MY 11TH FAVORITE MOVIE VILLAIN (PART 1)

Well, another Christmas has gone by and even though I was sick, I still had a nice Christmas. I got what I wanted this year, but I think I missed a present.


I wonder what's in it...

A "Good Guy" Doll. I always wanted one when I was a kid....
 
Oh Crap It's alive and dosen't look like a good guy, it looks like it wants to kill me, but shockling enough this is my 11th favorite Movie Villain.

CHUCKY (VOICED BY BRAD DOURIF)

FROM CHILD'S PLAY 1,2 AND 3

This was a favorite of mine when I was in Middle School. I loved Chucky as a villain. He's scary, psychotic and fun to watch. I remember seeing his image on VHS cases of him when I was a kid and I was scared. My friend also had a Doll of him and on the night I was sleeping over, I was afraid that she was going to put the Doll in my bed, while I was sleeping. I enjoy this Villain so much that I enjoy watching him in the sequels. So this discussion on why I enjoy this Villain so much is going to be divided into three separate posts from Childs's Play 1 to 3.

For those who are wondering why I'm not including "The Bride Of Chucky" and "The Seed Of Chucky", two reasons. The first reason is I see these two movies as a series of it's own despite being a sequel to the previous three, since Chucky is now married; looks different; has a partner and the films are not even called "Child's Play". The main reason is I think these two movies are the goofiest ones out of all the Chucky films. Sure Chucky was goofy in the sequels but at least he still managed to be scary. In this, he's over the top goofy and isn't scary. Sure he has that cool scar but that doesn’t save him from being flat out funny. Even his wife is annoying and when we got to the final film, it's more of a parody on Chucky and pop culture than a horror flick. OK I find the last two entertaining, but they don't add up to when Chucky was solo and became an over the top but scary and respected slasher villain. Now with that out of the way let's talk about Chucky in the first film.

WARNING:THERE WILL BE SPOILERS



Chucky wasn't a Doll that magically came to lige. It's actually a killer’s soul transferred into a Dolls body. The killers name is Charles Lee Ray but his nickname is Chucky and he is best known as "The Lakeshore Strangler". He spends most of his time with his close friend John, who teaches him Voodoo spells. However, John disapproves him for using the spells for evil instead of good. His partner in crime is Eddie, who backs him up in shoot outs and is the getaway driver. His name Charles Lee Ray is named after three killers, Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald and James Earl Ray. This guy looks scary and I wish at the time they would do a prequel on his back-story because I would really love to see more of Chucky when he was a human. By the way is it just me or does he kind of look like "A Good Guy Doll"? Getting to the origin, one night during a shoot out with Detective Mike Norris, his partner Eddie leaves him behind as a Cop Car chases Eddie. With Detective Norris on his tail he hides in a Toy Store. While hiding out in the Toy Store, Detective Norris finds him and shoots him. Chucky quickly hides from him again and finds out he is dyeing. He finds a Doll and uses one of the Voodoo spells to transferee his soul into the Dolls body. Before he performed the spell, he vowed that he is going to kill Eddie and the detective.



Chucky now a Doll spends the first half of the movie acting like a Doll. He is found by a homeless peddler and sells the Doll to a woman named Karen so she can give it to her six year old son Andy as a Birthday present. Andy becomes very attached to the Doll and starts hearing weird things from The Doll. Chucky tells him his name and says he was sent from heaven by his Dad to play with him. However, Chucky makes Andy look like he's mentally ill and frames him for murders that Andy didn't commit. I think my favorite shocking moment of Andy talking about the doll being alive is when he tells her Mom that Chucky said "Aunt Maggie was a real bitch and got what she deserved". In the first half of the film, Chucky commits murders and we don't see him commit them. We just see through his eyes; see foot prints; hear him laughing; get a quick glimpse of him running across the room; and see his hand picking up things. Kind of like what they did to the Shark in "Jaws", not seeing the shark but makes the audience knows it's there. These scenes are creepy because you don't know what the Doll is up too or if it will pop out giving the audience a heart attack. If they're trying to make it look like Andy did it, it's not scary. I mean we feel bad for the kid because he's telling the truth and nobody believes him and thinks he's nuts but we all know it's Chucky because of the poster; see the killer transferring his soul into the body; hearing what Andy says to his Mom about Chucky's identity; and of course the sequels.

Chucky's first victim is Andy's Aunt Maggie who is good friends with his mother. She babysits on the night of his Birthday while Karen is working late. At first she think Andy is playing games with her but then she feels like she's not alone with Andy. Chucky hits her in the head (Off Screen) with a Toy hammer which sends her flying out the window. Odd way to die but I'll take it. Hey, if you're laughing at this, so is Detective Norris's buddy when he sees the weapon.

