''A Christmas Carol'' (a.k.a. ''A Christmas Carol: Scrooge's Ghostly Tale'') is a 2006 British-German
computer-animated Christmas film. It is an adaptation of the 1843
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
novella
of the same name, and was produced by
BKN International
BKN International AG (BKNI) was a German kids TV production and distribution company that formerly operated as the international division of Bohbot Entertainment, BKN, Inc.
History
BKN International was originally founded as Bohbot Entertainme ...
and
BKN New Media,
and was the first release in BKN's "BKN Classic Series" anthology of computer-animated direct-to-video films.
The movie was first released in the United States theatrically in select cities by
Kidtoon Films
Kidtoon Films is a distributor of children's animated films in the United States. The company is a subsidiary of The Bigger Picture, a Cinedigm company. It was previously owned by SD Entertainment which produced many of its earlier releases. The ...
on November 6, 2006. The movie was released on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
in the United Kingdom on November 20, 2006 by
BKN Home Entertainment, and a day later in the United States on November 21, 2006, by
Genius Products
Genius Products (also known as Genius Entertainment) was an entertainment company based in Santa Monica, California, United States.
The ''Baby Genius'' line was one of a number of "smart toys" that came out in response to a study book about the ...
.
This version casts the famous Dickens characters as
anthropomorphic animals;
Ebenezer Scrooge and his relatives are
skunks,
Bob Cratchit
Bob Cratchit is a fictional character in the Charles Dickens 1843 novel ''A Christmas Carol''. The abused, underpaid clerk of Ebenezer Scrooge (and possibly Jacob Marley, when he was alive), Cratchit has come to symbolize the poor working condi ...
and his family are
rabbits, the ghost of
Jacob Marley
Jacob Marley is a fictional character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol'', a former business partner of the miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who has been dead for seven years.Hawes, Donal''Who's Who in Dickens'' Routledge (1998), Goog ...
is a
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...
, the
Ghost of Christmas Past
The Ghost of Christmas Past is a fictional character in Charles Dickens' 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol''. The Ghost is one of three spirits which appear to miser Ebenezer Scrooge to offer him a chance of redemption.
Following a visit from ...
,
Present, and
Future are a
stork,
kangaroo
Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...
, and
walrus
The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the fami ...
. This version differs from the original novella in many ways; for example, the Ghost of Christmas Future actually speaks, while in most other versions he remains silent.
Tiny Tim does not die in the possible future revealed to Scrooge, but instead becomes as miserly as he is. And
Jacob Marley
Jacob Marley is a fictional character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol'', a former business partner of the miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who has been dead for seven years.Hawes, Donal''Who's Who in Dickens'' Routledge (1998), Goog ...
is said to be dead for two years, unlike the original in which he was dead for seven years, Scrooge's death is also different, as he drowned himself with his own greed by stacking his gold until it fell on him rather than dying of natural causes, and joins Jacob in the afterlife. Scrooge's childhood home is also shown.
Cast
*
Timothy Bentinck
Timothy Charles Robert Noel Bentinck, 12th Earl of Portland, Count Bentinck und Waldeck Limpurg, (born 1 June 1953), commonly known as Tim Bentinck, is an English actor and writer, known for his long-running role as David Archer in the BBC ...
as Narrator and Ebenezer Scrooge
*
Jo Wyatt
Jo Wyatt is an English actress. She is known for her voice as Tweak in '' The Octonauts'', Little Miss Helpful, Little Miss Naughty, Little Miss Scary and Little Miss Sunshine in '' The Mr. Men Show''. She also voiced Daisy Kribotnik in ''Lov ...
as Mrs. Cratchit
*Brian Bowles as Bob Cratchit
*
Keith Wickham
Keith Wickham is a British voice actor, comedian and screenwriter. He is known for providing the voices of various characters in the children's television series ''Thomas & Friends'', and Polluto in ''Tommy Zoom''.
Career
Wickham voiced Change ...
as Collector for the Orphanage #1, Scrooge's Father, The
Ghosts of Christmas Present and
Future and
Jacob Marley
Jacob Marley is a fictional character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol'', a former business partner of the miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who has been dead for seven years.Hawes, Donal''Who's Who in Dickens'' Routledge (1998), Goog ...
*
Teresa Gallagher
Teresa Gallagher is an American-born British actress.
Career
Gallagher is known for her role as Ellen Smith in ''The Bill'', for her appearances on radio in ''No Commitments'', ''Salem's Lot'', and ''Memorials to the Missing''. She playe ...
as
Ghost of Christmas Past
The Ghost of Christmas Past is a fictional character in Charles Dickens' 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol''. The Ghost is one of three spirits which appear to miser Ebenezer Scrooge to offer him a chance of redemption.
Following a visit from ...
, Tiny Tim and Fan
*Adam Rhys Dee as Fred
*
Alan Marriott as Collector for the Orphanage #2 (uncredited)
See also
*
List of Christmas films
*
List of ghost films
Ghost movies and shows can fall into a wide range of genres, including romance, comedy, horror, juvenile interest, and drama. Depictions of ghosts are as diverse as Casper the Friendly Ghost, Beetlejuice, Hamlet's father, Jacob Marley, Freddy Kru ...
*
List of American films of 2006
*
Adaptations of ''A Christmas Carol''
*
List of animated feature-length films
These lists of animated feature films compiles animated feature films from around the world and is organized alphabetically under the year of release (the year the completed film was first released to the public). Theatrical releases as well as ...
References
External links
*
''A Christmas Carol''at
Big Cartoon Database
The Big Cartoon DataBase (or BCDB for short) is an online database of information about animated cartoons, Feature film, animated feature films, Animated television series, animated television shows, and cartoon Short film, shorts.
The BCDB proj ...
2006 films
2006 computer-animated films
Animated films based on novels
Films based on A Christmas Carol
British Christmas films
British children's films
British computer-animated films
2000s American animated films
2000s Christmas films
2000s children's animated films
2006 direct-to-video films
Films produced by Rick Ungar
2000s English-language films
2000s British films
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