Monday, December 02, 2013

The Christmas Carol Project | "You Wish to Be Anonymous?"



Hey, everybody! After a much-needed break for a lot of November, it's December and time again to get back to our annual look at everyone's favorite Christmas/ghost story, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. If you're new to this, the idea is to pay attention to the way Scrooge's story has been interpreted and adapted to other media over the years. I’ve broken the story down into scenes (or sometimes parts of scenes) in order to look at their translation to 19 different films, TV shows, and comics:

A Christmas Carol (1910) starring Marc McDermott
Scrooge (1935) starring Seymour Hicks
A Christmas Carol (1938) starring Reginald Owen
• Classics Illustrated #53 (1948)
Scrooge (1951) starring Alastair Sim
"A Christmas Carol" episode of Shower of Stars (1954) starring Fredric March
• Teen Titans #13 (DC; 1968)
Scrooge (1970) starring Albert Finney
• A Christmas Carol cartoon (1971) starring Alastair Sim
• The Stingiest Man in Town (1978) starring Walter Matthau
• Marvel Classics Comics #36 (Marvel; 1978)
Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983) starring Scrooge McDuck
A Christmas Carol (1984) starring George C. Scott
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) starring Michael Caine
A Christmas Carol (1999) starring Patrick Stewart
• A Christmas Carol: The Graphic Novel (Classical Comics; 2008)
• A Christmas Carol (2009) starring Jim Carrey
• A Christmas Carol (Campfire; 2010)
• "A Christmas Carol" in Graphic Classics, Vol. 19: Christmas Classics (Eureka; 2010)

Annual Disclaimer: This obviously isn’t an exhaustive list. I started with my favorites, added some that people have recommended over the years, and then threw in some others that just caught my curiosity. We can talk about the ones I left out, but I will say that Mr Magoo’s Christmas Carol isn’t here because I hate it with a passion. It’s neither a good Christmas Carol nor a good Mister Magoo cartoon. There’s also no Scrooged or An American Christmas Carol or Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. When I first started this, I tried to stick to more-or-less faithful adaptations, but even though I've since added Teen Titans to the list, I'd rather that be a fun exception and not have to figure out where I'm going to draw the line.

This is going to take years. Every December we'll look at one scene; start with Dickens' version, then explore individual adaptations of that scene in the days leading up to Christmas. Last year, we met Scrooge's nephew. This year, we meet the two solicitors unfortunate enough to ask Scrooge for a charitable donation.

I'm a little behind in getting started this year, so we'll double up for a couple of days. Expect the post on Dickens' original story tonight, then tomorrow we'll cover McDermott and Hicks and be back on track.

5 comments:

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

Ah good, I've been following this theme on and off for a while now and an index is just want I need to help catch up.

Michael May said...

Those links will be disappointing if you're looking for an index to my posts, but that's a great idea. I'll work on that in the next couple of days.

Paxton said...

What, no Bionic Christmas Carol? Gotta Love Season 4 Six Million Dollar Man.

Michael May said...

I should do some special posts on stuff like that and all those spoofs from '70s sitcoms like WKRP and Sanford and Son.

Wings1295 said...

So glad you are continuing this tradition! Sorry I am behind in checking in. :)

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