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Favorite "A Christmas Carol" adaptation?
There's a million of these adaptations, both direct adaptations of Scrooge himself, and parodies featuring various other characters. Which one did you grow up seeing the most? Which one do you find yourself coming back to? I just rewatched the Patrick Stewart one myself, which is the one I've seen the most.
It's gotta be the Muppets one for me, no contest. There's just something special to me when the story is told incredibly well, has a bit of levity with some the Muppets behaviors and in the middle of all of this, you have Michael Caine playing Scrooge incredibly straight laced as if he isn't in a film surrounded by muppets.
I don't normally do the annual Christmas movie thing most people do, but if I did this one would probably be it.
(screaming at no one) THIS IS MY HILL TO DIE UPON, THE SUPERIOR TALE OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL!! Honestly though, very stoked that this is the top comment right and the comment right beneath this is also Muppets! It's such a delightful telling and faithful to the source material. I love the music for it! I will say, if you watch it on Disney plus, I believe you need to do the extended version of you want the full version. They cut a musical number or two from the Christmas past section if I recall correctly.
Specifically, they cut "The Love is Gone" from every version after the original theatrical release IIRC. Apparently it was "too sad" for audiences. However, doing this cuts not only a beautiful song, but also breaks the introduction of the musical theme that gets reprised with "The Love We Found" at the end of the movie!
It's been an important part of my family's tradition to go pause the movie and watch the deleted scene at the appropriate moment for years, until literally just in the last year or two Disney added the fixed verison back up to Disney+ (you still have to go out of your way to find the correct "extended" version though, just hitting play will still get you the cut version.)
Yes, thank you! I couldn't quite remember which one they had cut. And you're right, it's so good because of the emotions AND the reprisal!!
I had my wife watch this with me last year - her first ever Muppets movie as well. It was so good to go back to it after all those years and still enjoy it.
I personally feel that the Muppet Christmas Carol is not only the best adaptation, but probably the best Christmas movie in general. It's very faithful to the Dickens -- sometimes shockingly so, with larges passages of the script just being direct quotes -- but what is ultimately a somewhat macabre story is infused with charm and life thanks to the trademark Muppet camp. I also feel that the Muppet format synergizes neatly with the original text's sort of morality-play premise. But the best part is Michael Caine, who as the leading man plays things ramrod straight opposite his feltish costars, which lends the whole thing both a substantial degree of gravitas and, in hindsight, a certain delightful absurdity.
When a cold wind blows it chills you, chills you to the bone.
I'll cosign you and @nonoadomo on that
no cheeses for us meeses
Truly the cruelest 🧀
You're a little absent minded spirit.
No I'm a large absent minded spirit!
"Feltish costars" is not a phrase I ever thought I would read, so thanks for that :)
I have to put A Christmas Story up at least equal.
Scrooged, for sure. It holds up even 40 years later, it certainly has to be remembered as one of the most "Bill Murray" performances of Bill Murray.
Yep, Scrooged is my pick, but I've also been on a bit of a Bill Murray kick lately.
Bill Murray, Carol Kane, Bobcat Goldthwait, Alfre Woodard, David Johansen!
It has to be Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol, for me.
After my first wife died winter of 2013, a line within the episode, "half way out of the dark", brought me to tears and gave me hope.
FYI, your link is borked. Unlike on reddit, you don't need to escape closing brackets in markdown links on Tildes.
[Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol_(Doctor_Who))
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Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol
Odd. That's what Three Cheers created for me. But it doesn't know about the escaping, I suppose.
Fixed
Oh, weird. Must be a bit of a bug.
cc: @talklittle, does Three Cheers automatically escape closing brackets in URLs when it creates a markdown link? If so, it doesn't need to do that for Tildes, and doing it actually breaks markdown links here.
Thanks for the ping. The app is escaping brackets. I'll fix the bug in the next update.
NP. Thanks again to you too, for all your hard work. :)
I do enjoy this version quite a bit, the Muppets win for me but this was a well done time travel edition of the story.
I really like the adaptation from 1984. Whenever I feel down, I re-watch it, or at least the end - the dark scene at the graveyard and the even darker scene before that... and then the joyous closing part; that is like an anti-depressant to me.
It is freely available on YouTube: link
I'm going to go with the nepotism answer and say the performance that the Goodman Theatre in Chicago performs every year - my sister works on the stage management team. This year they have a big shakeup as Larry Yando has retired from playing Scrooge after 16 consecutive years.
While I also love the Muppets version, the one I grew up with was Scrooge (1970) another musical adaptation of the story. It's made by the same guy who did Oliver! (and is quite similar in style to it, I think). It's not going to beat out the Muppets for most people, but I think it's an underrated adaptation!
My dad saw it in theaters as a kid and thus had a lot of nostalgia for it, so this was the version he bought for us on home video and we watched every Christmas. It's on the longer end (more than 30 minutes longer than the Muppet Christmas Carol), but it's a pretty faithful adaptation with some catchy tunes. My parents still sometimes sing "Thank You Very Much" and "I Hate People" around the house. And as an adult I really appreciate how good the makeup is -- Albert Finney's acting in the role is generally quite good but it's more impressive when you realize he was actually in his mid-30s!
This is also my favorite adaptation. I still love the Muppet Christmas Carol, however I feel like there's no better Scrooge than Albert Finney.
I sing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5RMZ3pF_3Q with my daughter whenever Thanksgiving is over and we are in a store with Christmas decorations.
It simply isn't Christmas until I see Scrooge.
I like the Patrick Stewart one. I like how it is low budget and has good actors. Many of the actors will be familiar to people who have watched other popular shows over the years. For example, Mrs Cratchit is played by the actress who is Catherine Standish in "Slow Horses", and Fred is played by Dominic West from "The Wire". Another thing I like about it is how it also has some dialog that is directly lifted from the book.
I'm not sure if a lot of people have seen it since it is not regularly available to stream. Here is the IMDB page. It is apparently currently available on Paramount and Fubu, and on a few other services for rent.
Conversely, an adaptation that I really do not like is the Robert Zemekis/Jim Carrey cartoon from 2009. It has scenes that have way too much action and swooping around, apparently just because this is possible in a cartoon.
Here is a cartoon version from 1971 that I liked when I was a kid. It's straightforward and not as self-indulgent as the Zemekis one.
A few people mentioned The Muppet Christmas Carol. I think that one is just ok. Maybe I was too old when I saw it the first time so it doesn't have nostalgic charm for me. I don't dislike The Muppets, but sometimes their shtick gets a little repetitive to me.
It was originally released in the beginning of a boom in 3D movies at theaters, so all the swooping around and action were very much attempts to take advantage of that. It was fun enough when I saw it in theaters, but I think without the 3D those elements probably detract from the film.
I went to go see a play titled A Sherlock Carol this past weekend in San Jose. It's essentially a riff on A Christmas Carol, but with Sherlock Holmes in the Scrooge role, while he solves the mystery around Scrooge's death. It was a fun twist.
I'd say A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong. A funny retelling of the story where the BBC broadcast is hijacked by a disaster-prone theater troupe. Complete with a heartwarming background story involving the troupe members that follows the typical "snobby lead member is snobby, then realizes that they care about their friends and find a way to make up for it in the climax" story beats. Except this time we get to see the performance itself instead of just snippets of it, so we get to know what the actual audience sees in those movies!
Peter Pan Goes Wrong is my favorite. For me nothing quite tops the bunk bed scene.
I do love this adaptation. I found them from their shortened awards show version of The play That Goes Wrong. And while I have a harder time staying engaged in their regular sketch comedy show, I really like their plays