Mickey's Christmas Carol
From Christmas Specials Wiki
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| Directed by: | Burny Mattinson |
| Written by: | Burny Mattinson Tony L. Marino Ed Gombert Don Griffith Alan Young Alan Dinehart |
| Release date: | December 16, 1983 |
| Running time: | 25 minutes |
| Characters: | Scrooge McDuck Mickey Mouse Donald Duck |
| Available on: | VHS CED Laserdisc DVD |
Mickey's Christmas Carol was a theatrical featurette, featuring established Disney characters enacting A Christmas Carol. The production, hailed as Mickey Mouse's big-screen comeback (despite his limited supporting role) was inspired by A Disney Christmas Carol, an earlier Disney record conceived by Alan Young and Alan Dineheart. Young also debuted as the voice of Uncle Scrooge McDuck, here playing Ebenezer Scrooge, and would reprise the role in nearly every subsequent production, notably DuckTales. The featurette also marked the first theatrical outing for Wayne Allwine as the voice of Mickey Mouse (who had previously voiced the character in animation produced for the 1977 Mickey Mouse Club TV series) as well as Clarence Nash's final performance as the voice of Donald Duck.
In addition to Scrooge McDuck, the cast of characters included Mickey Mouse as Bob Cratchit, Donald as nephew Fred, Daisy Duck as Scrooge's first love, Minnie Mouse as Mrs. Cratchit, Morty Fieldmouse (one of Mickey's nephews) as Tiny Tim, Goofy as the Ghost of Jacob Marley, Jiminy Cricket as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Willie the Giant (Fun and Fancy Free, 1947) as the Ghost of Christmas Present, Pete as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, Mole and Ratty (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, 1949) as the charity collectors, Mr. Toad himself in a silent role as Fezziwig, and scores of other cameos from the theatrical shorts and films.
The film was released on December 16, 1983, and packaged together with a re-release of the 1977 film The Rescuers. It was billed as Mickey's "big-screen comeback" because his last appearance on film, the short "The Simple Things", was thirty years previous, in 1953.
The featurette made its television debut over NBC on December 10, 1984, and was rebroadcast for several years, usually accompanied by Christmas and winter-themed theatrical shorts such as Donald's Snow Fight and Pluto's Christmas Tree to fill out the running time. It was also featured was the last cartoon played in the direct-to-video compilation film Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse. Also, a short snippet of the film appeared in the ABC/Walt Disney Animation special Prep & Landing.
The special stopped airing on television in 2000. It later aired on ABC Family on December 10, 2008, but with many abrupt edits. On Christmas Day in 2008, the special was finally aired on Toon Disney (now known as Disney XD) as a stand-alone 30-minute spot, as opposed to being shown as a segment in Mickey's Magical Christmas.
Cast
- Alan Young as Scrooge (Scrooge McDuck)
- Hal Smith as Jacob Marley (Goofy) and Ratty
- Wayne Allwine as Bob Cratchit (Mickey Mouse) and Mole
- Will Ryan as The Ghost of Christmas Present (Willie) and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (Pete)
- Eddie Carroll as The Ghost of Christmas Past (Jiminy Cricket)
- Patricia Paris as Isabelle (Daisy Duck)
- Dick Billingsley as Tiny Tim (Morty Fieldmouse)
- Clarence Nash as Fred (Donald Duck)
Cameo appearances include:
- Zeke Wolf (Street Cornet Santa)
- The Three Little Pigs (Singers standing with street corner Santa, also seen running in the street at the end)
- Dancers in the party sequence:
- Toby Tortoise
- Max Hare
- Clara Cluck
- Gus Goose
- Peter Pig
- Paddy Pig
- Clarabelle Cow
- Horace Horsecollar
- Grandman Duck
- Chip 'n' Dale
- Huey, Dewey and Louie (seen decorating Christmas tree)
- MacBadger
- Two of the Three Little Wolves (seen running in the street)
- Cyril Proudbottom (horse pulling Donald's cart at the end)
- Two of the weasels from The Wind in the Willows (gravediggers)
