Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (2022, dir. Stephen Donnelly, UK/US) by Kymm Zuckert
“I’m ready. I’m ready to go home, thank you very much.”
“But the fireworks! We did a whole song and everything!”
After watching all of those versions of A Christmas Carol last December, you’d think I wouldn’t be able to bear watching this old saw again this year, but you’d be wrong! I love this story, and it can be done so many ways, there is no reason for me not to be thrilled about a new version. And this year, we have two!
The other version, Spirited, had grabbed most of the attention, but I want to start with this animated take on the tale, Scrooge: A Christmas Carol. The title is kind of redundant, like ATM machine, but it must be pretty hard to get to the top of the search engines when there are 100 versions of this story, most similarly titled, and they are hedging their bets.
The longline for Scrooge: A Christmas Carol, is: “A supernatural, time-traveling, musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’s cult Christmas story,” which I can only assume was written by someone who very recently emerged from under a rock. I mean, A Christmas Carol is as cultish a story as Hamlet, known as it is by every human alive, including recently discovered Stone Age tribes in a Amazon. Not to mention the fact that, though not all versions are musical, every single one of them contains the supernatural and time-travel. So, more from the Department of Redundancy Department.
Because it is impossible to have an animated film without an all-star cast, we have Luke Evans, Olivia Coleman, and Jesse Buckley in this film, but these names are less starry than usual, and they are generally known for the quality of their acting, so no objections here. And everyone is British, so that’s a nice change as well.
It starts out with a random character singing “I Love Christmas,” dancing in the streets of Victorian London. I cannot imagine that this is Bob Cratchit, because if it is, this is the largest, heartiest, most barrel-chested Cratchit that has ever been seen. Maybe Nephew Fred?
Since he drops a gold coin into the cup of some caroling urchins, it is definitely Fred. Also, one of the urchins is a little boy with a crutch, so if Tiny Tim is now a beggar, that’s a change. We’ll call him a busker, then.
After the song, Scrooge comes striding down the street and kicks the cup, the sovereign falling down the grate. This shows that he is bad. Unlike most Scrooges, who are bent over, he is ramrod straight. Also, he has a dog, which is extremely weird for a miser who barely feeds himself, but Fred comes upon them and indicates that the dog was once Marley’s, so at least there is some explanation. Not a good one, but it’s a cartoon and I’m sure the dog will be an important plot device.
Scrooge just called Nephew Fred, Harry. Why? I mean, it made sense in the Flintstones version, you couldn’t have two Freds running around, but this is just purposeless.
This Scrooge appears to take real joy in cruelty, and he is being followed by some sort of ghostly chill that appears in gas lamps and on signs, whispering Scroooooooooooge. Bet that’s going to turn out to be Marley.
Scrooge is given an extra reason to hate Christmas, in that Harry (who should be Fred) was born on Christmas, and Scrooge’s sister, who should be named Fan, heaven knows what they will call her, died.
Scrooge sings in almost a rock vocal, “Tell Me,” about why on earth he’s supposed to like Christmas, and then ice comes pouring out of the fireplace, and the is Jacob Marley himself, played by the wonderful Jonathan Pryce.
The visuals and the animation style are quite extraordinary. The appearance of Marley, floating, chains, ice, gold coins for eyes, is like nothing I have ever seen.
Prudence, the dog, is perturbed by the whole situation, as one would be.
The Ghost of Christmas Past, not a spectre with a light coming out of her head so much as an actual human-sized candle, is marvelously voiced by Olivia Coleman at her most Olivia Colman-est. She can change her waxy self into anyone from Scrooge’s past, including Scrooge himself, which is quite an interesting take on the character.
When they go to the past, it’s not to the school where young Ebenezer was a lonely, isolated child, forgotten by his school fellows, but instead, the factory where he worked to support his mother (dead in previous versions) and sister, his father being in debtors prison. Different from any other version of A Christmas Carol, but taken from Dickens’s actual life, so it works quite well.
His sister is singing outside, and young Ebenezer runs outside. Her name is Jen, again for no reason whatsoever. Hardly a period name! She isn’t well, and Scrooge sees her as he saw Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim together outside his office, AND I’M STARTING TO CRY NOW.
Older young Ebenezer used to work for Fezziwig, but now he works for Marley (??), but he goes to Fezziwig’s Christmas party and dances with Isabel and is super happy, but I have a very strong feeling that this won’t end well. They are changing a lot of things in this version, but I don’t think Scrooge is going to get the girl.
The Ghost of Christmas Past dances with the dog, and the more this whole dog situation goes on, the more I approve.
Wait.
Wait wait wait.
Ebenezer and Isabel dance, and she starts singing “Happiness”. What song is “Happiness”, I hear you ask? Why, it’s the song that Isabel sings in the 1971 musical version of Scrooge, the Albert Finney version! What the heck is it doing here? Off to the Internet!
Okay, somehow this version of A Christmas Carol is supposed to be a remake of Scrooge? Even though up until this moment, not a single, solitary character, scene, or line of dialogue (beyond one or two that come straight from the book) are remotely similar in any way! The only things that are the same are the fact that she is called Isabel rather than Belle, and the whole Nephew Harry thing that I was complaining about several paragraphs ago.
Apparently, there are several more songs from the 1971 version in my future, which is fine by me, as I adore those songs, and would have preferred it had they used the whole score rather that half being these new ones. They aren’t bad, but they aren’t as good.
But a few songs do not a remake make, people. Check the dictionary.
Now it turns out that the reason Isabel breaks her engagement to Ebenezer is because she saw him and Marley throw a family from their home and take their business on Christmas Eve, and by the way, their tiny child was Bob Cratchit, and I’m like, what is going on in this film? I don’t dislike it, but it just seems to be going, you thought you knew A Christmas Carol off by heart, did you? Well, brace yourself! Complications, ho!
Then, Isabel sings a new song at Ebenezer, joined by Old Scrooge. The animation is truly spectacular, but now I am spoiled by Happiness and don’t want these songs that I haven’t had living in my head for fifty years.
Past tells him he must learn from the past, which is perhaps the tiniest bit heavy-handed, and now we move on to The Ghost of Christmas Present, a giant who growls, “WHO DARES DISTURB MY SLUMBER!” straight out of Aladdin, then starts giggling, as he cannot keep up that facade. He then starts quoting Dickens’ description of Scrooge, then sings “I Like Life”, a ‘71 song, though it had less rap in it back then. This is an extremely weird sequence.
They visit Harry’s Christmas party, as he toasts Uncle Scrooge, then to the Cratchit’s hovel, where Bob proposes a toast to the founder of their feast, and Tiny Tim sings another proper song “The Beautiful Day”, with the melody changed and not improved. Then he coughs in a terribly foreboding manner.
In another quite stunning bit of animation, Present turns into Future, looming and terrifying.
Another old song, “Thank You Very Much”, and the enormous production number, is the closest thing to being an actual remake of Scrooge that we have had thus far, even with the dog and the tiny demon imps belonging to The Ghost of Christmas Future.
This film, even with of my complaining about changes, is really excellent. Beautiful animation, great voice work, the ending brought me to tears. It’s no remake of the 1971 Scrooge, but a reimagining. And if they had called it that from the jump, you wouldn’t have heard a word out of me.
Kymm Zuckert is an actor/writer/native Angelino. When Kymm was a child, her parents would take her to see anything, which means that sometimes she will see a film today and say, “I saw that when I was eight, I don’t remember any of that inappropriate sex stuff!” Check out her entire 365 day blog @ https://365filmsin365days.movie.blog