Chucky's second victim is his partner Eddie. He gets the kid to take him downtown to see his "friend" Eddie. While Andy goes to take a "Tinkle" Chucky sneaks into Eddies house, opens the stove oven and turns on the gas making the gas spread around the kitchen. Eddie hears Chucky's laugh and thinks he's in the kitchen. He burst opens the door and shoots, KA-BOOM he's dead for accidentally shooting the stove in a room full of gas. WOW these two murders should be on the TV show "A Thousand ways to die".



Andy is sent to a mental asylum for being crazy and suspected of committing those murders because he tells them his Doll did it. Karen comes home and discovers there's no batteries in the Doll and it's been moving on it's own the whole time. She threatens the Doll to talk by throwing it into the fire place if it doesn't talk. This then results to the first time we see the Doll alive. Chucky response is "You stupid Bitch! You filthy slut! I'll teach you too F--k with me”! After saying one of his best lines, he bites Karen's arm and tries to strangle her with his bare Doll hands. He gets tossed and escapes to get his next victim Detective Norris. He tries to kill him by strangling him and stab him with his knife while Norris is driving. The car flips over and Chucky is about to kill him when all of a sudden he's shot and runs away.



Chucky then pays a visit to his friend John and asks him why he's bleeding by the gunshot and why it hurts, since nobody can hurt him while he's in the Dolls body. John tells him he's turning human and the more time he spends in that body the more human he becomes. John refuses to tell Chucky how to get out of the dolls body and as a result, Chucky takes a hidden Voodoo Doll of John and breaks John's arms and legs. John finally tells Chucky that to get out of the Dolls body, he must transfer his soul into the first person that he revealed his secret too, which was Andy. Chucky laughs and stabs the Voodoo Doll with his knife causing John to die. This whole sequence is personally one of my favorite killing scenes from "The Child's Play" films.



Chucky then tries to get Andy at the asylum but Andy escapes and Chucky runs after him but not after giving the head Doctor shock therapy on high voltage, resulting his face to be brutally burned while coughing out blood which is another one of my favorite killing scenes from the series. He follows Andy home and instead of going through the locked front door, he goes down the chimney, what a clever killer. He knocks Andy out with a bat and starts his Voodoo chant which always gets me nervous every time this scene comes on. Almost finishing the chant, he is stopped by Karen and Detective Norris. Chucky wounds Detective Norris by cutting his leg and knocking him out with a bat. While he tries to get Andy, the mother tries to stop him. She succeeds by throwing him in the fireplace with a cage in front of him. Just as Andy is about to set him on fire, Chucky sweetly reminds Andy "We're friends till the end, remember?”; Andy then responds in one of the coolest and coldest come back ever "This is the end friend." and sets Chucky on fire. Finally Chucky's dead and the films over...or is it?

 

Chucky is still alive (Looking scarier as ever) and is still after Andy since he's not completely human yet. The mother takes Norris’s gun and shoots Chucky's head, leg off and arm off and now Chucky is now finally dead...or is he? Just as we are completely relaxed, Chucky's hand pops out and tries to strangle Detective Norris's buddy (Who just came in) while Chucky separate head is still talking and his burned body (with only one hand arm and leg) tries to get them. Karen tells Detective Norris to shoot him in the heart since it's the only way to kill him. Chucky is shot in the heart and his last words from his real voice to doll voice is "Hi, I'm Chucky, want to pppppllllllllllaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy." Chucky is now finally dead...or is he?!


TO BE CONTINUED

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

Here's my final Christmas review of the year. A review on a Holiday classic film that I watch every year...



This is my all time favorite Christmas movie and is considered buy many a Christmas classic. But what's so great about it? Why is it my favorite out of all Christmas movies? On With The Review!

I know I been doing this a lot, but since it's a timeless story and I'm going to divide this review into segments.

THE ANGELS

 

After seeing wonderful Christmas cards play out as the opening credits, its Christmas Eve and we hear people praying for a man named George Bailey. The angels in heaven hear the prayers and discover that George is going to commit suicide, so they send an angel in training named Clarence to help him.

The cinematography is shot in glorious Black and White and it beautifully scopes the town of "BedFord Falls" as we hear these dramatic and yet so haunting prayers. I don't know who George is yet, but after hearing the people express their concern about him, I'm crying for him. I even like the angel’s voices since they sound holy and pleasant. When we're in outer space, we see galaxies twinkle as the angels talk to each other. And I hate to say this, but I think the special effect for those scenes are lame, and the planet we pass on our way to see them is obviously a model. As a kid I began to think this movie is going to suck. However, this is just the introduction, maybe the film will get better.

MEETING GEORGE BAILEY



The head Angel shows Clarence a series of flashbacks of George's life by order for him to help him. The flashbacks go through every little thing George has done for his friends and family; as well as his troubles and dreams in life.

