Because there have been so many cinematic renderings of Charles Dicken’s arguably most familiar work, A Christmas Carol (1843), I have to specify this one as Disney’s A Christmas Carol (2009).  Yet, this is not the Mouse’s first attempt at portraying the classic Yuletide tale.  Because Walt Disney owns the rights to the Muppets, they have given us The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992).  As for my holiday film quest, I scrolled, and scrolled, and scrolled, passing up the likes of Christmas in the Smokies (2015), in search of something with a little more cultural cachet.  While I will probably come back to that one, my instincts told me it would be too similar to Christmas in Mississippi (2017).  Actually, if you go on Amazon Prime and do a search for “Christmas Movies,” you will find a number of titles beginning with “Christmas in . . .” fill in the blank area of the United States.  Thus, whenever it is that I finally get to Christmas in the Smokies, it could be the last time I watch a geographically specific holiday film.  With all this circulating in my brain, I was thankful to find Disney’s A Christmas Carol.

While the Mouse does add some embellishments to Dicken’s story, Disney’s A Christmas Carol’s non-source material introduction to its main character, Ebenezer Scrouge (voiced by Jim Carey), is brief.  He peers down at the dead body of his former business partner, Jacob Marley (voiced Gary Oldman), reluctantly hands the undertaker (voiced by Steve Valentine) two coins, walks through the Christmas Eve frivolity with loathing, and returns to work at his counting house.  This is basically a nineteenth century term for being an accountant, and his tightfisted practices have made Ebenezer a wealthy man in his advancing years.  Seven years go by and it is again Christmas Eve.  If anything, he has grown more averse to the holiday.  He rudely turns down the well-intentioned invitation to Christmas dinner by Fred (voiced by Colin Firth), his nephew.  Next, he informs a person collecting for charity that the poor are better off dead.  As for his one employee, Bob Cratchit (voiced by Gary Oldman), Ebenezer almost decides against giving Christmas Day off despite it being the one day a year he closes his business’s doors.  With the lack of cheer being spread, Ebenezer returns to his cold, spacious house.  This is when things take a turn for the strange.  Before he enters his home, the knocker forms Jacob’s ghostly face, scaring Ebenezer.  Already on edge, he locks the entrance to his bedroom.  Yet, soon Jacob’s full apparition drags his chains into the chamber, bringing his still living partner a warning.  Jacob does not want to see Ebenezer encumbered in the afterlife, and thus foretells of three spirits that will come in the night to hopefully set Ebenezer straight.  The first of these is the Ghost of Christmas Past (voiced by Jim Carey), appearing in the form of a burning candle.  Initially against Ebenezer’s will, the spirit takes the aged accountant to the town in which he grew up, letting him see the lonely boy he had been.  Yet, after a few years, some kindness had changed his perspective.  Soon, he was carrying on with the rest of his colleagues at the Christmas party put on by his old master, Mr. Nigel Fezziwig (voiced by Bob Hoskins).  It is during these festivities that Ebenezer meets Belle (voiced by Robin Wright), and falls in love.  In fact, they are contracted to be married.  Things were different in the nineteenth century.  The two are never wed because Belle’s parents die, meaning she is penniless and thus no longer a suitable wife, or at least not to the bottom-line minded Ebenezer Scrooge.  She thus releases him from his obligation.  The pain of having to relive this heartache causes him to beg the spirit to take him away.  Ebenezer is back in his bedroom briefly before outside he hears the laughing beckon of the Ghost of Christmas Present (voiced by Jim Carey).  Through this new spirit, Ebenezer gets to see the way in which his contemporaries view him.  He presumes they will have horrible things to say about him, and with Fred he is proved partially correct.  Though the diners make fun of him, Fred points out that they should be charitable to his uncle.  Ebenezer is not prepared for this kindness, nor for what he sees at the Cratchit’s table.  Even though Ebenezer is harsh, Bob proposes a toast to his boss because what little they have is made possible by him.  Mrs. Emily Cratchit (voiced by Leslie Manville) is not thrilled by this compliment, but her objections are silenced by the sickly but ever hopeful Tiny Tim Cratchit (voiced by Gary Oldman).  So taken is Ebenezer by Tiny Tim that the old man asks the spirit what will become of the boy.  The Ghost of Christmas Present’s prognosis is dire, once more sending Ebenezer into fits of despair.  Thus, it is not long thereafter that he is introduced to the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, looking like death itself.  Indeed, it shows Ebenezer’s own demise, but also that of Tiny Tim and the Cratchit’s sorrow over this event.  The last vision comes when Ebenezer is shown his own grave.  By this point, he is begging to be sent back, promising that he will let these lessons guide the rest of his life, particularly as they relate to December 25^th.  Before he touches the wood in his coffin, he awakens to find himself dangling from the curtains around his bed.  Overjoyed by this, he promptly orders the largest turkey to be sent to the Cratchit’s.  Finally, he travels to Fred’s house, arriving at the moment he had seen the previous night, to present himself for Christmas dinner.  This is essentially where we close, with Ebenezer appreciating others.

The story of Disney’s A Christmas Carol is undoubtedly familiar to many of you, as it is to me.  That is why I was slightly confused by the ending.  My memory tells me that Ebenezer visits the Cratchit’s on Christmas Day, but we do not see this happen despite the turkey purchase.  Nonetheless, I was satisfied by how the Mouse handled the retelling, despite some embellishments.  I do not recall having this reaction when I saw it in the theater, but tastes can change.  The film also pleased me as a Catholic.  While watching it, I was reminded of the parable of poor Lazarus and the rich man, which you can find in Luke 16:19-31, and is an appropriate one given this Dickensian tale.  Lazarus was ill treated by the rich man while they were living, yet when they died, the former went to Heaven and the latter went to Hell.  The rich man sees Lazarus in the “bosom of Abraham” as verse twenty-two describes it, and begs that he be sent back to warn his brothers to be more charitable lest they suffer his fate.  He is told that they have their culture to guide them, but he says that is not enough to save them.  Jacob is allowed to do what the rich man is denied, but after his conversation with Ebenezer, his living counterpart looks outside to see other tormented souls.  One in particular is floating next to a person that cannot see it, though it fervently wishes to help this person.  While the Church is firmly against apparitions, or trying to interact with them on this plane of existence, it does subscribe to the notion that those who have passed before us can help guide us to the right path.  I am speaking, of course, of the lives of the Saints.  In turn, we also pray for the souls of those who have died in order to help them on their way to Heaven.  This last bit would have been an anathema to Dickens, and indeed there is a line in the film about “men of the cloth,” that my anti-Catholic radar took as a slight shot at the Faith.  All the same, the film is a good reminder that while we are still living, there is time to improve our lot, for this life and the next.

Perhaps it is a function of the dreck that I have lately seen that I enjoyed Disney’s A Christmas Carol as much as I did.  I also thought the animation was cool to look at, and added to giving the right feel for the time and place.  It gets a little insane at times in ways that Dickens could scarcely have imagined, but that is Disney for you.  Either way, I would take this one over a legion of other Christmas movies.