A Christmas Carol Film Analysis

Marciniak points out that ‘fascination with performers’ is one of the aspects of adaptations that provide pleasure to the audience. Audiences often choose to watch a particular film adaptation because they appreciate the interpretation of a particular role. If we don’t love the actor who plays our favourite character, we might not be able to enjoy a film. This paper suggests that the use of well-established Disney characters in the 1983 adaptation of A Christmas Carol, “Mickeys’ Christmas Carol” makes it viable for the novelette to be condensed to a 25 min short film. It further argues that the appropriateness of certain casts is dependent on the shortness of the video. It also establishes that the existence of a backstory for each actor in the movie makes the work much richer and open to interpretations. The familiarity and understanding of the actors by the audience, helps the quick-paced movie convey the story and the spirit without leaving gaps in narration and leaving the characters vague and undefined. The paper tries to discuss a few instances of the actors such as Goofy playing Jacob Marley and Willie the giant playing the Ghost of Christmas Present bringing in …show more content…
The movie is directed and produced by Burney Mattinson who has been working for Disney since 1953. The movie was billed as Mickey’s ‘big-screen comeback’, as his last appearance in a film was 30 years before in 1953. The film was released along with a ‘The Making of Mickey’s Christmas Carol’ video. Thomas Leitch, in his book Film Adaptation and Its Discontents says, ‘An important function of “The Making of Mickey’s Christmas Carol” is to shift the subject of “Classic” from Dickens to Disney by invoking a background history that belongs exclusively to the Disney franchise’. He suggests ‘Rooting Dickens in Disney Prehistory’ as a more accurate title for the