Here’s something to delight Disney dorks and NES nerds…

I love me some cartoons, but games are pretty much my life. Obviously, it gives me no greater thrill than when my hobby and profession overlap, and this runeth over so damned hard, it makes the little Venn Diagram that defines my life that much closer to a complete sphere! What the hell am I talking about? Well, Jim Hill Media tapped into a nostalgic oil well with a recent mind-melting post about the long gone Disney Afternoon Avenue. Did you know that back in the early 90′s when DuckTales, Chip n’ Dale Rescue Rangers, and TaleSpin were dominating the after school airwaves, an entire section of Disneyland was once dedicated to the company’s stable of TV stars? Me neither!

Simply everyone was there!

Today in that walkway leading to “It’s A Small World” and “Toontown” you’ll find a largely dull corridor, occupied primarily by overpriced food vendors as well as an increasingly scarce park smoking section. But back in 1991, it got all kinds of gussied up in honor of the success of Disney’s newest small screen stars.

This can’t be to scale, right?

You could get your picture taken with the Launchpad McQuack or the Gummi Bears, then take in a live stage show starring Baloo and the Chipmunks facing off against Don Karnage and Fat Cat for a kickass series crossover.

The now defunct Motor Boat Cruise got Gummified. The died…

Showing even more faith its budding group of daytime celebrities, Disneyland even completely rebranded a couple of classic attractions dating all the way back to the 50′s to reflect The Almighty Disney Afternoon.

Autopia was Rescued

All of this already makes me want to kick my parents in the stomach for raising me on the East Coast, but I’ll NEVER forgive them for missing out on this attraction… Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Videocade presented by Capcom!

Too big for just one font

Inside Capcom’s Videocade, kids could get their hands on two of the best games ever made for the Nintendo Entertainment System: Chip n’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers and DuckTales! Oh, and TaleSpin, I suppose. Coincidentally, this was also the same year Capcom and Disney teamed up for a national competition. The “Disney Capcom Playtour” conducted regional bouts and flew the winners all the way out to Disneyland to find the Ultra Mega NES Super Grand Champion… of DuckTales, Rescue Rangers, and TaleSpin:

TaleSpin hadn’t even been released yet. What a champ!

Meanwhile, if that picture above is to be believed, a couple of park goers in Hypercolor fanny packs may have even got the chance to play with the stars of the game. Let’s see it again!

Ahhhhhhhhhhh

It was all over by 1993, and frankly, I see no reason to go on living. If I may recap: Two of my favorite games, based off of two of my (then) favorite shows, presented by two of my (still) favorite companies… perhaps they’ll be no Cartoon Christmas this year so that I may focus all of my free time on perfecting time travel. Kidding, I only stumbled upon it while doing research on an upcoming piece on a certain Xmas, in a certain show that appeared on The Disney Afternoon. Stay tooned…

I do sincerely apologize to our baker’s dozen of regular readers for lack of posts lately. More importantly, I’d never be able to forgive myself if I didn’t acknowledge the birthday of one of my all-time favorite cartoon characters!

Happy Birfday, Double D! Art by Poschki

Yep, Donald Duck turned the rip old of age of 77 back on June 9th, so I thought I’d honor Disney’s ill-tempered water fowl with his very own Fan Art Friday, finding as many pieced of fan crafted pieces as I could scare up over at DeviantArt.com. If you dig any of the art below as much as I did, why not follow the provided links and let the artist know yourself?

Not sure why, but there’s a ridiculous amount of Three Cabelleros inspired art out there, such as this one by Henrieke

An irritated Don with comic book color scheme by Skrunch

I’m always happiest when Donald’s angry. Art by PaCoElMoRsA

For a change of pace, here’s the duck sullen and tweaked. Art by J-J-A

Okay, now that’s almost too sad. Art by Ubodan

Back to the happy with an amazing mosaic made up of cartoon still by CrystalMask. Click that shit to enlarge

World of WarCraft fans should get a kick out of mickeymonster‘s piece

Speaking of video games, akumath‘s duck sprite work rules beyond belief

And another Daffy clash by lzx. Anything that reminds the world of Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a good thing indeed

Another Caballeros shot by Firecat1996

Back to the sad and disturbing thanks to Johannek. Wait, did he just kill Daisy’s grave?

