''Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol'' is a 1962 animated musical holiday

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...

produced by UPA. It is an adaptation of

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 ...

' 1843 novella '' A Christmas Carol'', and it features UPA's character Mr. Magoo as Ebenezer Scrooge. The special first aired on December 18, 1962, on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

and was the first animated Christmas special to be produced specifically for television.

Jim Backus James Gilmore Backus (February 25, 1913 – July 3, 1989) was an American actor. Among his most famous roles were Thurston Howell III on the 1960s sitcom ''Gilligan's Island,'' the father of James Dean's character in '' Rebel Without a Cause, ...

provides the voice of Magoo, with additional voices provided by

Paul Frees Solomon Hersh "Paul" Frees (June 22, 1920November 2, 1986) was an American actor, comedian, impressionist, and vaudevillian. He is known for his work on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Walter Lantz, Rankin/Bass, and Walt Disney theatrical cartoons during ...

Morey Amsterdam Moritz "Morey" Amsterdam (December 14, 1908 – October 28, 1996) was an American actor, comedian, writer and producer. He played Buddy Sorrell on CBS's ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' from 1961 to 1966. Early life Amsterdam was born in Chicago ...

, Joan Gardner, and

Jack Cassidy John Joseph Edward Cassidy (March 5, 1927 – December 12, 1976), was an American actor, singer and theater director known for his work in the theater, television and films. He received multiple Tony Award nominations and a win, as well a ...

. The special is directed by Abe Levitow and features songs composed by Jule Styne, with lyrics by

Bob Merrill Henry Robert Merrill Levan (May 17, 1921 – February 17, 1998) was an American songwriter, theatrical composer, lyricist, and screenwriter. He was one of the most successful songwriters of the 1950s on the US and UK single charts. He wrote ...

, while

Walter Scharf Walter Scharf (August 1, 1910 – February 24, 2003) was an American musician, best known as a film, television and concert composer and arranger/conductor. Biography Broadway theatre Born in Manhattan, he was the son of Yiddish theatre comic B ...

arranged and conducted the orchestral score.

Plot

Mr. Magoo is heading to a theater on Broadway, where he is starring as Ebenezer Scrooge in a musical production based on ''A Christmas Carol''. Due to Magoo's nearsightedness, he arrives 30 minutes late and accidentally injures the director ("It's Great to Be Back on Broadway"). Scrooge is a miserly money lender in Victorian London on Christmas Eve, counting money while his clerk

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 ...

is underpaid and has no coal for his fire ("Ringle, Ringle"). After rudely refusing two men who ask him for a donation to charity, Scrooge reluctantly allows Cratchit to take the holiday off. Scrooge goes home and gets ready for bed, but is visited by the ghost of his business partner

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 ...

, who has been dead for seven years. Marley is bound in heavy chains due to his misdeeds in life and warns Scrooge that he risks the same fate unless he heeds the advice of three spirits who will visit him over the course of the night. The

Ghost of Christmas Present The Ghost of Christmas Present 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 fr ...

visits Scrooge first and takes him to observe Cratchit and his family, who are counting their blessings despite their poor situation ("The Lord's Bright Blessing"). The Ghost warns Scrooge that Cratchit's young son Tiny Tim, who is sickly, will not survive to next Christmas if things do not change. 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 ...

visits Scrooge next and takes him back to his boyhood, where Scrooge was a lonely schoolboy ("Alone in the World"). The Ghost also shows him Belle, a woman he had a relationship with before she left him due to his desire for money ("Winter Was Warm"). Scrooge encounters the Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come and is shown a vision of the future, where an unloved man has recently died. Scrooge sees his

charwoman A charwoman (also chargirl, charlady or char) is an old-fashioned occupational term, referring to a paid part-time worker who comes into a house or other building to clean it for a few hours of a day or week, as opposed to a maid, who usually ...

