I know it's a little late this holiday season to ask this question but as a lover of the holidays, I'm curious what others think. I usually watch the schmaltsy, cutesie ones I watched as a kid, like The Muppet Christmas Carol or Mickey's Christmas Carol.
But it means I haven't watched the other dramatic (or possibly horror, considering the ghostly subject matter) retellings of the story as much.
Which adaptations of A Christmas Carol is your favorite?
Muppet. It is too good to miss.
Stage performances are great too. I've seen many and the impacts set design, actors, and sound has on the story can not be understated.
Yesss! The Muppets is definitely my favorite one.
You know I'm surprised I've never seen a stage version, though. It seems like it would be perfect for the stage.
Muppet is the only one you need. Maybe Scrooged is funny? but it's no muppet
Blackadder's Christmas Carol.
In a subversion of A Christmas Carol, the Scrooge figure is a kind, charitable person but is miserable because of how poorly he's treated by others. He's visited by ghosts attempting to cheer him up by showing him how much better a person he is compared to his evil, rich ancestors, this backfires spectacularly.
That sounds depressing lol. It's like a "bad ending comes true" version?
Yep. He had a 1-man show of it for years, and then a 1999 TV movie.
A VHS Christmas Carol! 80s-themed sung-through musical adaptation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieC-QuFKFVc
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
The play adaptation, idk if it's all the same one but a troupe put it on every year near me when I was a kid and it was always super good, guess that was mostly thanks to the actors and the crew though
MFW nobody mentions the Alistair Sim version from 1951:
Show
The performances! It's a straightforward adaptation that doesn't get wacky or play on your existing expectations of the story like most modern adaptations do. It's still funny because Alistair Sims can be a very funny actor, and the dramatic moments are very good too. The actor who plays Jacob Marley is also amazing. Lots of great faces, lol. And Alistair Sims voice is just incredible.
The special effects are serviceable (good even, but yeah, old.) If it has one flaw I think it might be a little earnest for modern audiences, but it is a good adaptation of the novel in that sense too. I definitely recommend giving it a shot!
I'd love to see a good, earnest version played straight as well as it could be. I'll have to check that one out sometime!