Okay, back to the cheerful. Hopefully this makes you as happy as it makes me. Thanks again to CrystalMask

An amazing sketch by zdrer456 recalling the amazing 1952 short “Donald Applecore“

Another sad one super fast by Utopicam and we’ll get you right back to feelin’ good

D’awwww… thanks for another Three Caballeros inspired piece, skyecrystal

Okay, one last cute one and we’re going to get into the weird… thanks Melian86

Awesome… just awesome paper planes

It’s like he’s guest starring on Ren & Stimpy! I’d probably get this tattooed on my body, Themrock

Jesus Christ… uh, thanks Cilluut

Can’t explain why, but this one might be my favorite. Amazing interpretation, UncleLaurence

Oh, I know why! ‘Cause I love Scrooge McDuck almost as much. Big ups to you Crabamoustache

More Don and Scrooge. This slick piece by endpiece

How ’bout some DuckTales/Carl Barks inspired art. Phenomenal, Frobman

BAH-NAH-NUH-NAAAAH! Duck, Don Duck by xXXxMarijexxXXx. Let’s do some Marvel ones!

Duck Ock by raheight

He’s like the last person who should be holding that hammer. By Smudgedredd

Very nice, Markside

Okay, we saw a lot of this after Disney bought Marvel. But let’s be honest, Donald as Hulk is the most approprite. Good on ya, aeolus06

Oh! Did you think me and lokiescape would let you get out of here without a few semi-disturbing depictions?

And I’ll leave you with this Kingdom Hearts inspired ladyboy cosplay. Thanks Hopie-chan

That’s it! And once again, a very happy birthday to the world’s most famous duck. And the last thing you should to to celebrate DD’s B-Day is watch none other than “Donald’s Birthday.” It’s the amazing 1949 cartoon that’s probably most famous for being awesome enough to force kids to smoke!

Get you sexuality in check, straight boys. Your favorite heroes are about to bare ALL!

The Ladies of Disney got their time to shine last week in an unofficial tribute, so this week: Let’s hear it for the boys!

Prince Adam from Beauty and the Beast

These pics actually originated over on davidkawena’s deviantart page some time ago, but Twitter user LoveLost only just recently, ahem… “turned me on” to them.

David from Lilo & Stitch

What’s most remarkable is the artist’s unwavering commitment to this beautiful fetish. This dude is thorough!

Milo J. Thatch from Atlantis: The Lost Empire

It appears no Disney star was too obscure to get a ridiculously well done beefcake-ification. Enjoy!

John Henry from Disney’s John Henry

Captain Phoebus from The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Emperor Kuzco from The Emperor’s New Groove

Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid

Jim Hawkins from Treasure Planet

Gaston from Beauty and The Beast

John Smith from Pocahontas

Hercules from Disney’s Hercules

Prince Navin from The Princess and the Frog

Kocoum from Pocahontas

Peter Pan from Peter Pan

Shang from Mulan

Prince Philip from Sleeping Beauty

Thomas from Pocahontas

Tarzan from Tarzan

Hands down: The greatest things I’ve seen in all of 2011. Thanks to mikmix for making it, and Bobbety for bringing it to my attention.

And ya’ll best be buyin’ that mess! Plenty of incentive below…
I honestly don’t need much of an excuse to re-buy Disney classics on Blu-ray since the High Definition transfer is all the reason I need. Having grown up on worn and cloudy VHS tapes, it’s usually an altogether new and more rewarding viewing experience.

If you need a reason to like this, give up on being human

Disney is probably all too aware of that flaw I certainly share with millions of others, and as such, most of the Blu-rays add very little in terms of new supplemental features. You’ve got a reenacted story pitch reading, two deleted scenes, and a deleted song about social media called “Twitterpated.”

Flower rules

I can’t really fault them for that, because the Diamond Edition of Bambi at least retains all the older DVD special features, which include two extensive behind-the-scenes docs, an excerpt from a 1957 episode of Disneyland, and one of Disney’s finest (Oscar winning!) cartoons “The Old Mill.”

We’ve written about this sequence previously in our feature on the slightly horrible A Disney Christmas Gift

However, my personal favorite among the new special features is the Blu-ray’s Disneyview. I can’t help it: Black bars on the sides of an old 4:3, pre-widescreen picture really bug me. To combat my new age irritation, Disney’s hired artists to paint watercolor backdrops to fill the void in their newer DVDs, thus filing the screen with glorious color!

