Advent Calendar 2017! - Day 10

 

Version: A Christmas Carol (1997, dir. Stan Philips)

Now here's a far less impressive animated version. The character designs are ever so slightly better here; Scrooge looks as old as he should and the bright pink on his sleeves and lapels gives him an admirably garish nightgown. However, this is yet another version that omits the date portion of the conversation, instead skipping straight to buying the turkey. The animation quality is also pretty low tier but the vocal performances give it life. Tim Curry is a very distinctive Scrooge and the urchin has an excellent Dickensian accent.

So far we've looked at two animated versions of this scene and both of them have featured fun animal sidekicks for Scrooge (the previous scene had some mice that Scrooge has an existential crisis at between asking the urchin the date and asking him to buy the turkey). I wonder what possessed these film makers to make such a bold addition to Charles Dickens' original story, and whether or not Dickens would have approved. Is the addition of a dog to the urchin scene something the original creator would have made to update the story for the 21st Century, like how George Lucas considers his most recent Original Trilogy edits to be the 'completed' versions? These are the questions that haunt me every day.

Framing 7 out of 10.
Scrooge's Reaction To The Date 0 out of 10.
Urchin Accent 9 out of 10.
Window Height 9 out of 10.
Scrooge Nightgown Quality 8 out of 10.
Urchin Cap Quality 7 out of 10.
   
Final Score 6.7 out of 10. It's okay, but it's let down by the lack of a date reaction.