After years of pained curiosity, I’ve wrapped up a personal enigma for good…

Having only recently purchased damn near the entire Disney Afternoon on DVD, I just stumbled upon a startling realization: My memories of the Disney’s DuckTales are fuzzier than an Italian kiwi.

Scrooge, Huey, Dewey, Louie and Webby – DON’T TEST ME

Oh, all the main characters are there to stay in my brain, but recollections of actual plotlines and events… buh? But that’s not even the epiphany! Being totally honest with myself, a majority of my DuckTales warm-n-fuzzies extend not from the show, nor the Carl Barks comics on which it originated, but Capcom’s phenomenal NES game!

Listen up, people! This pertains to THE MOON…

Almost every gamer knows exactly what I’m talking about, as the 1990 classic is still held in ridiculously high regard. We can spend all day attributing that to any particular nuance, however, it’s clear to me that I’ve probably spent about as much time with the DuckTales game as watching the series. Or, at least, I’ve certainly played the game more frequently and recently.

Of course, I can’t remember the last time I caught an episode of DuckTales on TV… Plus, I’m willing to bet younger gamers, who’ve played it out of due diligence and/or out of curiosity as to why it still appears on “Best of” lists two decades after you could obtain a copy of it legally, probably haven’t seen the show either. Well, having blown through a couple of the DVDs, I can finally close the book on one of the game’s mysteries: What the hell is this thing?!

WTF?!

I mean, I understand Himalayan goats and duck mummies thematically, but that alien seemed very specifically designed. I’ve always found his presence a bit confusing, luckily the first disc of on DuckTales Vol. 1!

Meet Overlord Bulvan!

During the episode “Where No Duck Has Gone Before,” Gyro Gearloose accidentally builds a real rocketship on the set of a sci-fi TV show and jettisons Launchpad and the boys into space where they end up abducted by aliens…

CONFIRMED! Right down to the spats and “gun” belt

Tadaa! We have our answer. The aliens Scrooge cane-kills in the game’s famous Moon stage do in fact have a root in the TV series! (Hey, this is a HUGE personal discovery!) The conquest bound aliens hail from the planet Kronk, and if you look closely, the in-game version appears to be a palette-swapped, or rather, a film negative version of their leader Overlord Bulvan!

lol, teleporter humor!

Kind of blew my mind after all these years, so I figured I had to share

Just picked up EVERYTHING that aired on the Disney Afternoon between 1987 and 1992 at Costco…

I already had some of these DVDs but just filled out the rest of my Disney Afternoon DVD collection in one fell swoop for next to nothing. Right now Costco’s got EVERY volume of Ducktales, Chip n’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin and Darkwing Duck on sale at the ridulously low price of $8.99! That’s NINE volumes (three for DuckTales, two per every other show) of everything that was important to me from 1987 until about 1992!

Sadly, what’s available cuts off after Gummi Bears and before Goof Troop, but I’ve been meaning to pick all these up for years, yet couldn’t really justify it to my wallet. The price doesn’t really get much righter that $9 a pop, so check your local Costco (or find a friend with a membership) because these deals tend to only last a week or so before they completely disappear.

Look, I’ve tried taking pictures of my stupid dolls and action figures before, but admittedly, I’m a shitty photographer. Lucky for me, I swiped this here Canon Rebel T2i or something from work, and Lickety-BOOM: Instant Artist!

Yeah, this is a pretty pointless, self indulgent post. So if your time’s too precious to look at a bunch of licensed cartoon crap, there’s plenty of stuff floating around the site that almost redeem this frivolous excuse for dicking around with a fancy-pants camera.

Classic Mickey Mouse phone, circa the 1970s. Purchased as a gift by the writer of X-Men Xmas Special – IN BOX! – with hysterical of-the-era FCC instruction manual! Thanks Brett

Hard though it may be to believe, I actually have a considerably larger collection of animated swag at my office, the place where most of your nostalgic junk will eventually gets banished to once you make the decision to cohabitate with a female creature concerned with issues of aesthetics and taste, young man!

You are Lisa Simpson! Whom we discussed previously in Simpsons Roasting On an Open Fire

For nerdy clarification, you’re technically looking at a bunch of my recently procured stuff, thank you very much. And although I’ve tried before in the past, I’ve never been able to snap close-up shots of this crap with this kind of quality and/or clarity. Oh, wanna SEE why I stopped collecting Disney Vinylmations?!