The Disneyview option on the Pinocchio 70th Anniversary Blu

In general, they change out rather seamlessly to specifically fit the tone and motif from scene to scene, and I’d like to say they’re not distracting, but I’ve pretty much become fixated on them. Oh, and you won’t find them on the Standard DVD, but who’s still buying those?!

Another subtle optimization done to Alice in Wonderland

But the best reason to purchase the new Bambi DVD is without a doubt the incentive offered by DisneyMovieRewards.com. If you’re not familiar with the DMR program (and damn sure should be if you’ve read this far) it’s that little insert you find in all Disney DVDs. Each code you register gives you points good for a bunch of tangible rewards, such as posters, collectible toys and even exclusive DVDs! (The hard to find DuckTales: Treasure of the Lost Lamp? Yeah, I got that there, and free, just by cashing in on stuff I was already buying!)

You probably didn’t know what this thing was (Don’t bother trying to redeem it, kids – it’s already spoken for)

Best of all, they seem to practically trip over themselves with incentives offered for you to rebuy classic Disney films you may already own. Exclusive goodies, contests, coupons, extra DMR points, etc. In Bambi’s case, not only can you find a printable $10 off coupon good ‘til March 8th, just entering the code inside your DVD on the DMR’s site gets you this:

Offers good until June… *drool*

An 18.5” x 27” reproduction on Bambi’s original theatrical poster! Dude…I was gonna to buy it anyway! Okay, this was supposed to be a quick post, I’m outta here. The Bambi Diamond Edition is out now on Blu-ray/DVD.

Yeah, I know it’s “just a poster,” but once you couple those warm ‘n fuzzies with those blasted forth by the trailer below…

You’re looking at a ridiculously promising Pooh, guldernit! Look at this thing:

Click to enlarge

Traditional, downright folksy animation, the inclusion of all the classic characters in the trailer/poster (give or take a Gopher), and once again turning to A. A. Milne’s original stories as source material?! I dunno… the production is hitting all the right Pooh notes for me. Which is something I never thought I’d say again after paying to see The Tigger Movie in theaters.

And, YES! I’ll including the choice of song in the above praise too, even though my girlfriend made fun of me mercilessly for grinning so wide at anything using a Keane song. I mean, at least they didn’t use some auto-tuned atrocity by their stable of TV pop starlets… whatever! I’m just happy someone thinks Winnie the Pooh is more important than just baby clothes!

Another poster from the upcoming Pooh-duction

In fact, I’ll give all the marketing (so far…) credit for setting exactly the right vibe. Subdued, hand drawn… something that let’s me believe that Disney’s set forth to create more than a rambunctious kids’ movie, and something far closer to those entertainingly naive apparitions that populate The Hundred Acre Wood than anything else we’ve seen since those three original featurettes were combined to make The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Speaking of which, why don’t I just send this post out with some gorgeous pics of retro Pooh posters!

1977 theatrical poster for the  newly compiled shorts

The original shorts, as they were billed in 1966 and 1968

By 1974, Pooh was big enough for his own poster

The last Winnie the Pooh short, billed along with a 1983 rerelease of The Sword and the Stone

Surely I’m not alone in seeing similarities between those posters from the 60′s and 70′s and the ones we’re currently seeing lit up in multiplexes? Maybe it’s just all the white space? Well… if that’s the case, then I’m just posting whatever I want anyway. So here!

I TOTALLY HAD THIS!

TALESPIN – A JOLLY MOLLY CHRISTMAS
Original Air Date: December 7, 1990

Baloo, Louie and the gang battle pirates and a fiercely tropical climate to realize Molly and Rebbecca’s dreams of Christmas snow

BACKSTORY:

Following the television cartoon boom of the eighties, Disney felt it high time to entire into the medium. And following the success of Gummi Bears, DuckTales, and Chip n’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers, the beloved characters of The Jungle Book made their way onto the “Disney Afternoon” in the form of Disney’s TaleSpin.

Rudyard Kipling’s jazzy characters from 1990 to 1967

The television investment – featuring higher-quality budgets and animations, paid off for Disney in a big way – both in revitalizing older characters and in transitioning its “smaller” adventures found in Disney Comics into a burgeoning medium.

After school as known by my generation

TaleSpin premiered in 1990 after Disney proved it could successfully provide affiliate stations with a two block of animation under the branding of “The Disney Afternoon,” and the show would go on to win an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program.

