A Christmas Carol (1971)

Over 50 years ago, one of the most accomplished cartoon films ever made was released. Initially it was a made for television presentation but it was given a small scale cinema release to make it eligible for an Oscar nomination. Not only did it get nominated, it very deservedly won. The film industry was angry that a mere television cartoon had beaten the best that they had to offer. Accordingly, they changed the rules so that it could never happen again. I think that this history has a huge bearing on the fact that it has never received an official Dvd release. The film industry wanted everyone to forget about one of the finest cartoons ever made and have effectively buried it. Luckily for you, it’s on the Internet via YouTube and I will put the link at the bottom of the article. I have a bootleg release that is of very good quality, but that is no longer available. So why is it the finest cartoon ever made?

It starts with a bird’s eye view of London as the scene pans down to Scrooge’s office. We see that a lot nowadays, but at the time it was highly unusual. The characters leap off the page fully formed and the attention to detail is amazing. The words from the novel are used directly on the screen and the faithfulness to the book continues throughout. The voice cast includes the 1951 Scrooge Alastair Sim and the 1951 Marley Michael Hordern. They bring real gravitas to their roles, treating this cartoon version with real reverence. The Ghost of Christmas Past is usually shown as one fixed form, but this cartoon allows her to have a variety of forms as the book mentions. The Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to a mining village, a lighthouse and a ship at sea, a part of the story almost always left out. The flying scenes are simply stunning and the ascerbic nature of Christmas Present is very much in evidence. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is frightening and the scene where Scrooge’s belongings are being sold is extremely unsettling, and Old Joe is a fantastic piece of drawing, a perfect rendering of Miles Malleson, once again from the 1951 film. Not a scene is wasted and the 25 minutes cover every beat of the original story in a way that many much longer films fail to do.

With the drawing skills of the great Chuck Jones this is a tour de force of animation and you really must see it.