Dodger, from Oliver and Company! Technically, my only Billy Joel action figure

You buy these things blind, not unlike a pack of baseball cards, hoping and praying you get the one you want for around $10 a pop. The Animation 1 Series seemed like a great “risk” – plenty of characters I’d love to own, only a few I didn’t care for. One of which was…

Phil from Hercules (With a redeemably awesome Prince John from Villains Series)

Nothing against the Danny Devito character, but all I really wanted was Dodger, and here’s my Vinylmation chronology (which encompassed lost of wasted money and numerous trips to the Disney Store – it is a sad tale!) Phil (aww), Dodger (yay!) Then Dodger again? Then Phil again?! Over $50 later, my Vinylmation obsession was over almost before it started.

Louis from The Princess and the Frog and Merlin from The Sword and the Stone, which we wrote about briefly in the poorly aged, animated jukebox, A Disney Christmas Gift

Obviously, I’m linking around willy-nilly to stuff we’ve written about previously and where you can purchase things on Amazon. So I should probably showcase some semi-hard to find items you can only purchase in parks, right?

Yosemite Sam in front of a Who Framed Roger Rabbit Home Video standee. Roger Rabbit may as well be a reoccurring theme here.

Picked up Yosemite Sam at the Vallejo, California’s Six Flags Discovery. Those parks are probably the only places left in America where you’ll still see the Looney Tunes characters treated with any kind of reverence.

Brer Rabbit and a little Ms. Piggy

Again, I take zero credit for the quality of these photos, which I think look ridiculously nice given my documented lack of visual panache. Recently I went to Disneyland with a mission: Find merchandise related to Disney’s Song of the South, which younger folks only know as one of the park’s greatest rides, Splash Mountain, featuring a bunch of characters they’ve never been allowed to see. You’re looking at the sole piece of Brer Anything merchandise available in the entire park, beyond that of a souvenir Splash Mountain picture frame. It’s disconcerting how well Disney has swept that gang of characters under the rug, especially considering the presence they hold over a large portion of their parks. Hell, Brer Rabbit has his own store there, yet doesn’t get to appear on anything other than a ceremonial Disney pin.

Figment, with a little Elliot for good dragon company

Brer Rabbit came as part of a Disney Parks-related set of figures, and visitors of EPCOT will no doubt recognize Figment, the park’s on-again-off-again mascot. You gotta love how iconic Figment remains in the eyes of people in spite of almost never appearing anywhere but the Orlando resort. But hey, I’m a sucker for dragons! Speaking of which, let’s look closer…

Elliot from Pete’s Dragon!

Yes, ELLIOT, not “Pete.” Elliot is Pete‘s dragon, and calling him otherwise is tantamount to calling a certain doctor’s Prometheus “Frankenstein,” and that’s faux pas that’ll get you tossed out of polite geeky conversation, my friend. The very small figure you see above is from Disneyland/Disney World’s Collector Packs series, which I love somethin’ fierce!

How often to you get to say “Daisy Duck” and “Death Star” in the same sentence?!

I fucking love these packs so goddamned hard, it makes me want to squeal! Because… I’m an adult, you see. I like to collect inaction figures. I don’t need shit that shoots stuff, changes color, or poses at a billion points of articulation. Just sit there an look awesome. The less you aesthetically bother my girlfriend, the better.

Bernard and Bianca from The Rescuers and Scrooge McDuck, star of Mickey’s Christmas Carol in front of my ultra rad Bionic Commando lunch box!

These little 1 inchers come in packs of three, but just like the Vinylmations above, what you get is totally random yet, I prefer the Disney Collectors Packs for numerous reasons you probably don’t care about: They’re half the price of the Vinylmations, the series are more varied, random shit is still fun, giving doubles to friends feels better when it only costs you a buck and change, your chances of getting what you want are better, and perhaps best of all, they come in cellophane bags! Dorky sleuths can use their fingers to feel out the characters they desire, and I literally massaged through a rack of Collector Packs like a blind person trying to memorize someone’s face until I found one I was certain was Elliot. (I was right!)