BREAKDOWN:

So unbelievably glad I could finally grab something from the Disney Afternoon stable to write about on A Cartoon Christmas! Compared to the rather cheap, motionless cartoons airing daily on television, Disney took the format to new heights, featuring relatively fluid animation and it seemed Disney comic line had left the writers well trained in presenting plots that weren’t completely asinine.

Rebbecca dreams of a white Christmas

As much as I’d hoped for something from the earlier Disney Afternoon block – prefereably DuckTales or Chip n’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers – TaleSpin is the first evidence I found of a syndicated Disney Christmas. Not that that’s a bad thing – I love TaleSpin! Come to think, how could you not? Listen to that theme song!

Once I even got a TaleSpin Happy Meal Toy, fashioned it into a Christmas ornament, and despite some protest, my Mom still sticks that fucker on the tree each and every year.

Oh, the rain outside if frightful

Personal anecdotes aside, this episode is actually a pretty damned sturdy Christmas special in and of itself. Regardless of what you may think of the story, or the warping of Baloo and the rest of The Jungle Book crew into cargo entrepreneurs, this is a warm and subdued Holiday special, featuring a fully orchestrated score throughout.

Wildcat, as dumb as the show gets

The episode kicks off with a melancholy narration from Rebbecca (voiced Sally Struthers, a lady who knows a thing or two about tugging on heart strings) yearning for snow this Christmas. Turns out the tropical shipping port Cape Suzette doesn’t get much powder around this time of year.

Kit Cloudkicker barely gets a line this episode

Little Molly breaks a Candy Cane, but before she can burst into tears over Baloo tells here to stick a peppermint shard under her pillow, and the Candy Cane Fairy…

Of course he forgets

Baloo’s absentmindedness leaves Molly’s faith shaken; if she can’t depend on the Candy Cane Fairy to deliver a nickel’s worth of sugar, how the hell is she supposed to believe in Santa Claus?

“I suppose this is bullshit too?!”

Baloo jumps into damage control and phones up an old friend. He decides to forgo his shipment of Soap powder to enact one of the greatest Holiday fabrications ever concocted in the history of alternate Disney histories!

Why would anyone question it?

Baloo promises to take Molly to see Santa personally, and following a quick retrofitting of Louie’s Place, Molly’s off to see the “North Pole” before Rebbecca can return from her last minute Christmas shopping.

Honestly, we didn’t just fly next door

Molly walks into the TaleSpin’s familiar watering hole, but something’s a little different…

This shit is bananas

Looks as if Santa’s workshop has outsourced its toy cobbling to an un-unionized group of primates lead by none other than…

Looks oddly like the alien from American Dad

Oh yes, King Louie! Fresh from moonlighting as a bar owner, the proud King of Swing now dons the suit and beard of Santa Claus.

This… could get groovy

Louie attempts to shower Molly with every tropically-themed toy he and his band of orangutans could put together, but it looks as if she’s only got one Christmas wish in mind.

Through all the theatrics, Louie forgets to read Molly’s letter

More than anything else this December 25th, Molly desperately wants to give her mom the gift of snow she sought after in the opening. Well, it looks like Baloo and Kit Cloudkicker are gonna have to step this ruse up a notch.

Must a Pirate’s Life condemn us to a lifetime of Hanukkah?!

Meanwhile, Don Karnage’s motley gang of imbecilic pirates are also morosely demanding a Christmas of their own. Karnage, hypothesizes that as pirates, their job is to be bad, which means by duty they’ve been good… so yeah, they’re deserving of a little Christmas cheer, too.

Rain means you don’t have to do your job

Back in Cape Suzette, Rebbecca gets wise to Baloo’s plan, but how can she not fulfill the wish of her daughter when all she desires is to make her Mom happy? So devoted to realizing Molly’s Holiday whim, she’s willing to not only forget about Baloo’s late shipment of powdered soap, she’s willing to dump it across the bay in a faux snowy gesture. That’s commitment to your child!

Starting to like them better than elves, actually

On the flipside of things, Louie’s Place patrons are getting tired of waiting outside as the monkey cohorts do their best to uphold the Yuletide lie. These animated alcoholics are so desperate to get their fix, they’re willing to bust down the door of the very place the claim to love.

Give us our booze, dammit!

Obviously, the snow flake crew has to make haste, but unfortunately, they run afoul of Don Karnage and his quest for Merry Holiday mirth.

Guns? In a Disney cartoon?!

Oh hell yeah! PEW-PEW-PEW

Not sure what’s worse, dumping a bunch of soap into the majestic ocean, or throwing it out the back of the plane to drive people to a sudsy, watery death. Either way, the gang does both!