I guess I might as well start out with talking about our hero George (James Stewart). George is a man who has brilliant ideas for his future and wants to become a rich successful man. However, this man thinks more with his heart and as a result makes sacrifices to save his father's Building And Loan from the greedy old man Mr.Potter. James Stewart as the character has to be one of the best acted performances I ever seen in film history. He makes the character completely likable and identifiable by having a good hearted personality and showing his struggles with his life that most of us go through. Every speech, monologue and lines he says are just so powerful and emotionally played out that it shows how great of an actor James Stewart is. I even find the character as a good role model for audiences because he's basically the same as you and me. He has dreams of doing big things, but has so much difficulty with his life, dreams, and himself that it makes him forget the kindness he's done for others. He's truly one of the best characters in cinema history.

His love interest Mary (Donna Reed) is another character that you love. You can tell since her childhood that she's in love with George and will do anything to marry him. She's just one of those girls that sticks to the person she's in love with since day 1. Every scene with her and George is magically romantic and brings tears of joy. My personal favorite scene is when they're by an old house making wishes; singing "Buffalo Gal"; joking around; and George telling Mary he’ll lasso the moon and give it to her. There are also plenty of other great scenes of them together such as the dance scene; when Mary turns an old wrecked house into a dream house; and whenever they're sharing the house phone together that many of critics love to analyze they're love and connection through those few scenes. This is one romance that is impossible not feel any love.

Our Villain Mr.Potter (Lionel Barrymore) is one of the best cinema villains in cinema history. He's greedy, mean, and enjoys acting like that everything revolves around him. He's the Scrooge that will never ever change even when you do send three ghosts to his home. If the future doesn't concern him and only others, he'll just smile and wave the spirit off. I'm not going to go too much in detail about the villain because I want to save it when I talk about him on my villains list. But just trust me when I say this, he maybe a crippled old man, but money is his power.

The supporting characters are as lovable and memorable as the two main characters are. You have the absent minded bank worker Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell); the cop Bert (Ward Bond) and his buddy Ernie (Frank Faylen) the cab driver; George's ex boss Mr. Gower (H.B. Warner); Mr.Martini (William Edmunds) the Italian immigrant; the flirty blonde Violet (Gloria Grahame); and so much more. They're all just wonderful characters, where even the characters that only show up for a short period of time leave this huge impression on you! Take my favorite films the first two Godfather films for example. Every character in that film (including the characters that show up for a short time) is so well played and is so important to the story, that you just can’t forget them, and not see the actors themselves just putting on a performance. That's exactly what this film brings. It’s just so perfectly casted to help make these characters truly shine! By the way, do you know that's a grown up Alfalfa (From "Our Gang" Aka The Little Rascals) as the jealous annoying boy dating Mary at the school dance?

One of the many reasons why I enjoy this film is the historic fiction. Notice that most of the events that are happening to George are what happened to people in history. The school dance scene takes place in the roaring twenties, which shows the fun that people had at the time. The famous run on the Bank scene takes place during the "Great Depression” which shows the people’s struggles at that time and how poor the banks were. And the film shows the trouble the country had during World War 2 in a montage of our main characters helping out the country. The war also becomes one of the big reasons why George is important to the lives of people around him. The historic fiction doesn't just play big part in the plot, but also plays a big part in one of the many morals that this film brings. It shows life's ups and downs as it is seen through the eyes of this one man that we can relate too.

The cinematography is once again fantastic by visually showing our characters emotions; and showing things that will be important later on. What I really enjoy in the flashback of George's life is we're watching this with the angels. At first it's blurry, but then shows a clear picture, and on a few occasions the angels would say a word or two; narrate what's going on; and even stop the picture. The use of black and white fits the film so well as other classic black and white films ("Casablanca", "Citizen Kane", "To Kill A Mockingbird", "Raging Bull", "Schindler's list") by help giving the film it's atmosphere and emotion, that if it was colorized it wouldn’t be as effective.

CHRISTMAS EVE



Potter has stolen the 8,000 dollars that Uncle Billy misplaced and will result with George going to jail and foreclosure on the Building And Loan. George is depressed and is ready to throw away his greatest gift...his life.

This is the most depressing part of the film. George's emotions are so strong that it's hard not to cry or feel his pain. Every scene with him in this part is just flat out sad. The scene that always gets to me is when George comes home all sad and angry. He's yelling at his kids; complaining about his house and family; upset that his youngest daughter is sick; and destroys his blueprints and model of the bridge, which symbolizes his dreams of becoming rich, going around the world, and building things that are larger than life being shattered into tiny pieces and are impossible to put back together. It’s a very sad sequence. The scene when he's praying at the bar is also another painfully heartbreaking moment thanks to how well Stewart perfectly sells out the sadness so authentically. Donna Reed's acting is just as emotional as Stewart’s. Sure she's not as dramatic as Stewart is, but when you look at her face throughout the whole scene when George comes home, you can sense that she feels a disturbance about her husband and is legitimately worried.

