A Christmas Carol - Tumblr Posts
Hmmm yeah it’s alright. I like your hat bro.
…
…
…
Marry me
Can someone for the love of god, please, write a fanfic about Tom Jenkins. New or Old I don’t care, but I have searched the internet, looked in every fan-fiction website, and have found nothing. Like please, I get there not being much about the old one because it’s really obscure (and I think I’m the only person on planet earth who fancies the old Tom Jenkins). But the new one? I thought people loved him.
Come on people. Tom Jenkins fan-fiction time is now
Come on look at him. How could you not love this guy?
'A Christmas Carol' - Dickens by Arthur Rackham, 1905
Gratitude List Day 5
Today I cried.
Last year, when my brother-in-law was going to have 4 months (4!!?) of paternity leave, he decided to audition for A Christmas Carol. He was chosen as a supporting cast member and did an excellent job. I loved watching that play.
This year, due to COVID, we weren't sure if any plays were going to happen, but the theater called him up and asked if he would be willing to reprise his role: no audition required. He jumped at the chance and began preparing.
He wanted as many family members as could come to come see it and was given several tickets for the dress rehearsal nights. He passed them out carefully, taking into account who had been able to go last year and who had missed it due to an unfortunate accident and standstill on the freeway.
At the end of passing out the tickets, there happened to be one left for me! What excitement!
The play was earlier tonight. I laughed and clapped. During the broom duel, one of the broomheads went flying across the stage! Ebenezer Scrooge picked it up and used it to add to his astonishment at an earlier Christmas. Later, when Bob Cratchett was sent by a reformed Scrooge to fill up the coal pail, he tripped over it, promoting Scrooge to say, "Now don't you kick the bucket, Bob!" Almost at the end, when the turkey is bought to be sent to the Cratchett home, the butcher came in with his mask on. Like, his COVID mask. He tore it off his face and stuffed it out of sight, but it was too late. The audience had seen it. And the audience LOVED it.
I cried watching this play. At least four times, I cried. There is healing that comes with that emotional release and that was something I needed.
This play, by the way, is going to be recorded a lá Hamilton and released in Megaplex theaters on Dec. 10. I think it'll also be on some sort of streaming service for Broadway plays, but I can't recall the name of it.
How exciting it is to be Christmas time again.
Christmas Eve Again
Every year. Every goddam year this happens. I hate ghosts.
Each year, the weather gets cold, and I get grumpy, and it begins to snow and the roads become slick and potholed and awful. Every year, I end out sitting inside looking for anything both clean and warm enough to wear before once again wearily admitting that I just need to put several of my existing things on over one another.
The maddening part about it is that when everything is settled and done, I'm cold and sitting in a house and just when I think December can't get any worse, the goddam ghosts show up.
Evidently, there are people praying for my soul and it needs to stop. Every year on the 24th of December, I end out getting woken up at 1130 to be told that I'm going to be harassed by three unwanted poltergeists who can't help but pester me about how cheerful and glad Christmas ought to be.
I've had it up to here with this nonsense. No more praying for my soul, your religious freedom isn't adequate reason to work sorcery to plague me with Jehovas Apparitions.
This year, and I mean it, there better not be any ghosts bothering me. I want to wake up, have my coffee, and get on with hating the cold like a sane person.
Good day!
We’re re-reading A Christmas Carol. And all I can think about is…
Cry of Fear Christmas Carol where Simon is Scrooge, or the Scrooge Adjacent figure (because not everything has to be EXACTLY the same as the original.)
That… that is all. I can fucking see it so clearly in my mind. Why is it so fucking clear in my mind to have Simon as Scrooge??
-🍓
Dear Hollywood...
Can you please stop making Scrooge/A Christmas Carol movies already? The concept has been beaten into the ground and there is nothing original that you can do with it anymore.
Ah yes. That classic holiday story about a miser scared of being forgotten after death.
Tis the season we retell the story of threatening a rich man with his own death in order to get him to pay his employees livable wages and not horde money.
Never lose the holiday spirit.
WINNIE THE POOH: SPRINGTIME WITH ROO (Dir: Saul Blinkoff & Elliot M Bour, 2004).
A A Milne meets Charles Dickens in a weird hybrid from a time when Disney’s Pooh franchise had seemingly lost both direction and appeal. At least for anyone above pre-school age. Yes, this is Dickens’ A Christmas Carol re-told for Easter with, despite Roo’s billing, Rabbit as an Easter banning Scrooge.
Walt Disney first filmed Pooh in the animated featurette Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Wolfgang Reitherman, 1966). Two more featurettes followed and were combined in the movie length compilation The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (Reitherman & John Lounsbery, 1977). While some bemoaned the Americanization of Pooh and the replacing of Pooh’s hums with songs by Mary Poppins’ tunesmiths Richard and Robert Sherman, the original shorts were praised for their charming, whimsical nature, delicate storybook-esq animation and general faithfulness to Milne’s text. The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, an animated TV series not directly based on Milne, debuted in 1988. While a success, The New Adventures... marked a distinct change of tone for Pooh. Gone is the innocent charm of the featurettes and of Milne’s tales upon which they were based. Insecurity and doubt have crept into The Hundred Acre Wood. This is a new neurotic Pooh for the modern age. Sadly this mood continued through a series of theatrical and straight-to-video features, most notably the dark and downbeat Pooh’s Grand Adventure (Karl Geurs, 1997). Most of the latter Pooh movies are surprisingly melancholic as is this feature in which, after cancelling Easter, Rabbit is shown, via some heavy handed moralising, the negative impact his actions have on his friends.
