'A Christmas Carol' (1971) - 12 Days of Musemas
Is A Christmas Carol still the best Christmas tale ever told? Yes, and we will continue to not take feedback at this time.
MUSEMAS RETURNS!!
We start with an Academy Award-winning animated short that does A LOT in 28 minutes.
Enjoy the rest of our holiday event over the next 11 days!!
Patreon.com/c/musesofmythology
Spoilers for A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
Darien (00:01.486)
On the first day of Musemas, my podcast gave to me a Christmas Carol from 1971 directed by Richard Williams. It is an animated one!
It's an animated one. And hey guys, welcome to Musemas 2024. We're so glad to have you. We love doing these. It's just the third year. Yep. Just super stoked. Very glad that you guys could join us.
Welcome Amusements 2024.
Darien (00:36.536)
fourth year of Musemas? No, we didn't do it the first year. Okay, so third year of Musemas.
Darien (00:47.086)
Welcome back, thank you so much. Thank you for joining us for another year of Musemas.
Absolutely. And yeah, this one's animated. And the kind of animation I would pit somewhere between Rankin Bass, to what is it? Indie horror 2D point and click game.
Yes, yes with the the 50 years time jump between when this came out and today this style of animation has taken on a very different connotation. Yes. Because the visual styler was largely inspired by 19th century engraved illustrations of the original story by John Leach.
very scratchy blacks.
Darien (01:35.04)
And then the pen and ink renderings by illustrator Milo Winter, who had illustrated the 1930s edition of A Christmas Carol. It's really fun. Yep. It is hearkening to very specific, like artistic references that were already tied to A Christmas Carol. A couple other things that make this noteworthy are Scrooge is voiced by Alastair Sim. They gave him top billion. Do you know why that is?
nice. OK.
DJ (01:58.274)
Yeah, they gave him top billing. No, I don't know who that guy is.
He's the guy that played Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 version. talked about that. That's the one that's just called Scrooge. We talked about that one. Simultaneously, Michael Horden reprises his performance as Marley's ghost. He also played Marley's ghost in Scrooge. So 20 years later, they're brought back for the animated version. Marley's ghost was really cool in this one. I loved when he unties
that's awesome.
DJ (02:23.458)
Marley's ghost was really cool.
Darien (02:32.29)
the bandage and his jaw just fall stomach and then he's screeching the whole time usually after the first big scare they'll have him tie back up and then he'll just talk normally I like that they were able to rely on the fact that it's animated so this actually move his mouth to speak
It goes right down to his stomach. Voice is coming out of the hole.
DJ (02:50.926)
There you go.
It's awesome. It's a really cool sequence,
Very, very impactful. A couple other things I learned that I dug. Chuck Drones was executive producer. Does that name mean anything to you?
It's, feel like I've seen it as producer on a lot of things today. At the very least in the early odds.
Well,
Darien (03:14.926)
He worked on Looney Tunes.
Yeah, that's guy. Yes, today in quotes, I just watched Looney Tunes every now and again.
Yeah, yeah, just doing track shows, yeah. And then last fun fact about this one that I was very interesting. So it was a TV special originally aired in December of 71. But the animation was so good and it was so well received, they ended up putting it in theaters. And it got an Oscar for Best Animated Short the following year, which pissed some people off. They argued that it shouldn't have been eligible for the Oscar because it had aired on TV first.
I got an ask.
DJ (03:44.373)
Really cool.
Darien (03:53.642)
And so...
That's weird.
Yeah, yeah. so they actually the Oscar, the Academy changed the rules. So you could not nothing else if it had to. Yeah. If it was TV special first, it would not be edge of a little.
We've probably changed that by now.
I don't think, I think there are specific ones for best like TV specials will have its own category, but it would not be eligible for the best animated short. How weird. That's why you'll notice sometimes movies that have aired or will be airing on Netflix will get this like very, very limited theatrical release with a release in like New York, LA and like Austin. Eligible for an Academy Award. So it's like up.
DJ (04:32.494)
Just so they could be like, we're in theaters. Mm, OK. Because I was wondering, how does Netflix get around it? I guess, well.
Those are all the- so with those very high prestige marks for this piece, DJ, how- as we said at the top, we've done this for three years, we're not gonna handhold anyone through the plot of A Christmas Carol.
It's a Christmas Carol. Even if you just kind of existed by watching TV, eventually there was some special on a TV show that you watched that had a Christmas Carol. Unless you were watching like one show constantly, even in the early aughts when we didn't have Netflix and we had to watch what was on the TV.
Yep.
Darien (05:18.06)
Listen, you've seen the Muppets, you've seen Mickey's, you've seen Bugs Bunny's, like everybody's had one. That's why we do this every year. But I guess the point I'm trying make on that one is that we have dissected enough of A Christmas Carol that in this yearly series, I'm not interested in starting it off by dissecting A Christmas Carol. I want to essentially continue our conversation as we've had before.
So if the listener is like, I want to know, I want to know more about Christmas Carol. Good news. The very first musimus episode is just on a Christmas Carol. And that one, much like this episode was just on the main feed. can double back.
It's free. I just got to go back two years.