GEORGE'S WISH



The guardian Angel Clarence (Henry Travers) rescues George from killing himself and tries to comfort him. George, still discouraged, wishes he was never born. Clarence grants his wish and shows him an alternate reality.

Henry Travers as the child like Angel Clarence plays the role as lovable as James Stewart is. He's friendly, humble, and always remains claim. He's not over the top; he's not boring; he's played just right. The scenes that are really haunting is when he tells George what happened to his friends and relatives as he keeps on reminding him that he's not born. James Stewart's performance in this whole sequence is as amazing as all the other scenes. At first he denies that he hasn't been born, but as this part moves on, he starts believing his wish has been granted and realizes how much of a huge impact he left to the people around him, and he just A plus’ every single reaction that help make this alternate timeline so grim.

This whole entire sequence is like a mixture between "A Christmas Carol" and "The Twilight Zone". It's one of the most nightmarish sequences ever created for film. Every thing changed for the worst including the characters we all know and love, where the cinematography, the acting, the writing, and use the black and white are all what make it so intense. I'm not going to tell you what happens, but I will share one scene that's just sad and haunting. Just to give you an example on how effecting this movie is, George sees the grave of his brother who drowned in an ice pond at the age of 9. He rejects this fact and tells Clarence that he was a war hero who saved the lives of his fellow troops. Clarence regrettably tells George that those men died at war because George wasn't there to save his brother. This puts George in shock as Clarence tells George that he did have "A Wonderful life" and what a waste it would be to throw it away. This whole sequence tells the viewers that we all play an important role and that sometimes we have a tendency to forget that, which is execute so flawlessly.

Some people question why Clarence didn't tell George where the money is, since he saw Potter steal it? My answer to that plot hole is George wouldn't learn anything. The goal for Clarence to help George is to show him what a wonderful person he is. If he just gave him the money, he'll be relieved but he wouldn't realize what a good person he is and if something terrible happens to him again, he'll try to kill himself again and not realize how he effects the lives of other people. It'd be like if Glinda just told Dorothy in “The Wizard Of Oz” that she always had the power to go home once she met The Wicked Witch. What would she learn if she just went home without the journey, nothing. She would just go home; still feel miserable; and will just runaway again. The journey was for her to realize that "There is no place like Home" and that you can't run away from trouble because trouble will keep following you. This part is the film's journey and without this journey, there's no moral, no lesson, and no point in telling the story. I'm not going to tell you how it ends, but I will say it's one of the best endings in film history that touches your heart strings.

 OVERALL THOUGHTS

 

"It's A Wonderful Life" is not only one of the best Christmas films ever made, it's also one of the best movies ever made. This film never gets old and only gets better and better. The story is so timeless that's it been done to death many, many times and yet still does not live up to the greatness to this film. It's also been made fun of to death by doing it the other way around by having a bad life and finding out that the worlds better without you. That doesn't just kill the moral but it's also depressing and unfunny. I can't find a single funny twist on the films story that's funny. Even my favorite critic Doug Walker couldn't make that twist funny, but it still had a few moments. This is one film that can't be remade because its fine the way it is. You can duplicate the story all you want or try to make a crappy sequel or spin off of this (Sadly, they did in the 90's with the angel Clarence), but it won't match up to the beauty of this film. If you haven't seen this film yet, see it in its original glorious black and white. It truly is a wonderful Christmas film.

RATING 5/5

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

THE NUTCRACKER PRINCE

     


I really don't care too much for "The Nutcracker" but I'm going to review one of the adaptions anyway.

"The Nutcracker Prince" is an animated version of the classic Christmas Story and since most of us know the story, I'm going to divide this review into sections.

CLARA'S GIFT
 

We are introduced to our main character Clara (Voiced by Megan Follows) who receives a Nutcracker given to her by Toy Maker Uncle Drosselmeyer (Voiced by Peter Boretski) at a Christmas party.

So far I like the characters. Clara (Who sort of looks like Wendy from Disney's "Peter Pan) is a character I immediately began to love. She's growing up, but she still has the heart of a child. She's just so free spirited and childish that you can't help but enjoy every minute of the Christmas fun she's having. Her little brother is also enjoyment to watch because he resembles the young sibling most of us have lived with. He can be annoying to Clara or might accidentally break something, which makes her mad, but you still love him because that's what younger siblings do to their older ones. Also seeing him play with his toys and playing with his sister reminds the people who have a young sibling enjoy the benefits there are to having one.