WHOOSH

Although Rebecca, Baloo and Kit make it out safe…

Suck bubble, Karnage!

They’re plum outta soap (snow), and the restless bar patrons break in and obliterate the North Pole facade, causing Molly to get upset and runs away.

Bear emotions!

She tosses her letter to Santa, containing the wish for her mother, into the wind.

“Now I’m littering too! Whatcha think of that Santa?”

As the whole gang comes out to look for Molly…

Sorry, I just love how well drawn the backgrounds are in this sequence

And they find here staring up into the sky…

Gorgeous

The audience doesn’t get to see what Molly saw, but it isn’t important. She made her Christmas connection and that sure as shit was good enough for me. And wouldn’t you know it, something starts to happen…

Through whatever mechanism you care to acknowledge, Cape Suzette sees its first snow, and I think an entire weather front that defies all meteorological tradition is pretty fucking special.

No songs, and no fourth wall-breaking “Merry Christmas, everyone.” Just the gang silently celebrating a Christmas miracle.

The Bible says nothing of talking, package delivering mammals. (Obviously, that would take more than six days.) Conversely, the TaleSpin Christmas special makes no mention of our lord and savior.

Physically, there’s zero Kringle, however I think his presence is all over this special, in addition to having his existence subtly validated at the end.

I think Louis makes a fine Santa, plus I would’ve killed for this level of TaleSpin merch

Given that I only watched this episode of TaleSpin, I can’t speak on as to how the rest of this series holds up. But that’s not really what we do here anyway, and I have to say I was pretty floored with the quality of music, animation, and writing that went into “A Jolly Molly Christmas.” It’s a more subdued episode, both in terms of Christmas and the TaleSpin series, but at least it avoids the hamfisted idiocy and comes off as extremely warm and personal. If you have any fond memories of the show, I can happily encourage you to give this a spin around the Holidays.

PRODUCT INFORMATION (Shop Amazon through us – it helps!)

The complete run of TaleSpin is available in two DVD volumes, with “A Jolly Molly Christmas” featured on Volume 2. Unfortunately, The Jungle Book has gone back into the Disney Vault, undoubtedly awaiting a soon to be announced Blu-ray release. However, it can still be purchased new and used through Amazon Marketplace.

Yesterday’s Christmas Special
A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS

2009′s Dec. 7th Christmas Special
IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME AGAIN, CHARLIE BROWN

MICKEY’S CHRISTMAS CAROL
Original Air Date: December 10, 1984
(Theatrical Premiere: December 13, 1983)

SYNOPSIS:
Scrooge McDuck takes on the role he was born to play in Disney’s damn-near definitive version of Charles Dickens’ Holiday classic.

BACKSTORY:
As mentioned back in the Pluto’s Christmas Tree article, Mickey’s theatrical appearances sputtered to a halt in the early 50’s. Donald starred in a handful of cartoons on into the 60’s, while Mickey and the rest of Disney’s classic stable of characters continued their popularity on television. But the medium that prompted Mickey’s return to the big screen for the first time in thirty years is a rather unexpected one, indeed.

Turns out it was the record, cassette, and to a far lesser extent, the 8-track, that launched Mickey back into theaters. The album Dickens’ Christmas Carol, featuring “The Disney Players,” was released during the Holidays of 1975 in limited quantities, with new editions following each Christmas.

A vintage commercial for the Disney Christmas record

Of the many songs recorded for the album, only one would find its way into Mickey’s Christmas Carol when it premiered in theaters in 1983, attached to a re-release of The Rescuers. It was nominated for an Oscar that same year, premiered on NBC the following Christmas, and would eventually air on all three major television networks.

Based on Mickey’s screen time, this is a bit of a lie

BREAKDOWN:
I know I’ve been playing fast and loose with the criteria of the “Animated Television Christmas Special,” but I’m fairly certain I can justify Mickey’s Christmas Carol here with some general knowledge that I can’t corroborate enough to include in the comparatively “professional” section above.

Thousands were auditioned before McDuck won the role of Scrooge

Reportedly, this 24-minute short was supposed to premiere on CBS in 1982, but an animation strike held up production. So instead a special was assembled from archival animation, using footage from Bambi, Cinderella, some shorts, etc., and known as A Disney Christmas Gift. Which I’m only bringing up because I just found my old copy and my brain is currently exploding with the anticipation of writing it up. (Next year?!)