Beast and The Beauty, with a rather unfortunate appearance byAssy McGee

Again, I take almost no credit for the quality of these images! The credit goes almost solely to the Canon Rebel T2i. I’ve gone on record as a shit-horrible photographer, and this is honestly just me dicking around with manual focus for the first time in like 15 years!

Jessica Rabbit standing on a tin of Nintendo Power mints in front of a Roger Rabbit #1 Marvel comic

I don’t know spit about “Foto-Graphy.” But I do know I’ve never been able to get this close to these tiny figures, and yes, I mean with numerous, humiliating amounts of effort and trail.

Remember, this fucker’s only a single inch tall!

I was having so much fun, I tried to go back and redeem myself for that slovenly shot I set up last December of a NEW AND IMPROVED NAIVETY SCENE! Gobo alone deserves so much better.

Fraggle Rock‘s Gobo, Fozzie Bear, a blurry Daisy dressed as Malificent, and I believe a Donald Duck Darth Maul off to the side!

Phew… I sincerely hope this post hasn’t come off as narcissistic, or anything, because I doubt it’ll be the last time I try my photographic hand. And let’s be honest, if I didn’t love looking at these toys, why would I keep ‘em around? I’m kind of 30…

MICKEY’S ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS
Originally premiered: December 7, 1999

An anthology of three twenty-minute Xmas shorts starring Disney’s most classic characters

BACKSTORY:

What you might not know about the Disney television you enjoyed in the late 80s and early 90s, is that much of the work came from a studio in Australia. Writing, pre-production and storyboarding occurred in Burbank, but the heavy animated lifting went out overseas.

Eventually, the Australian studio became known as DisneyToon Studios, who produced theatrical films like DuckTales: The Treasure of the Lost Lamp and A Goofy Movie and other entertainment based on Disney’s popular TV shows. More notably, however, the studio began ramping up direct-to-video sequels to Disney’s feature-length classics, starting in 1994 with Aladdin: The Return of Jafar.

Some of these films did in fact premiere in theaters

These largely forgettable sequels became big business for kids and families. Yet even as the money rolled in, longtime Disney fans began referring to them as “cheapquels,” and as an otherwise disgrace to the proud legacy of the original films.

What some consider trash are now out-of-print rarities

While the animation budgets on these sequels improved considerably, the writing did not, nor did the prevailing attitudes toward the studio’s output just as unnecessary pap like Jungle Book II and Cinderella III were hitting retail shelves.

The whoring continues

Due to the mounting costs of the productions, the public’s growing distaste for the product, and John Lasseter/Pixar’s growing creative influence over the company at large, Disneytoon Studios was shut down in 2006 and has since become a wing of Disney’s commercial product division, producing only direct-to-DVD Tinkerbell films.

BREAKDOWN:

Man, did I wander into this one like a member of the bomb squad. All those rotten memories of some of the worst sequels heartlessly cranked out by Disney’s straight-to-video division, had me approaching Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas through crooked fingers as if I where diffusing a bomb about to go off in my face.

Epic Goofy

But my fears were a little unfounded. I mean, making sequels to Bambi and Cinderella reeks of a company desperate for ideas. And with none to be had, clearly these animators were more than willing to tarnish the legacies of people too deceased to complain.

Be on the look out for brief cameos by Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar

Obviously, I was overjoyed when the Pixar folks put a stop to the (extremely profitable) practice once they took over revitalizing the company. However, Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas doesn’t feel as guilty of the desecration many see in other films from DisneyToon Studios.

Hammer time

For one, it’s a anthology of three short Christmas films, so they’re isolated adventures that needn’t play with established canon. Oh, and they just so happen to star Mickey, Donald and Goofy, characters unbelievably apt to tearing up the screen for twenty straight minutes.

Rodents at the end of their rope!

Further to its credit, the animation is well above par, especially when compared to company’s television output. And even better still, I love how all three tales utilize characters established in later Disney offerings (most notably The Disney Afternoon) while retaining a classic look and feel.

These three gifts = Three animated shorts

Immediately following the opening narration from Kelsey Grammer, we’re whisked into the Duck’s home, to see an incredibly familiar trio of nephews.

Savages

I say that because Huey, Dewey and Louie sound exactly like they do in DuckTales, although they’re apparently in the care of Uncle Donald.

Dreams of the Sea. The dude was a sailor, ya know?

And I just gotta say, I was spellbound to see the boys interact with Chip & Dale.