Uncle Drosselmeyer in my opinion is the best character I seen so far. He's like a mix between Willy Wonka and the wizard Merlin. Mysterious and weird, but is a good hearted guy and someone you always love to be around. This guy even knows how to make an entrance and surprise people. Even though he's not related to Clara he still prefers to be called Uncle, what a sweet man.

The animation so far is very nice and brings that feeling of Christmas. The party scene is beautifully animated; the design for Uncle Drosselmeyer's toy matronic magic castle is cool; and the Christmas Tree has to be one of the best animated Christmas Trees I ever seen. I will admit that as nice as the animation is, it does seem to come off as a cheap Disney knock-off with some of its character designs, landscapes, and overall colorful and whimsical look and feel. But I personally don't find it to be that distracting, not to say that I can't see why people would be distracted by it.

THE NUTCRACKER TALE


After when Clara's little brother accidentally broke The Nutcrackers jaw, Uncle Drosselmeyer calms Clara down and tells her the story of The Nutcracker. The Nutcracker's back story takes place in a kingdom far, far away and the wicked Mouse Queen put a spell on the princess and made her look ugly. It is up to Drosselmeyer to find a way to break the spell and make her beautiful again. Sadly, it all ends tragic. The princess is beautiful again, but Drosselmeyers nephew has been turned into a Nutcracker and the Mouse Queen's dumb son is now the Mouse King and seeks revenge.

Good story and very tragic IF IT WAS TAKEN SERIOUSLY! After seeing likable humble characters and nice animation everything now looks like a Saturday Morning Cartoon. The animation for the back story looks worse than the princess’s ugly face. It's too over the top, seems out of place, and looks very sketchy.

The characters are so obnoxious that they come out as annoying instead of funny and likable. The King looks like the Looney Tunes character Yoesamite Sam; the queen looks like a rejected Animanics character; The Princess is ugly even before she was turned ugly; The Mouse King (Our main Villain of the film) is a over the top loser that's not funny or threatening; and to make things more cartoonish, comedic voice actress Phyllis Diller is the Mouse Queen's voice. They even had the guts to make Drosselmeyer look as cartoonish and annoying as the characters are. The only normal one is his nephew, but he comes out as a very bland character.

This part is tragic because everything's different and out of place and doesn't use the same style and tone as the beginning. What a sad way to make a sad story not so sad.

THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING


At midnight as Clara sneaks down to see her Nutcracker; Uncle Drosselmeyer magically appears sitting on top of the clock and the toys come to life (Including The Nutcracker) to battle The Mouse King (Voiced by Mike MacDonald).

In the scene when Clara sneaks down stairs to see her Nutcracker, the traditional music is playing and the animation for that scene is so lightly dark that it adds to the atmosphere of the scene. However, that all changes fast when she's dancing and singing to The Nutcracker. Not that it's not a beautiful scene, but I felt like they just threw it in there to have a musical moment, like they do in most non musical Christmas films like "The Polar Express" for example.

When the mice start attacking it looks just as out of place as the back story. They're all acting goofy and silly, and are led by the biggest goofball in the whole flashback, The Mouse King. Surprisingly, the Mouse King is not as dumb as he was in the back story; he now looks threatening and scary. He's bigger than he was before; has the eyes of a demon ; and ugly teeth. He also appears out of nowhere keeping the audience off guard and will kill anyone to get to The Nutcracker Prince. OK he still has that over the top personality and there are a lot of "You hurt my tail" jokes, but he never stops being scary. Man, what an improvement.

When the toys come to life they're as likable as the human characters. Clara's new Doll Marie (Voiced by Elizabeth Hanna) is the funny bratty annoying character that complains a lot and is willing to fight anyone that messes with her hair, dress etc etc. Clara's old doll Trudy (Voiced by Lynne Gorman) is humble and sweet, but finds clever ways to kick the mice's butts. The old sergeant Pantaloon (voiced by Mr. "Lawrence Of Arabia" himself, Peter O'Toole) is a smart character, but is a very reluctant fighter. He can be a tad bit over the top, but he's still a fun and pleasant character.

The Nutcracker Prince (Voiced by Kiefer Sutherland) came from being a bland character from the back story, to a lovable hero. When he comes to life he's confused and doesn't know he's been turned into a doll. When he finds out, you feel just as bad for him as you seen him turn into one. Even though he hasn't fought before, he's still smart and very brave. When he sees Clara you can feel his love for her just as much Clara loved him.

The fight is over the top, but at least not as cartoony as the back story. It has a decent amount of seriousness and comedy. The duel between The Nutcracker Prince and The Mouse King is wonderfully animated and has a bit of a gruesome result to the younger audience. I also have to praise the animation for the scenes when Uncle Drosselmeyer is sitting on the clock making the toys come to life. It's really incredible.

