanding story suggests that "People" was originally written for Mr. Magoo,^[1] but Theodore Taylor's biography of Styne disputes this.^[10]

Releases

All are Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1, Rating G(MPAA), Running time 52 or 53 minutes (exclusive of any extra features).

• US Television Release Date: December 18, 1962
• Production Company: United Productions of America (UPA)
• Available Formats: VHS • Laserdisc • DVD • VHS: Clam Shell • VHS: Slip Sleeve

• September 28, 1994; VHS, Paramount Home Video, NTSC, ASIN: 6301175239, UPC: 097361269337
• January 1, 1999; Laserdisc
• October 23, 2001; VHS, Good Times Video, NTSC, ASIN: B00005OLAZ

UPC: 018713074584 (VHS Clam Shell); UPC: 018713766656 (VHS Slip Sleeve) ISBN 0766208583

• October 23, 2001; DVD, Good Times Video, Region 1, ASIN: B00005OLB3, UPC: 018713812391

DVD Features: Audio: English, mono Dolby; A history of Mister Magoo in film and TV; Retrospective of composer Jules Styne & lyricist Bob Merrill; Movie poster; Bonus Magoo cartoon short

• September 24, 2002; VHS, Sony Wonder (Video), NTSC, ASIN: B00006HB09, UPC: 074645433332
• September 24, 2002; DVD, Sony Wonder (Video), Region 1, ASIN: B00006HAWI, UPC: 074645433394

DVD Features: Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 2.0); A history of Mr. Magoo in film and TV; Career retrospective of the composer and lyricist; Poster; "Mr. Magoo Meets Gerald McBoing Boing" short

• September 14, 2004; DVD, Sony Wonder (Video), Region 1, ASIN: B0002I82ZA, UPC: 074645864198/073892864104

Format: Color, Dubbed, Original recording remastered, NTSC; Run Time: 60 minutes

Sources: [1]

See also

• List of A Christmas Carol adaptations
• List of animated feature films

References

External links

• Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol on Internet Movie Database.
• Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol on JuleStyne.com.
• Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol at Allmovie
• Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol on Big Cartoon Database
• Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol: The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special, by Darrell Van Citters