Not sure if this duo has ever interacted with the nephews before?

The boys have a rather selfish take on Christmas, not unlike you probably did when you were a horrible little child.

Fuming

They essentially make life hell for everyone around them in the name of “gettin’ theirs” on this most festive day.

Uncle Scrooge drops by and he’s familiarly voiced by Alan Young, just like in DuckTales and Mickey’s Christmas Carol!

They wish every day could be like Christmas, and those of you who’ve seen Groundhog Day probably have a good idea of what’s going to happen next…

What the hell?

Sure enough, the boys get to relive Christmas again. And then again.

Been here, done this

Obviously, it all seems pretty great at first… That is, until they realize that essentially they’re eating, doing and receiving the same crap every day.

Cannibalism!

I figured they’d cop out and have the boys realize their selfishness by the end of the first or second Christmas day. But no! I love that it’s implied that they relive the same day over and over again many, many times, almost to a tortuous extent.

Yep, they trash everything

More frighteningly, the boys have no idea how to reverse their wish and earn back the Christmas 26th, thus learning the true meaning of Boxing Day.

Christmas Breakfast had never been so sweet

But then they stumble upon an epiphany: What if we don’t act like dicks? Even once the tired of unwrapping their gifts and chowing on Christmas turkey, they still just acted like mischievous time manipulators who used their knowledge of the day for their own entertainment.

They fashion their presents into Donald’s nautical dream gift

The boys bust their asses to make everyone else happy for the Holidays. And wouldn’t you know it? It works.

Duck hug!

Frasier congratulates the young duck trio and brings us into the next special. “A Very Goofy Christmas,” although it’s a little more depressing than the name let’s on.

Man, the Goofys do the Holiday up right!

Yeah, it begins with an action-comedy sequence involving Goofy and Max getting their letter to a fleeing mail truck, the audience is in for a far more devastating bit of Christmas coal.

Brought to you by slapstick

Pete, for reasons that should get an adult arrested, or at least fined significantly, decides to tell Max that there ain’t no Santa!

I have no idea why Pete’s brown here?

This callous adult/cat creature cruelly explains the impossibility of a fat dude delivering presents to billions of homes in a single night. And yeah, it gets to Max.

“You’re mother and I can’t appear onscreen but we still love you.”

Max researches the logistics and determines Santa, more than likely, does not, and he proceeds to bring down everyone around him.

Who the hell are these people?! Err – dogs?

During a sequence where Goofy brings Xmas dinner to a less fortunate family down the street, Max is poised to piss on everyone’s parade at a moments notice. But before he can ruin Christmas for the believers:

Goofy Claus!

Unfortunately, Papa Goof’s disguise is revealed, and Max interprets his dad to be maintaining an outright lie.

CONSPIRACY!!

You know… As much as I love Goofy as the character from his heday, I also greatly enjoyed his speechless role as an instructional guide after the Disney studio lost the voice actor in the 40s. Althoug unlike Mickey, I think he does fine job performing in his latter day, domestic situations too.

Jesus, even presents aren’t working

He’s still the invincible, kinetic moron we he needs to be, so he can still make us smile using his standard shtick. (Plus, there’s just something about the act of Goofy procreating that makes me giggle just thinking about it.) That said, the scenes between Goofy and Max are also some of the more touching in the the entire film.

The search for Santa rages on

What’s great is Max’s disbelief appears to shake Goofy’s faith in Santa even more than his son’s. Goofy is a devout believer and desperately wants Max to be one again, too. Goofy stakes out on the roof, hellbent on finding proof of the series he knows to exist. I quite liked this gag:

Gotta be St. Nick, right?

Nope, just some asshole robbing Pete’s house

The resulting burglar situation has Goofy quite possibly the saddest I’ve ever seen him. Luckily, it lights a fire under Max over how important just finding something to believe in can really be.

“gawrsh…”

Max dons the suit to pull his father out of his morose state, and well, he’s not that bright so it works for a while.

Probably not the best idea after a prowler’s been arrested in the neighborhood

The façade is revealed after Goofy chases his Santa son on the roof. Max is unmasked, but both manage to turn it into inspiration to embrace, since upon some introspection, all they really wanted for Christmas anyway is one another’s happiness.

Dogs

But hey, why not a little Christmas miracle with your revelation?!

PROOF!