THE LAND OF THE DOLLS
 

After the Battle, we are taken to "The Land Of The Dolls" a land full of live toys,  sweets, and things Clara dreams of.  The animation for the land is gorgeous, it's just beautiful, every little bit of scenery and character is like something out of a dream. The only part of the animation I thought was very blurry is when Clara and The Nutcracker Prince dance. I do find it a bit disappointing that there's no Sugar Plum fairy like most of the versions, but in context of this adaption you really don't need her.

The romance between Clara and The Nutcracker is very strong and you can feel their love. You don't just focus on their love; you also focus on the love between Pantaloon and Trudy and the love between a toy soldier and Marie. It's just wonderful spending more time with these characters and finding out more about them.

When Clara wants to go home you feel The Nutcracker Prince's heartbreak; you see the toys turn back into mindless toys; mist is covering this beautiful land; and Clara is crying for forgiveness and understanding. It's just so sad to watch and it's painfully emotional. To makes matters worse The Mouse King is still alive looking scary as ever. I'm not going to tell you how it all ends, but I will say you'll be happy and the song playing in the credits "Always Come Back To You" is heart warming and ends the film on the right note.

The film is over the top, but it is for kids and it still takes itself seriously. Could it be better, in many ways yes but it's still fine the way it is. The animation for the most part is beautiful; the story is good; and the characters are likable. Personally I think it's the best of adaption of the story, but remember I'm not really a Nucracker fan, but this is something I'd love to watch again and show to younger audiences.

RATING 4/5

MISTER MAGOO'S CHRISTMAS CAROL

We all know The Charles Dickens classic Christmas Story "A Christmas Carol". A story about a greedy man named Scrooge, who is visited by three ghosts to show him the true meaning of Christmas, which in the end, turns Scrooge into a generous man. Well, surprisingly, this story is such a classic that there are multiple film and TV adaptations of this timeless Christmas Story. Each of them were told in a different way, but kept the same basics of the story and kept the same moral. Even cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse, Mr.Magoo, The Muppets and more do their own adaptation of this story. Every year during The Holiday Season, I will be reviewing one of those adaptations. Since we all know the story by heart, I'm going to break all my reviews on "A Christmas Carol" into 6 parts. First, part will be when we meet Scrooge; the 2nd part is Marley's Ghost; part 3, 4 and 5 will be about each visit of the Three Ghosts; and part 6 will be about the reformed Mr. Scrooge. Now I will warn you that there will be spoilers on my reviews on "A Christmas Carol" since it's a timeless story. With that out of the way lets start with the first one I saw as a child...

 
For those that don't know the animated character Mr.Magoo he was a nearly sighted old man who accidentally causes trouble. He was voiced by comedic actor Jim Backus.

 THE PROLOGUE



In this adaptation there's a Prologue and a Epilogue. The Prologue is about Mr.Magoo getting ready to be in a Broadway Musical of "A Christmas Carol". Throughout the Prologue we see Mr.Magoo singing "It's Great To Be Back On Broadway" and see a lot of Mr.Magoo's classic nearsighted jokes that are so funny that I'm not going to tell you any of them. All I'm going to say is, it's a great way to open the special. The lights are now low, the curtain rises, and the play begins, which now officially starts my review.

 EBENEEZER SCROOGE



We are Introduced to Mr.Scrooge (Played by Mr.Magoo),a man of greed who only cares about his money and thinks Christmas is a "Humbug". This has to be one of the greediest versions of meeting greedy old man Scrooge because he loves his money so much that he sings a song called "Ringle, Ringle" which shows his greediness. When he meets the two men collecting the for poor the only one that talks is the fat, happy man while his assistant his the silent funny character. When they ask Scrooge for a donation, Scrooge says the coldest response (Taken from The Novel") and scares them away.  Not only does he scare away the two men that collect for the poor, but he also scares away poor hungry orphans who sing Christmas Carols for change. Not only does he scare them, but also kicks their donation cup and slams the door on a sad little boys face.

Does he treat his workman Bob Cratchit like dirt, yes he does. Instead of Mr.Scrooge dealing with the cold he's in a warm room counting his gold, while Cratchit works in a room that is as cold as a freezer and gives him only one lump of coal for his stove. This defiantly shows Scrooge's selfishness because it shows he can provide comfort for himself, but doesn't provide comfort for others. When Scrooge sings "Ringle, Ringle" a second time Cratchit is in his room singing how cold his workroom is and  is begging Mr.Scrooge for one more lump of coal, does Scrooge respond? No, he just sings and counts.

