johnstonjames UPA was pretty much formed by the animators group that went on strike at Disney in the early forties. Disney called them everything in the book and swore they were a communist plot. he even tried to get even during McCarthyism later in the fifties. well you can assume that UPA wasn't all that enamored with Disney and you would be right.Disney might have tried to get even, but UPA was vindicated so often with priceless material like this Christmas show.it certainly is delightful and makes good use of limited animation as opposed to Disney's full animation style. hand drawing is my favorite kind of animation and limited animation in my opinion, epitomizes it.this also has a winning musical score by Broadway's 'Peter Pan' song writer Jules Styne.Jules Styne is one of my personal favorites and this musical score goes beyond the call for a animated film of this kind.good message too. don't be a blind Magoo and be a scrooge. understand the importance of giving and sharing, especially at Christmastime.

olderbutwiser "A Christmas Carol" is 100 pages long and would take 2 hours to read, however it has generated so many variations on screen and stage(and probably the Internet). Here is the first animated one, after reading the original last year(cost 25 cents)I was surprised to find out that the cartoon version took great pains to preserve much of the exact wording of the novel. There is not even a hint that it is not the mid 1800s in the cartoon. One particular scene always gets me- the ghost of Christmas past's(a young boy or girl)face turns profoundly sad when Scrooge/Magoo sings "why such a lonely beach" and it seems like the ghost understands Scrooge's sadness. When you are a kid, there is NOTHING scarier than the ghost of Christmas future, and nothing more desolate than Scrooge/Magoo on the grave singing "I'm all alone in the world" with the camera panning the cemetery. A close second in scariness is when Marley jumps out the window(as a ghost) and bellows as he merges into all the other ghosts flying around London. Music, dialog, and even the chintzy animation is just right. I must go home and play my VHS tonight!

middleburg I just recently saw again this old beloved (for us baby boomer generation) Mr. Magoo cartoon version of "A Christmas Carol". The moment when Mr. Magoo sings "and on the tree a star of shining Christmas gold...", well I just felt this lump in my throat, and the tears well up....what a beautiful, beautiful version of this fable....improbable as it seems...it is the best version of "A Christmas Carol" ever made! The Alisdair Sim version is also great, dark and chilling, the early MGM version a treacly joyful delight--and this version combines the best elements of both--with the added bonus of one of the best original television scores ever written. There are even some acting and dramatic details that outshine the previous classic versions...This is the only Scrooge that in the beginning shows his rapturous love of money- -in the very catchy song celebrating the jingle/jangle of coins. Mr. Scrooge is still a miserable miser--but that glee is positively revelatory, positively addicting--and the viewer even has a little bit of affection for this Scrooge right away--and this doesn't show up in the other versions where Scrooge is simply a Scrooge until the end. So many others have commented on the poignancy of the heartbreaking song of loneliness sung by the young Scrooge left alone at the boarding school. The simple touch of the old Scrooge turning the song into a duet is simply masterful...showing Scrooge's turn-around simply, effectively and powerfully. "Winter was Warm" deserves to be a standard song (as other commentators have aptly described it!) It is quite simply, haunting. Used as an instrumental interlude--sometimes full and rich, as it appears during the opening titles, sometimes hauntingly mysterious as it appears between acts setting up the ghostly encounters on that mysterious Christmas Eve, it is always beautiful, always so very memorable. And that glorious song celebrating the joy of Christmas, sung by the Cratchit family at the beginning and end of the show--what a perfect song! It resonates long after the show has ended. This all adds up to an adaptation of the Dickens story that is joyful, heartbreaking and surprising real: the cartoon characters--including the simple/poignant depiction of the Cratchit family seems somehow more real and affecting than the other adaptations portrayed by Real people!!) In the versions with real people portraying these Dickens characters--they often come across as cartoonish, artificial and over-the-top. On the other hand, in this Mr. Magoo version, because they are already cartoon figures, they come across as almost more human, which makes their situations all the more poignant, all the more powerful. How cool is that? This film is one to treasure. If you have never seen it, you will immediately take it to your heart. If you have already seen it, I'm sure it has become a staple of your holiday viewing and will remain so forever!

Syl I loved Mr. Magoo growing up. We don't see him much anymore on television or this special around the holiday times. We see less and less television programming devoted to the Christmas holidays. Jim Backus uses his voice as Mr. Magoo, the four eyed actor, in this special where he plays Ebenezer Scrooge, the Charles Dickens character, forever immortalized in all sorts of holiday tales. Just like the story of a Christmas Carol, there are three ghosts and Marley, the predecessor who warns Scrooge to change his ways. Okay, this version is not the best out there but it's timely and good for kids and adults and fans of classic animation. I bought the tape years ago and just played it around the holidays. It's a treat to watch every year.