1. Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962) featuring the voice of Jim Backus as Mr. Magoo
2. Scrooge (1970) starring Albert Finney
3. The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
4. Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983)
5. Maxine's Christmas Carol (2000)
Five Video Adaptations of A Christmas Carol Released in 2020
6. Christmas on the Square (2020) starring Christine Baranski, and featuring original music by Dolly Parton (available on Netflix)
7. A Nashville Christmas Carol (2020) starring Jessy Schram and Wynonna Judd, and featuring the music of Kix Brooks, Sara Evans, and RaeLynn (available on the Hallmark Channel)
8. A Christmas Carol (2020) starring John Brett (available on Amazon Prime)
9. The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special (2020) (available on Disney+)
10. Bill and Ted Face the Music (2020) starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter (in theatres)
Since Christmas Eve 2020 is only ten days or less away, and Corona Virus restrictions are still in place, chances are that you re going to be watching more Christmas movies than ever before. At least one or two of them will probably be adaptations of Charles Dickens' "ghost story of Christmas," A Christmas Carol. To help you decide which adaptations to watch or re-watch, I make the above recommendations.
Full disclosure: The above list is actually two lists, and the second list (6 through 10) are movies I recommend solely because they were released this year; I haven't even seen Bill and Ted Face the Music, which was released in theatres. The dozens of other adaptations available to me, at home, are good enough to keep me entertained until it's released on DVD or a streaming service.
Furthermore, the adaptation starring John Brett is one of the worst adaptations I've ever seen. Although it's significantly modernized, and features footage of people using smart phones, it's not an improvement on the 1951 adaptation starring Alastair Sim.
The first five are the adaptations which I find myself re-watching the most.
Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol was released the year I was born, so it's probably the first one I've seen, and the one I've the most. I find it very clever, funny, heart-warming, and nostalgic. It also has several original songs, including "We're Despicable" and "All Alone in the World!"
Albert Finney's Scrooge is a live-action musical, with several dance numbers. I find it also very clever, funny, heart-warming, and nostalgic. Original songs from this film include "I Hate People", "I Like Life," "December the 25th," and "Thank You Very Much!"
The Muppet Christmas Carol is another adaptation which I find very clever, funny, heart-warming, and nostalgic. Original songs by Paul Williams include "Marley and Marley," "Bless Us All," and "When Love Is Gone," the latter being cut from the theatrical adaptation, but can still be found on the DVD and BluRay copies if you navigate their menus correctly.
Mickey's Christmas Carol may have but one original song ("Oh, What a Merry Christmas Day!"), but it, like Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, this adaptation is short and sweet. The artwork and animation are classic examples of why Disney is so successful.
Maxine's Christmas Carol is another, short, animated adaptation. Based on the Hallmark Card comic character, Maxine, it is less sweet and more sarcastic, but funny and endearing, nevertheless.
If you're still looking for an adaptation of A Christmas Carol to suit you better, you might find Twelve Hundred Ghosts inspiring; it features clips from four hundred adaptations. Someone named kuzzn also has a sortable list, on IMDb.com, of more than two hundred adaptations. It can be sorted by date of release, from oldest to newest or visa-versa, or by other things, such as runtimes and ratings, as well as alphabetically.
Happy hunting and viewing!
Guest post by William Mortensen Vaughan
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