, his

laundress A washerwoman or laundress is a woman who takes in laundry. Both terms are now old-fashioned; equivalent work nowadays is done by a laundry worker in large commercial premises, or a laundrette (laundromat) attendant. Description As evidenced ...

, and the local

undertaker A funeral director, also known as an undertaker (British English) or mortician (American English), is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as ...

sell his belongings to a

fence A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its whole length. ...

named Old Joe ("We're Despicable (Plunderer's March)"). Scrooge begs to be shown "tenderness connected with death", but discovers that Tiny Tim has died. The Ghost takes Scrooge to a cemetery and shows him his own grave, revealing that this deceased man is him. Scrooge realizes in anguish that he has spent his life poorly, and repents ("Alone in the World (Reprise)"). Scrooge awakens on Christmas morning with a renewed purpose. He meets the two men from the previous day and makes a generous donation, then anonymously sends Cratchit a Christmas turkey. He later visits Cratchit to give him a raise in pay and help nurse Tiny Tim back to health, and shares Christmas together with them ("The Lord's Bright Blessing (Reprise)"). The musical concludes and the audience applauds. Magoo brings the director out on stage, but the stage's props, lights and scenery fall on him. Magoo proudly exclaims "Oh, Magoo, you've done it again, and by George, I've brought down the house!" and wishes both his audience and the television audience a Merry Christmas.

Cast

as Mr. Magoo/ Ebenezer Scrooge ** Marie Matthews as young Ebenezer Scrooge *

as Brady, James *

as Bob Cratchit, Dick Wilkins *

Royal Dano Royal Edward Dano Sr. (November 16, 1922 - May 15, 1994) was an American actor. In a career spanning 46 years, he was perhaps best known for playing cowboys, villains, and Abraham Lincoln. Dano also provided the voice of the Audio-Animatronic L ...

, Old Joe (singing) *

as Charity Man,

Fezziwig Mr. Fezziwig is a character from the 1843 novella '' A Christmas Carol'' created by Charles Dickens to provide contrast with Ebenezer Scrooge's attitudes towards business ethics. Scrooge apprenticed under Fezziwig. Despite this, the older Scroog ...

, Old Joe (speaking), the Undertaker, Stage Director * Joan Gardner as Tiny Tim,

, Charwoman * John Hart as Billings, Stage Manager, Milkman * Jane Kean as Belle * Laura Olsher as Mrs. Cratchit, Laundress *

Les Tremayne Lester Tremayne (16 April 1913 – 19 December 2003) was an English actor. Early life Born in Balham, London, he moved with his family at the age of four to Chicago, Illinois, where he began in community theater. His mother was Dolly Trema ...

Songs

#"It's Great to Be Back on Broadway" #"It's Great to Be Back on Broadway (Reprise)" #"Ringle, Ringle" #"The Lord's Bright Blessing" #"Alone in the World" #"Winter Was Warm" #"We're Despicable (Plunderer's March)" #"Alone in the World (Reprise)" #"Ringle, Ringle (Reprise)" #"The Lord's Bright Blessing (Reprise)" #"Winter Was Warm (End Credits)"

Background

''Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol'' was produced by UPA in its last days as an animation studio, following its acquisition by Henry G. Saperstein. UPA later produced a television series titled '' The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo'', in which Magoo portrayed other literary characters. The series ended soon after as UPA was unable to mass-produce cartoons for television. It fills an hour-long time slot, as opposed to half an hour, which is different from most animated Christmas specials. The special depicts the visits of the ghosts in a different order than the book, with the Ghost of Christmas Present appearing before Past. Tiny Tim resembles UPA's character

Gerald McBoing-Boing ''Gerald McBoing-Boing'' is an animated short film about a little boy who speaks through sound effects instead of spoken words. It was produced by United Productions of America (UPA) and given wide release by Columbia Pictures on November 2, 1950. ...

The special was rerun on NBC throughout the Christmas season until 1969. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, it aired on local stations in syndication during the Christmas season, and in the 1990s, it aired on the Disney Channel and

USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...