At 65 minutes Springtime with Roo is mercifully short. The animation by DisneyToon Studios, while not up to the standard of the theatrical product, is bright and colourful but on the whole this movie is a rather joyless affair. Those wishing to indulge in Pooh would be best advised seeking out The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh or, better still, reading A A Milne’s original literary classics ‘Winnie the Pooh’ and ‘The House at Pooh Corner’.
100+ movie reviews now available on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
A FLINTSTONES CHRISTMAS CAROL (Dir: Joanna Romersa, 1994).
Geological puns abound, as Fred Flintstone stars as Ebonezer Scrooge against Barney Rubble’s Bob Cragic in this modern Stone Age retelling of Charles Dickens’ Christmas classic.
The Flintstones is, of course the enormously successful animated TV sitcom from Hanna-Barbera which aired for 6 seasons between 1960 and 1966. That this movie was made 30 years after the heyday of the show demonstrates the continued enduring popularity of the franchise.
Rather than a straight adaptation of Dickens’ familiar tale of festive redemption, A Flintstones Christmas Carol takes a tip from Mr Magoo’s Christmas Carol (Abe Leviton, 1962) and presents the story as a play within a story. So, running parallel to the events of the Bedrock Community Players performance of A Christmas Carol, we have the story of Fred, so engrossed in his role of Scrooge that he neglects his family duties until the lines between he and Ebonezer begin to blur.
Casting The Flintstones in the roles of Dickens’ characters is a nice idea. Not a particularly original idea, but I can see the appeal. The backstage story which runs alongside it is less engaging and the two strands work against each other to make for a somewhat choppy narrative. It isn’t a bad movie; made for US TV, the standard of animation is a shade better than normal Saturday morning fare and there is undeniable nostalgic value for those of a certain age.
Yet what is appealing in a 25 minute TV show is not quite as fun when stretched to nearly three times that length. While I enjoy The Flintstones on TV, I found A Flintstone Christmas Carol a little bit of a chore to watch come the halfway mark. Still, while it is a little disappointing in the story department, its colourful animation is above average and it does provides some mild chuckles. However, I think a straight version of the tale would have been better and can’t help but feel this somewhat of an opportunity missed. Longtime fans will probably get a kick out of the movie, but it’s not quite the ‘gay old time’ it might have been.
Visit my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME to read a longer, more in-depth review of A Flintstones Christmas Carol! Link below.
SCROOGE aka A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Dir: Brian Desmond Hurst, 1951).
Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol is the second most famous Christmas story ever told. It must also rank as the most filmed piece of literature of all time, with countless movie and TV adaptations surfacing yearly. For many, me included, this 1951 adaptation is the best version.
Scrooge (it retained its published title A Christmas Carol in the US) is, of course, the tale of the embittered miser who loathes his fellow man and mistreats his overworked, underpaid employee Bob Cratchit. The old curmudgeon is offered the chance of redemption on Christmas Eve when he is visited by four spirits who take him on a journey through his past, present and future to show him the error of his ways.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME! Link below.
SCROOGE (Dir: Henry Edwards, 1935).
This early British 'talkie' stars Sir Seymour Hicks stars as Ebenezer Scrooge, the yuletide loathing rotter who finds redemption when visiting spirits show him the error of his ways, much to the gratification of his overworked, under payed employee Bob Cratchit (Donald Calthrop).
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Dir: Edwin L Marin, 1938).
Produced by MGM at the height of Hollywood’s golden age, A Christmas Carol is a lively, albeit scrubbed up, adaptation of Charles Dickens ever popular 1843 novella. The familiar story is more or less faithful to Dickens' text, as miserly old Ebenezer Scrooge accepts a ghostly hand in relocating his Christmas spirit, much to the relief of his put-upon employee Bob Cratchit, as well as the half of London who are indebted to him.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME! Link below.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Dir: Clive Donner, 1984).
Be they traditional retellings or radical reworkings, new adaptations of Charles Dickens’ ever popular 1843 novella are as common as a cock’er’ny street urchin. Less numerous, but still pretty plentiful, were they back in December 1984 when this prestigious US/UK coproduction premiered on CBS prime time, while simultaneously released to cinemas internationally.
George C Scott here stars as the original grinch, who is persuaded to change his ways after overindulging in Christmas spirits.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Dir: David Jones, 1999).
So numerous are the adaptations of Charles Dickens’ evergreen A Christmas Carol that it is difficult for any new retelling to bring anything original to the tale. This Hallmark produced made for TV movie features decent production values, some neat visual effects and a somewhat more sombre tone than expected but doesn’t really stand out from the Christmas Carol crowd.
Visit my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME to read the full review! Link below.
CHRISTMAS CAROL THE MOVIE (Dir: Jimmy T Murakami, 2001).
A UK production from Jimmy T Murakami, the talented supervising director of The Snowman (Dianne Jackson, 1982) and director of When the Wind Blows (J T Murakami, 1986); an all star cast and a story seemingly ideally suited to feature length animation treatment. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty.
Read the full review on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME. Link below.
There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
me: yeah im not the biggest fan of christmas music it kinda all sounds the same to me-
also me: 🕺christmas electricity christmas electricity christmas electricity christmas electricity 🕺