Wednesday, December 03, 2014

The Christmas Carol Project | "If Quite Convenient, Sir"



It's December again and time 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.

In past years, we've tackled these in the order in which they were made, but I always feel it's anticlimactic to end on a couple of recent comics adaptations. So this year, I'm going to try something new and group them by media type. The comics will come first, then animated versions, and finally live-action adaptations. I think that'll put the strongest work towards the end.

Here's the list of adaptations in the order I'll take them this year:

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

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 the reason Mr Magoo’s Christmas Carol isn’t here is 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, starting with Dickens' version, then exploring individual adaptations of that scene in the days leading up to Christmas. Last year, we met the two solicitors unfortunate enough to ask Scrooge for a charitable donation. This year, Scrooge will say goodnight to Cratchit and get in some last digs at Christmas before heading off to begin his adventure.

The fun starts tomorrow!

4 comments:

Paxton said...

You mentioned this project on the show recently and I'm really excited. I'm a big fan of Christmas Carol as well as all the myriad adaptations of Dickens' book. We cover Muppet Christmas Carol on the next show.

I'm glad to see you're doing Mickey's Christmas Carol, it is hands down one of my favorites. But, I'm shocked, you aren't doing "Bionic Christmas Carol" from The Six Million Dollar Man"?! Season 4, episode 10.

I'm kidding, btw. As much as I love Christmas Carol and Bionic Man, they don't go together very well. But again, I haven't watched it in years.

Pax

Michael May said...

Cannot wait for the Muppets episode. I mentioned on Twitter how much David's looking forward to it, but I am too. You guys picked my two favorite Muppets Christmas projects to talk about.

I had no idea there was a Bionic Christmas Carol episode! Yet another reason that I need to rewatch that show sooner than later. :)

Wings1295 said...

Awesome! This has become something I look forward to each December, so thank you, Michael, for continuing the project. Here's to a fun month ahead!

Michael May said...

Woo hoo! Thanks!

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