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Mickey's Christmas Carol is a 1983 American animated family comedy-drama featurette directed and produced by Burny Mattinson. The cartoon is an adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, and stars Scrooge McDuck as Ebenezer Scrooge. Many other Disney characters, primarily from the Mickey Mouse universe, as well as Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio (1940), and characters from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) and Robin Hood (1973), were cast throughout the film. The featurette was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution on 16 December 1983, with the re-issue of The Rescuers (1977). In the United States, it was first aired on television on NBC, on 10 December 1984.
Mickey's Christmas Carol was largely adapted from the 1974 Disneyland Records audio musical An Adaptation of Dickens' Christmas Carol. The musical featured similar dialogue and a similar cast of characters
The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1984, but lost to Jimmy Picker's Sundae in New York. It was the first nomination for a Mickey Mouse short since Mickey and the Seal (1948).
Plot[]
On Christmas Eve in 19th-century London, surly money-lender Ebenezer Scrooge (played by Scrooge McDuck) objects to the merriment of Christmas. He refuses to give money to a panhandler outside his office, declines his nephew Fred (Donald Duck)'s invitation to Christmas dinner, and dismisses two gentlemen (Rat and Mole) fundraising aid for the poor. His overworked, underpaid employee, Bob Cratchit (Mickey Mouse), who Scrooge pays just a little extra to do his laundry, requests to have half of Christmas Day off, to which Scrooge reluctantly accepts on the condition that Cratchit is docked half a day's pay. Scrooge continues his business and goes home. As he enters his house, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his old partner Jacob Marley (Goofy). Jacob informs Scrooge that as punishment for his greedy ways, he is condemned in the afterlife to carry long and heavy chains, and warns that the same thing will happen to Scrooge if he doesn't change his own ways before his death, making the old miser frightened and beg for help. Before leaving, Marley then tells Scrooge that he will be visited by three more spirits in the night and that he should listen to them and do what they say, lest his chains become heavier than Marley's.
At one o'clock, Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past (Jiminy Cricket), who takes him back in time to his early adult life. They visit his time as an employee under the kind Fezziwig (Mr. Toad). They see Fezziwig throws a Christmas party where the young Scrooge meets a young woman named Isabelle (Daisy Duck), whom he falls in love with. However, the Ghost shows Scrooge how over time, he came to love money more than Isabelle and as a result, Isabelle left him. A distraught Scrooge asks the Ghost to return him to the present, and the Ghost grants his request, but reminds him that he created this past himself. As Scrooge laments over his past actions, he is then visited the gigantic, merry Ghost of Christmas Present (Willie the Giant). The Ghost takes Scrooge to Bob Cratchit's house. Scrooge sees that their Christmas dinner for their family of five consists of barely enough food to feed one person, and becomes especially concerned when he sees Bob's ill son Tiny Tim (played by Mortie Mouse). The Ghost hints that if things don't change for the family, Tiny Tim will die and then disappears, leaving a distraught Scrooge begging for clarification.
Scrooge is then suddenly transported to a cemetery, where he meets the Ghost of Christmas Future (Pete), who initially appears as a silent, cloaked, cigar-smoking figure. When Scrooge inquires about Tiny Tim, the Ghost points to Bob and his family mourning at Tiny Tim's grave. As a devastated Scrooge asks if this event can be changed, he sees two gravediggers (Weasels) who are amused that no one attended the funeral of the man they are burying. As the gravediggers leave to rest, Scrooge asks the ghost who the grave belongs to. The Ghost reveals the tombstone bearing none other than Scrooge’s name and shoves him into the grave, where his empty coffin opens to reveal the flames of Hell. The terrified Scrooge vows to change his ways once and for all as he falls into the coffin, only to find himself in his bedroom on Christmas Day.
Gleeful that the spirits gave him a second chance, he makes plans to do good to all the people he had been selfish with. He decides to surprise Bob's family with a turkey dinner and Christmas toys and ventures out to spread happiness and joy around London. He donates a sizable amount of money to the gentlemen he earlier spurned and accepts Fred's invitation to Christmas Dinner and then goes to the Cratchit house. At first, putting on a stern demeanor, Scrooge reveals he brought food and gifts for them and intends on raising Bob's salary and making him his partner in his counting house. Scrooge and the Cratchits happily celebrate Christmas.