So far most of the dialogue is taken from the story which a lot of the adaptations do and so far it fits in well. Is the animation good? Well, it looks like it's done on a low budget but it's not bad...so far. What shocks me is this special is taking the story seriously instead of being a cartoon parody, and seeing Mr. Magoo being nasty and greedy instead of being a happy nearsighted man is shocking. With the exception of the Prologue I've only seen one nearsighted joke so far and that's when he's having trouble putting on his scarf.

MARLEY'S GHOST
 

This is the part of the story where people get scared. The Ghost of Scrooge's partner, Jacob Marley, comes to warn Scrooge about his terrible fate, and to save him from that fate, he must expect the visits of Three Ghosts to help reform Scrooge. Do they do a good job of keeping Jacob Marley Scary? Let's find out.

When Scrooge first encounters Jacob Marley's ghost we get a bit of a fright when he responds "SCROOGE!" on his door knocker. Well, when Scrooge sees Jacob a few times in this first version, it's all clever nearsighted jokes. They're funny, but not scary. When we finally meet Marley's Ghost things get scary. As we see him walk up the stairs with chains dragging on the steps, we get a creepy build up. When we see him, he looks scary; almost looks like a zombie; and looks like a poor lost soul that's about to fall apart. One of the many things I find frightening about him is his eyes, they're not red or anything, but they show his emotions and anger. What I think really makes the character terrifying is his voice. He has an evil, God like voice that sounds threatening and demanding. His scream of pain is so stunning that it's hard not to get a haunting chill.

The animation for him is obviously creepy (Not to mention that we can see right through him), but when he shows Scrooge the ghosts that suffer the same fate he did, they're hard to see; they move very slow; and look more funny then scary. Once again, the dialogue from the story fits in well and Marley's Ghost still manages to be scary.

THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PRESENT



Our first ghost that visits Scrooge is (You know it)...The Ghost Of Christmas Present. Wait a minute in all of the adaptations I've seen The Ghost Of Christmas Past comes first. Why is the second spirit first? I don't know. We all know The Ghost Of Christmas Present is the one that shows Scrooge the Holiday cheer, but that's like in the middle of the story. Is this a good idea putting the second spirit first or is it a bad idea?

The Ghost Of Christmas Present is as jolly as saint nick himself. When you first see him, already you smile and laugh at his cleverly written nearsighted joke on Scrooge. His voice is a mixture between God and Santa Claus and it fits his character perfectly. When he tells Scrooge about Tiny Tims future, you get a bit of teary eye, which also results to a flashback that Scrooge said about people dying, which really makes our main character think.

The people he shows Scrooge having a Merry Christmas is Bob Cratchit's family. I personally think this is the best scene of the Cratchit family out of all the others versions of the story and sticks with people more, including the younger audience. When you first see the family, you see them in a poor house, but they're smiling and laughing and The Ghost tells Scrooge why they're happy and that is "Love". As Bob Cratchit walks in with his crippled son, Tiny Tim; Tiny Tim smiles and giggles, but at the same time Bob tells his wife about what he said about hoping that somebody would help him.

The part that really sticks the moral of this visit is the song "Lord's Brights Blessing" sung by the Cratchit family. You see the kids singing and asking if they could have a tree; toys; and a hen, while Tiny Tim keeps adding his cute and funny line with Razzleberry (Insert which kind). As Bob Cratchit sings with powerful vocals, he tells his children, we can't afford it, but we have the lord's bright blessing and we're together and that's what matters. As the song ends, we get a look at the Christmas Star and cut back to the Cratchit family saying "God Bless Us" adding with Tiny Tim's well known line"God Bless Us Everyone".

It was weird putting the second ghost first. but it fitted to the story pretty well. The moral to this visit is powerful and the song is memorable.

THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST




This is the tragic part of the story. The Ghost Of Christmas Past shows Scrooge his past on why he became a greedy man. The Ghost Of Christmas Past (I'm assuming) is a boy with a small flame on his head with a spring of holy as a wand. The Ghost doesn't really show too much personality, but he's cute and you can tell he's trying to teach Scrooge a lesson; also if you look carefully he probably enjoys tormenting Scrooge. At the beginning of this visit, Scrooge is acting as if he hasn't been visited by one of the three ghosts yet by denying to leave for reasons that he could have said to the first ghost; the clock strikes 1 regularly instead of moving fast like the first visit; and he looks completely confused. Did he think he was dreaming like in the other versions, or what?

Our first visit is seeing a young Scrooge. When I saw him I immediately got depressed, seeing him all alone in an empty school house crying; drawing pictures of his (I'm guessing) deceased family on the chalkboard; and singing a song with emotional lyrics called "I'm Alone In The World". What really gets the emotions going is Scrooge's expression seeing his young self and singing with him (Even though his young self can't hear him but somehow does). As a kid and even now I just want to cheer the kid up and I'm sure I wasn't the only one.

