A Christmas Carol (1971)

Premiered December 21, 1971.

This installment of “Oscar Takes A Holiday” looks at the animated 1971 adaptation of A Christmas Carol.  

This adaptation won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.  A Christmas Carol was produced as an ABC TV special.  It later played in theaters, which made it Oscar-eligible.  This was controversial at the time and led to the Academy changing its rules to disqualify any future made-for-TV productions from being nominated.  

Richard Williams produced and directed A Christmas Carol.  In addition winning an Oscar for this short, he won the Best Visual Effects for Who Framed Roger Rabbit.  The Academy also gave him a “Special Achievement” Oscar for For animation direction and creation of the cartoon characters for Roger Rabbit.  

Richard Williams with two of his three Oscars.

The executive producer of A Christmas Carol was Chuck Jones, best known for directing dozens of classic Warner Brothers cartoons.  Jones won a Best Animated Short Oscar for The Dot And The Line :A Romance In Lower Mathematics.

Chuck Jones in 1996, when he received an honorary Oscar.

J.A. Morris says:

I don’t feel the need to summarize and explain the plot of A Christmas Carol.  Williams and company do a great job fitting the story 25-minute special.  This adaptation touches on just about everything in Dickens’ story, though some events get only a few seconds of screentime.  

Most animated adaptations of A Christmas Carol don’t include Ignorance and Want, but we see them in this special.  

We also see the phantoms outside Scrooge’s window who cry because they can’t help those in need.  

Williams remembers that A Christmas Carol is, at its heart, a ghost story.  There are some adaptations that turn it into a treacly Victorian Christmas card.  This version is legit dark, spooky and scary.

Another thing that makes this adaptation special is that Scrooge is voiced by Alastair Sim.  Critics and fans generally cite Sim’s interpretation of Scrooge as the best on film and his presence adds even more gravitas to this special.  

The narration is provided by Michael Redgrave, another great actor.

A Christmas Carol is beautifully animated and is a great, if short, adaptation of the quintessential Christmas story.  Highly recommended.

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 candy canes!