. Me-TV brought it back to broadcast television in 2011. NBC aired the special again in 2012, with scenes depicting Magoo in the

framing device Framing may refer to: * Framing (construction), common carpentry work * Framing (law), providing false evidence or testimony to prove someone guilty of a crime * Framing (social sciences) * Framing (visual arts), a technique used to bring the focu ...

cut in order to make room for commercials.

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

subsequently acquired the broadcast rights to the special; the original special aired in its entirety in 2014, but the NBC version aired the following year. Distribution rights to the special are currently held by

NBCUniversal Television Distribution NBCUniversal Syndication Studios (a.k.a. NUSS), formerly known as NBCUniversal Television Distribution (a.k.a. NUTD), Universal Domestic Television, Studios USA Television Distribution and MCA TV, is the television syndication division of NBCUniv ...

following parent company Comcast's acquisition of its holder Classic Media, which was renamed

DreamWorks Classics Classic Media, LLC, doing business as DreamWorks Classics, is an American entertainment company owned by DreamWorks Animation, which is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was founded as Classic Media ...

. When it premiered on Freeform on December 13, 2022, several sequences were edited out, including the song "We're Despicable(Plunderers' March) and Magoo & Cratchett's duet on "Ringle Ringle."

Home media

The special was first released on VHS, Betamax, and LaserDisc in 1982 by

Paramount Home Video Paramount Home Entertainment (formerly Paramount Home Media Distribution, and originally Paramount Home Video) is the home video distribution arm of Paramount Pictures, a division of Paramount Global. The division oversees PPC's home entertainme ...

on behalf of UPA. It made its

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 ...

debut in 2001 by Goodtimes Home Video and had multiple re-releases on the format. On November 16, 2010, it was released on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

Reception

Thomas Vinciguerra for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' praised the special and gave it a 4.5 out of 5, saying "not merely a superior musical version, it is a pioneer among animated Christmas traditions."

In popular culture

Clips from the special were seen on television monitors in ''

Scrooged ''Scrooged'' is a 1988 American Christmas film, Christmas fantasy comedy film directed by Richard Donner and written by Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue. Based on the 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol'' by Charles Dickens, ''Scrooged'' is a mo ...

''. Animal Collective's 2000 debut album ''

Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished ''Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished'' is the first collaborative studio album by Avey Tare (David Portner) and Panda Bear (Noah Lennox), released in August 2000. It was later retroactively classified as the debut album by Portner and L ...

'' is named for one of Scrooge's lines in the special. In the ''Hill Street Blues'' episode
Santaclaustrophobia
a clip is seen playing on the television in Sgt Mick Belker's apartment. The special was parodied as "Mr. McGrew's Christmas Carol" in ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...

'' 2003 episode 'Tis the Fifteenth Season". The special was shown in the Christmas movie ''Surviving Christmas''. In the 2001 pilot episode of '' Six Feet Under'', Claire Fisher (

Lauren Ambrose Lauren Anne D'Ambruoso (born February 20, 1978), known professionally as Lauren Ambrose, is an American actress and singer. She performs in television, film, and on Broadway. Ambrose had television roles as Claire Fisher in ''Six Feet Under'' ...

) watches a clip from the special. (DjB Spfld)

References

External links

''Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol''
on

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

.
''Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol''
on JuleStyne.com. *

on

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 ...

''Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol: The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special'', by Darrell Van Citters

''Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol'' on Popdose.Com
{{Mr. Magoo 1962 television specials 1960s American television specials 1960s animated television specials NBC television specials Films based on A Christmas Carol Christmas television specials Television shows based on A Christmas Carol Mr. Magoo 1960s American animated films 1960s Christmas films Ghosts in television American Christmas films Animated Christmas films Animated films based on novels 1962 animated films 1962 films Films directed by Abe Levitow Films scored by Walter Scharf UPA films American Christmas television specials Animated Christmas television specials