Mickey as Bob Cratchit and Donald as Scrooge’s nephew

I’ve been hesitant to write up any more adaptations of A Christmas Carol, because quite frankly, I find most of them boring, derivative, and literally the least an animation production house can do when cramming their characters into an uninspired Holiday presentation. (I’m looking at you Hanna-Barbera!)

Scrooge’s office is filled with lousy de-motivational signs

That said, not only am I absolutely batshit in love with Mickey’s Christmas Carol, I sort of do consider it the definitive adaptation.

Rich environments

Some of that has to do with the all-star cast, and the fact that this is the first one I can remember watching, but I also genuinely believe that Disney created the template for how A Christmas Carol has been adapted in family-friendly entertainment ever since.

Is Tiny Tim played by Morty or Ferdie? The world may never know

Of course, I have no vested interest in the original story, nor do I give a shit about how faithful Disney was to it. Just so you know where I stand: I take far more issue with Pluto’s being completely left out of Disney’s triumphant return to short theatrical animation than I do with the omission of the Phantom Hearse or Mrs. Fezziwig.

Chipmunks bumpin’ butts

It took real balls to bother with presenting these characters again in the first place. Even after basically skipping a generation, the cast has shown unprecedented longevity, and although it couldn’t have been easy, Mickey’s Christmas Carol is a bold and wonderful bridge between two triumphant periods in Disney’s history.

Minnie is distraught over not having a single spoken line

To start, Alan Young – best known as Wilbur from television’s Mister Ed - reprises his role as Ebenezer Scrooge (McDuck) from the record on which the film is based.

Scrooge moves in on his nephew’s gal, Daisy

Prior to this, Scrooge McDuck was primarily a character from Disney Comics, having appeared theatrically as a rough Scottish caricature in the wartime propaganda short The Spirit of ’43, and showing up only once as the duck we’re all familiar with (well, outside of a cameo on The Mickey Mouse Club TV show) in 1967’s Scrooge McDuck and Money.

Ever get the feeling you were being watched?

In addition to being far less “ethnic,” Alan Young’s portrayal was incredibly warm. So much so that when Disney decided to spin the duck off into his own cartoon series, DuckTales, Young got to don the top hat and cane once again for 100 episodes and the theatrical movie.

Alan Young: The Most Important Entertainer of All Time

He’s far and away the voice most associated with Scrooge, and I was shocked to find out that Young is still alive AND voicing the character as recently as last year, at the ripe old age of 90!

Mickey, about to be torn a new asshole

Also of vocal note, Wayne Allwine, the man who voiced Mickey Mouse from 1977 until his passing earlier this year, made his first theatrical appearance as the icon. Before Mickey’s Christmas Carol, Allwine had only performed the character in brief television appearances.

The only Mickey my generation has ever know

But he’s since provided the voice of Mickey for literally everything, from toys to albums, TV shows and videogames. Not bad for a guy who started at Disney as a sound editor!

Donald stole Ichabod Crane’s horse!

Sadly, and most notably, this marked the final time Donald Duck was brought to life by the remarkable Clarence Nash. Since Donald’s first appearance in 1934’s The Wise Little Hen, Nash was the only man to spit the Donald venom for 50 years! He personally trained a Disney animator, Tony Anselmo, as his replacement, and Anselmo has performed the voice ever since.

Half a century in a sailor suit

Which I do think is  worth mentioning…because as much as Disney gets a reputation for being a cold, corporate monolith, the roles of its most famous characters were handed over to internal staffers with next-to-no previous voice credits. There’s just something so familial about that, and I think that many people forget it in their cynical views of Disney’s animation process.

Makes me feel like this

As you can no doubt tell, I’ve been pretty much rambling a super-elongated back story thus far. But there’s a timelessness to both the story and special itself that’s above any need for detailed analysis or explanation. You’ve undoubtedly seen it before and know the story, so really the most interesting thing about it is how well the Disney characters present themselves after such a lengthy hiatus.

Hew, Dew, and Lou in a brief, silent cameo

But I do love a good crossover! And for me, the most rewarding thing about the film is that this was one of the first times Disney treated itself like a singular universe, casting animated characters from throughout the studio’s entire history. It’s now ridiculously common for the stable of characters to appear in ensemble, but prior to Mickey’s Christmas Carol it was actually quite rare.