Our second visit is seeing a happy Scrooge working with Jolly old Man Fezziwig and his buddy Dick before he met Jacob Marley. This part is like all the other adaptations of this scene. It releases you from the sad flashback you just saw and makes you feel the Christmas spirit. It's just wonderful to see a happy Scrooge; a fantastic Christmas party; a good partner; and seeing Scrooge dance with the love of his life.

The last visit is Scrooge's break up with his lover Belle. Those scenes in the other adaptations are just heartbreaking, but in this one I feel a piece of my heart being chipped. After the sad conversation (Directly from the story) Belle holds a snow globe with a love couple Sleigh riding, remembering the day when Scrooge asked her to be with him while they were sleigh riding. She shakes the snow globe and says "It was Snowing, but we didn't notice". She then sings "Winter Was Warm" of her loss of love and the seasons are allusions to that loss. Spring and Summer were Scrooge's love for her; Fall was their love fading; and Winter is their lost for love. 

A very sad visit and if you're not feeling sad, depressed, or at least get a tear drop after seeing any of these flashbacks, something must be wrong with your emotions.

THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS YET TO COME


This our final spirit, The Ghost Of Christmas Yet To Come AKA Ghost Of Christmas Future. I'm going to be honest, I didn't find The Ghost Of Christmas Yet To Come that scary in this version. However. now that I look at him now, I do feel a bit scared with his red hood and robe; skeleton hands; floating in mid air; and has no face and no voice. I'm surprised I wasn't stunned by this as a kid.

Our first visit in the future is when we see three business men sniffing snuff boxes IN A KIDS ADAPTION. Wow, talk about what they got away with back then. It mostly just the same dialogue, but it did have a few funny moments. One of the three men has a high pitched voice; and one of them sneezes on his snuff box.

The second visit is when Scrooge sees criminals take away a dead person's belongings and are sold to the fence. Each of these crooks has their own personality. The Fence is cackling old man with one eye; the old hag is bossy; the tall man (Who kind of looks like Goofy) looks dumb, but is smart; and the shortest person is a comic relief character. They also sing a catchy Villain song called "We're Despicable" singing about their love of stealing and how much they enjoy being nasty.

Our Third Visit is Bob Cratchit's house. We go there and instead of seeing a happy family as we did before, we see a sad family, why because Tiny Tim is dead. Whenever this scene comes on, all the happiness you got from the villains song is sucked out of you and makes you sad. With one of the world's saddest dialogue. Not only are you sad, but Scrooge is also as sad as you are.

Our last and final visit is seeing The Future Scrooge. Where is he...DEAD. The animation for the cemetery is really dark and looks as scary as the ghost. When Scrooge sees his grave and begs the ghost for another chance, you're crying for him, but what does the spirit do just coldly points at the grave and disappears in a weird way. When Scrooge is alone in the creepy cemetery sitting by his tombstone surrounded by scary looking trees with branches that look like claws, he sings a sad, beautiful reprise of "I'm All Alone In The World".  Every time I hear the reprise I get the same emotions I had when I saw him as a kid.

This visit is as scary and emotional as all the other great adaptations of the story.

CHRISTMAS DAY


Knowing that Mr.Scrooge has a second chance, he now becomes a kind hearted man of charity.
In his first act of kindness right after he discovers that he's alive, he asks a kid to to buy a big turkey for the Cratchit family and promises to give him gold. This first act of his kindness is full of funny nearsighted jokes that fit Magoo's portrayal of the reformed Scrooge very well.  Best nearsighted joke in the whole special is when Scrooge sees the turkey. When Scrooge literally runs into the two men collecting for the poor, Mr. Scrooge gives them a bag full of gold. The two men (especially the silent one) are funny and so is Mr.Scrooge. What makes me sad is Scrooge doesn't meet the orphan boys he yelled at when he was this greedy miser. Think about how sweet that would be.

Our finale is when Scrooge visits the Cratchit family. At first he's acting mean and then becomes generous by  giving them money, a Turkey, toys, and Razzleberry (Insert what kind). He begins to sing a reprise of "Ringle, Ringle" as he's giving out gifts and instead of it being about his love for money, it's about his love of giving away his money to make people happy. After this funny and heartwarming ending, we end with a reprise of "The Lord's Bright Blessings". It's really a beautiful ending to this special. WAIT IT'S NOT OVER YET....

THE EPILOGUE


After the bows, all I'm going to say is, Mr. Magoo "brought down the house".

This has to be one of the best adaptations to "A Christmas Carol". It tells the same classic story; has great voice acting; memorable songs that bring the Christmas spirit; the animation is decent; and stars an iconic cartoon character who is excellent at being funny, emotional and serious.

RATING 5/5