Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962)

What a waste of my time!!!

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Ebenezer Scrooge (Mr. Magoo) is a miserly greedy business man. Bob Cratchit is his underpaid and overworked clerk. Scrooge's dead business partner Jacob Marley visits. He is then visited by three spirits of Christmas.This is a straight forward version of the classic Dickens. There are a few changes but the tone remains serious. I'm surprised that there is little humor in this. Mr. Magoo's poor sight usually leads to some fun catastrophes. This doesn't happen. All the harshness of the Victorian world and the religious aspects of the story are kept in. The songs are generally well made and a bit old fashion. Credit must be given for being one of the first animated Christmas TV special. It's still a very watchable show today.

When I started watching this, I expected it to be more like how The Simpsons portrayed it, with Magoo missing up his parts due to his blindness. Surprisingly, that is not the case. This is a very heartfelt adaptation with Magoo himself making a great Scrooge. The songs are very touching, sweet and memorable and while the animations aren't that great, hey, it's old-school Hanna-Barbera. What can one expect, Disney quality? The only thing that's a little off-putting (This may be a spoiler) is that the Ghost of Christmas Present appears before Christmas Past, but that's a minor detail and they made it work.Anyway, this is a very good adaptation of A Christmas Carol and I highly recommend it, especially now that it's finally on DVD.

I'm afraid my memories are biased by being age 8 when it premiered in 1962. This show was magical! To my eyes it felt like going to the theater instead of a TV production with the use of curtains and distinct acts. The cartoons were not cartoonish, but made me feel more like I was watching a grown up show. The spirits, and tiny Tim, may have been the first show that made me less egocentric. And in addition, it is a good story well told.The Scrooge character was believable as were the others. The musical numbers held my attention at age 8 and age 50. The themes were scary but not frightening. This set the bar for the holiday cartoons that followed.

I loved Mr. Magoo growing up. We don't see him much anymore on television or this special around the holiday times. We see less and less television programming devoted to the Christmas holidays. Jim Backus uses his voice as Mr. Magoo, the four eyed actor, in this special where he plays Ebenezer Scrooge, the Charles Dickens character, forever immortalized in all sorts of holiday tales. Just like the story of a Christmas Carol, there are three ghosts and Marley, the predecessor who warns Scrooge to change his ways. Okay, this version is not the best out there but it's timely and good for kids and adults and fans of classic animation. I bought the tape years ago and just played it around the holidays. It's a treat to watch every year.