And even though Max gets the snowboard he desperately desired, the first thing he does is take it down the street to let the poor kids get the first ride. Very nice indeed.

What the hell’s a “Magi?”

I can’t tell if “Gift of the Magi” is the weakest of the three shorts, or my favorite of the three shorts. What I can tell you is what I do like about it.

Pluto and Figaro from Pinocchio are there, so that’s awesome

Mickey and Minnie are dirt poor, and that reminds me of the days before he was a sterile corporate spokesman, back before he didn’t just act as a father figure to more interesting animated characters, and was someone things could actually happen to, and in turn, make things happen.

Not the greatest homemaker

But on the flipside, while I personally dug a lot of the other stuff, a lot of the details are fairly derivative of several superior specials that came before.Okay, Mickey and Minnie are hard up to buy gifts for one another, with Mickey wanting to buy a gold necklace for Minnie’s heirloom watch, and Minnie wanting to Mick a case for his prized harmonica.

A Christmas harmonica, last seen in A Chipmunks Christmas, almost two decades before.

Mickey busts his hump to put together the money working at Crazy Pete’s tree farm, but ends up blowing his tips on a tree for a poor family.

Back in Black. And Smoking!

Minnie has her struggles to deal with too.

The name of the department store Minnie works at is a reference to Mickey’s original name

Working as a gift wrapper at a department store, not unlike Donald in “The Clock Watcher,” she’s depending solely on her Christmas bonus to get here through the Holidays.

Minnie looks extremely overworked here

So with Mickey and Minnie even more destitute than at the start, what are they to do?

Instead of cash, Minnie’s bonus turns out to be a fucking fruitcake

Well for some reason, Mickey gets sucked into performing for a firefighter charity, but in spite of being a fairly heartwarming sequence, it doesn’t benefit him in any way so it feels a little tacked-on.

In Mickey’s defense, he’s always been a dancin’ fool

What it does do is convince Mickey to do something that rang more than a little Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas to me.

Pawn shops: Home to dozens of Christmas miracles

Once Christmas rolls around we find that Mickey and Minnie have, in fact, made their Christmas wishes come true: A harmonica case for Mickey and a gold Necklace for Minne. However, the both had to sell precisely the item each gift was intended for.

“Our kindness ruined everything”

But I’ll give the “Gift of the Magi” this much credit: Unlike most Christmas specials, it closes with ZERO material gain at the end. Yeah, usually people learn the “true meaning of Christmas,” but then they’re generally rewarded with the very things they’ve originally sought after as a consolation prize. That doesn’t happen here, it just fades. And that’s, once again, nice.

All they got for Xmas was each other

But it ain’t over! The whole Disney game comes back out in Dickensian garb for a Holiday medley. And as much as I’d like to say that’s not enough to do it for me, it usually is.

Nothing other than an illuminated star, which twinkled in such as fashion that lead me to believe it was either a cross, or at least a reference to a certain heavenly body from a certain nativity story.

Not that much, actually. As many times as the Disney gang puts on a red hat, The Big Guy isn’t truly seen at all other than in a few brief, yet rewarding, glimpses in “A Very Goofy Christmas.”

Didn’t expect to like this one at all, so obviously, I was surprised by how much I did. Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas is so well done, I’m a bit shocked this doesn’t get more play around the Holidays. Although, if I were to guess, that’s probably how they were intended to air: On television, since all three are roughly twenty minutes and leave ample time for commercials. Even if I’m totally off base, it’s a wonder these aren’t actually played on TV in three separate showings now that I think about it. Come to think, that’s how I would’ve preferred to view them… And I could of gotten three days worth of articles out of it! Damn you, Disney!

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

Looking through even Disney’s direct-to-DVD product that’s gone out-of-print, it’s almost miraculous Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas is still available, but it is, and on the cheap no less. The 2004 sequel, Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas is also available, although I can’t speak to its quality. As always, I have to recommend the Disney Animation Collection 7, as it contains timeless Christmas classics like Mickey’s Christmas Carol and Pluto’s Christmas Tree among other shorts.

Yesterday’s Christmas Special
COMMUNITY: ABED’S UNCONTROLLABLE CHRISTMAS

2009′s Dec. 20th Christmas Special
A FAT ALBERT CHRISTMAS

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.

PRODUCT INFORMATION (Support the Site!)

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