Goofy’s Jacob Marley is an undead klutz

You’d expect to see characters from the short cartoons, but for the role of the ghosts, Disney cherry-picked a couple of unexpected choices. On the album, The Ghost of Christmas Past was played by Merlin from The Sword in the Stone – but I think you’ll agree that Jiminy Cricket made a far better choice for the cartoon.

Always let your conscience be your guide

And what may seem like an odd choice actually works unbelievably well comedically, as Willie the Giant pockets the role of The Ghost of Christmas Present (even though he’d only appeared once before, in 1947’s Mickey and the Beanstalk).

Without a doubt, the funniest character here

And while in retrospect it seems like a no-brainer to cast Pete, Disney’s longest running character, as the menacing Ghost of Christmas Future, the album actually used Snow White’s Wicked Witch in the original role.

No one does bad worse than Pete

But since our little blog/site/mess here is built on a backbone of screenshots, I thought it important to highlight the other Disney players who appear in the silent and supporting roles. You’ll find many a forgotten character from the heyday of the Disney short:

Cocky Locky, Horace Horsecollar, Claribel Cow, and Gus Goose

The cast of Three Little Pigs (1933)

And two of The Three Little Wolves (1936)

But what’s odd are the choices the animators made in picking characters from their feature films. Instead of casting heavyweight stars from their most profitable movies, you’ll find many arguably more obscure characters here:

A familiar face from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1959)

And fellow Wind in the Willows cast members Ratty and Mole

The bird from Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) dances with Lady Kluck

And about a billion other characters from Robin Hood (1973)

All of these appearances are immensely rewarding for an animation dork like myself. Of course, such levels of nerd-dom can be a double-edged sword, as I found myself almost angry that there weren’t more. “Where’s Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty?!”  Etc…

The end is still a little scary

At first, I cynically assumed that the cameo casting was based around choosing characters from the more recent Disney films. But once I pondered the matter further (I seriously did!) it seems the idea was more to pick characters who wouldn’t appear out-of-place in the mid 19th century, or need to change outfits to fit the time period. And the last criterion to occur to me? Duh… no humans!

What, no tree upgrade?

But such thorough care is taken with the animation, and the characters are so well cast, that there’s almost nothing to complain about… aside from the LACK OF PLUTO, YOU DICKS!

Gets me every time

Every time I think I don’t care much for Mickey Mouse because he isn’t funny or he’s a bad dancer, I watch him crying at the grave of Tiny Tim and tear up in a manner most unbecoming. He’s no longer an extremely kinetic character, but when something affects him he sure has a beautifully expressive way of showing it.

If this doesn’t do it for you, you have no soul

No Christ here! But give Mickey a couple more centuries of public worship and I may have to amend the score…

Claus isn’t present anywhere in A Christmas Carol. According to legend, Dickens cut him out of the first draft, along with several kickass car chases.

Sorry, Disney: There’s no reason for A Christmas Carol to be longer than half an hour…you got it right the first time.

Perfect

Every piece of Disney’s legacy is put to excellent use in this soaring comeback, all executed remarkably well, especially given how out-of-practice the animators were at the time. Both the source material and the famous players are treated with the utmost care and respect. A timeless tale that’s been retold a thousand times is still impressively unique; simultaneously heartwarming and funny without ever veering into the overly sentimental or slapstick… Fuck, I really can’t say enough good things about Mickey’s Christmas Carol.

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Mickey’s Christmas Carol is made available for purchase pretty consistently, with DVDs going in and out of print on a nearly annual basis. I highly recommend you pick up the Walt Disney Treasure: Mickey Mouse in Living Color Volume 2, as it’s still available used and will undoubtedly soon be impossible to find inexpensively. It contains the special, plus 5+ more hours of Mousy goodness, including shorts like Pluto’s Christmas Tree and Mickey’s latter-day resurrection in The Prince and the Pauper and Runaway Brain. The single-disc Disney Animation Collection Volume 7: Mickey’s Christmas Carol is a pretty good deal as well, mostly because it also comes with stacked with the various Disney Christmas shorts that used to accompany the 30-minute feature on television years ago. I can’t vouch for the quality of the many other direct-to-video Mickey Christmas specials made this decade, since I haven’t seen them, but if I’m still doing this next year, expect a thorough examination! More surprisingly, I’m delighted to discover that Amazon also has a super-cheap mp3 of the original record on which the special was based!

Yesterday’s Christmas Special:
A CLAYMATION CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION