Mickey's Christmas Carol (1984 film)

Mickey's Christmas Carol is a 1984 American animated fantasy musical film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and released by Buena Vista Distrubition.

Opening
The movie begins in North Pole.

The Small One
Outside of the city of Nazareth, a young boy and his father own four donkeys. Three of these donkeys are young and strong. The fourth donkey, Small One, is old and weak, but the boy loves him anyway. Everyday, the boy and the donkey play together before they go to work, helping the boy's father to collect wood.

The boy and his father take the donkeys to work one morning, as they always do. Many times, the boy loads Small One with small sticks, since Small One can't carry heavy loads any more. Small One even has trouble carrying stacks of small sticks and the boy helps to carry them for him.

That evening, the boy's father tells the boy that he has to sell Small One. Devastated, but understanding, the boy asks if he can be the one to sell his best friend. The father agrees and tells him that he has to sell him for one piece of silver. That night, the boy comforts Small One and promises to find him a gentle and loving master.

The next morning, the boy takes Small One to the market in Nazareth. Unfortunately, nobody wants an old weak donkey but the tanner, and he only wants to kill Small One to make leather out of his hide. After failing to find another buyer, the boy and his donkey return to the tanner's shop. The boy weeps, and Small One, accepting his fate under the tanner's knife, tenderly consoles the boy.

Just as everything looks bleak, a kind man comes up to the boy and asks if Small One is for sale. The man needs a gentle donkey to carry his pregnant wife to Bethlehem. The boy sells the donkey for one piece of silver (the same price the boy's father agreed upon) and watches as the couple and Small One leave on their journey as a bright star appears in the sky.

Mickey's Christmas Carol
On Christmas Eve, while all of Victorian England is in the merry spirit of Christmas, Ebenezer Scrooge (played by Scrooge McDuck) thinks only of the money he has made and of making more (apparently, he charges people 80% interest, compounded daily). While Scrooge's selfish thoughts cascade in his head, Bob Cratchit (Mickey Mouse), exhausted and underpaid, continues to work long and hard for him. Cratchit reluctantly asks for a "half day off" for Christmas, to which Scrooge replies it will be unpaid (in contrast to the original version where Scrooge is irritated at giving Cratchit Christmas off with pay). Scrooge's nephew Fred (Donald Duck) comes in to invite Scrooge to his family's Christmas dinner, but Scrooge turns him down. When collectors Rat and Mole, along with beggars on the streets, kindly ask for a simple donation, Scrooge responds to them that if he does, the poor will no longer be poor and thus they (the collectors) will be out of work, "and you [can't] ask me to do that, not on Christmas Eve."

That Christmas Eve night, the ghost of Scrooge's greedy former business partner Jacob Marley (Goofy) appears and scares Scrooge out of his wits. When Scrooge commends him for his ruthlessness, Marley chuckles "Yup," but then recalls his sinfulness, and tells that because of his cruelty in life, he is doomed to wear heavy chains for eternity ("maybe even longer"). He warns that a similar fate, if not worse, will befall Scrooge unless he changes his ways. Marley then leaves, falling down the stairs when he tries to avoid tripping over Scrooge's cane again and letting out his signature Goofy holler.

Scrooge soon dismisses the incident, but is later awoken by The Ghost of Christmas Past (Jiminy Cricket). He shows Scrooge his past, when his growing love of money led him to cruelly break the heart of his fiance Isabel (Daisy Duck) by foreclosing on the honeymoon cottage's mortgage. (This is in sharp contrast to the original novel where Isabel is the one who ends the engagement with Scrooge in a relatively amicable manner.)

Not long after the first visit, the Ghost of Christmas Present (Willie the Giant) arrives, surrounded by turkey, mince pies, suckling pigs and other delicious foods. He shows him the poverty-stricken Cratchit family, who still keep a festive attitude in their home despite their hardships. Bob's young son Tiny Tim (Morty Fieldmouse) is revealed to be ill and Willie foretells tragedy if the family's hapless life does not change. However, just when Scrooge is desperate to know Tim's fate, the Ghost of Christmas Present and the house both vanish. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (a hooded figure later revealed to be Pete) takes Scrooge to the future in a graveyard. When he sees Bob mourning for Tiny Tim, who has passed away (indicated by Bob placing Tim's crutch on his memorial marker), Scrooge fearfully asks whether or not this future can be altered.

He then overhears the laughter of two gravediggers (two weasels from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad), who are amazed and humored by the fact that no one attended the funeral of the man whose grave they were digging for. After the weasels leave to take a break from their work, Scrooge and the ghost approach the lonely grave, where the ghost lights a cigar, revealing Scrooge's name on the tombstone, and gives him a shove into his grave, calling him "the richest man in the cemetery". Scrooge falls towards his coffin as the lid opens and the flames of Hell burst out. Scrooge clings to a root, while the ghost laughs cruelly, but it snaps and Scrooge falls into his grave, shouting his repentance.

Suddenly, he is back home on Christmas morning. Having been given another chance, he throws his coat over his nightshirt, dons his cane and top hat, and goes to visit the Cratchits, cheerfully donating generous amounts of money along the way and telling Fred that he will come to dinner at his house after all. He tries to play a ninny on Bob, dragging in a large sack supposedly filled with laundry and announcing gruffly that there will be extra work in the future. But to the Cratchits' joy, the sack is instead filled with toys and a big turkey for dinner. Scrooge gives Bob a raise and makes him his partner in the counting house as Tiny Tim proclaims the original character's famous line of "God bless us, everyone!"

Scrooge picks up Tiny Tim and sits him on his lap before setting his top hat on Tiny Tim's head, picking up Tiny Tim's little sister Martha and sitting her on his lap and then getting a hug from Tiny Tim, Martha and Peter before directing his smile at the Cratchits.

Cast

 * Alan Young as Scrooge McDuck
 * Wayne Allwine as Mickey Mouse, Otto, Weasels
 * Hal Smith as Goofy, the Auctioneer, Ratty
 * Will Ryan as Willie the Giant, Pete, Moley, Big Bad Wolf
 * Clarence Nash as Donald Duck
 * Patricia Parris as Daisy Duck
 * Eddie Carroll as Jiminy Cricket
 * Dick Billingsley as Tiny Tim
 * Sean Marshall as the Boy
 * Olan Soule as the Boy's Father
 * William Woodson as the Tanner
 * Joe Higgins as the Guard
 * Gordon Jump as Joseph
 * Thurl Ravenscroft (uncredited) as the Potter
 * Ken Sansom (uncredited) as the Baker