Yep, you can go listen to that one. but actually DJ, think the point you made of like, everybody, you are familiar with her Christmas Carol. I think this adaptation is really leaning into familiar. Well, you are familiar with Christmas Carol because, Hey, they don't say Bob Cratchit's name until the very end when he
.
DJ (06:23.96)
They don't. Yeah, that's right. It's true to the books.
It's not Bob Cratchit, it's the clerk. It's just to show that Ebenezer doesn't care for his clerk. He just knows him as the clerk. Yeah, the book. Like, it's straight up, doesn't say Cratchit in the first part of the book.
Wait, wait, shit.
Darien (06:51.34)
It just refers to him as the clerk. But does Fred acknowledge him? When Fred, when nephew Fred comes in, does he say, hello Bob? Because it totally makes sense for Ebenezer to only think of him as the clerk and not like even see him as a person because he doesn't, he doesn't see people as people. That's his whole thing.
But traditionally, when, in adaptations at least, when nephew Fred comes in, he greets Bob Cratchit, and that's how we get Cratchit's name.
Christmas a humbug? You don't mean it.
Oh, hey, here's a fun new thing. I bought a copy of A Christmas Carol this year, y'all. Yeah. it's years past. We haven't had a physical one. We've usually had like, you know, it's public domain. So we find one online. But this year, I thought it'd be easier for us to physically have it. And I just used the Patreon money for it. So thank you so much to our dear patrons for supporting his ongoing endeavor. This case, it may be better to look it up, the digital version, so we could search Bob Cratchit and see the first mention of it.
That's what I'm flipping through.
DJ (07:59.564)
No, he doesn't talk to Bob at all. It's just the conversation between him and Scrooge.
Interesting, okay.
Darien (08:06.99)
So I think it's an adaptation thing to like one, give the audience more context to this character. But I also think that's a really great choice because it makes Fred an instantly like more likeable character. Like him greeting Bob Cratchit and like acknowledging him. Yeah. Because I did like in this one, he comes in and immediately starts talking to Scrooge and does it acknowledge Bob. And I was just a little bit like, OK. I'm just a little bit like.
That's how it is.
Darien (08:37.877)
Not even gonna say hi to the receptionist when you walk in. I see. Just I'm dumb a little bit, like, I don't think you're as nice of a person as I'm supposed to believe you are! If you don't say hi to Bob!
Okay, so guess maybe that's when's the first time popcratchit is named?
believe it's a Christmas present. It's the first time we bring up the Cratchits.
Yeah, you're right. Because the, yeah, I pulled up the, digital version. Project Gutenberg, yep. And so the first time it's like noting an illustration we get, and then the first time Bob Cratchit is mentioned is, as you said, G.E.J., Christmas present when present is like doing the thing where he's got the torch and he's like sprinkling goodwill.
Mm-hmm. And just search scratch.
Darien (09:24.443)
and the threshold of the door the spirit smiled and stopped to bless, Brob crouched its dwelling with sprinkling of his torch.
very good. don't know whether or not that was a Charles Dickens not really thinking about it or an actual character choice for Scrooge being as he's just truly not acknowledging Bob Cratchit as anything more than his clerk.
Yeah, but the first time it's mentioned, it's from the description. So it is our narrator. And the interesting thing, because there is definitely the narrator of A Christmas Carol. I just said that we were not going to dissect A Christmas Carol.
Well, like, we, didn't know.
The narrator of A Christmas Carol is not Ebenezer Scrooge. We are, he is not, you get the, sometimes we get the character in his head thinking about things, but the descriptions we get from the narrator voice is not Bob, not, pop, crudget, is not Ebenezer Scrooge. We are not actually experiencing it in Ebenezer's head. We hear his thoughts sometimes.
DJ (10:24.696)
think it's a it's a narrator that is solely focusing on Scrooge's point of view.
Yes, that is a thing. have the, there's a word, there's like, narrator voice, author voice, character voice. Sometimes your narrator is 100 % within the mindset of the character. everything the narrator is describing, while it is not the character, it's like in Percy Jackson books. It is I, it's Percy, he is our narrator. Or Magnus Chase, is our narrator. Apollo, trials of Apollo, Apollo is our narrator.
the heroes books, the characters are not our narrator. We are in their point of view though. And so things are often described based on the way the characters think and feel about it. And that is not necessarily this, well, it can be, especially in the Bob Cratchit one where he thinks like, wow, Bob Cratchit only makes 15 a week and has so many kids. Even the Christmas present is gonna bless him one Christmas. Like that is a little bit of a Scrooge response.
Just seeing that, like, wow, even worthless Bob Cratchit gets blessed on Christmas. But it can go back and forth because it's like Marley's Yes, which is what the Muppets did so well in having Gonzo be Charles Dickens, not just to give us those fucking great lines that are only in the narrator, but also because the narrator is truly not Ebenezer Scrooge. That's a thing, just talk about Percy Jackson a little bit more, that people.
Yeah, it's definitely a...
DJ (11:34.968)
It its own character.
Darien (11:55.27)
the fandom has to grapple with the adaptations again and again, is that Percy is not nearly as funny when you're not in his head. Because 99 % of the sassy, quippy things Percy does is in his head, because he does not want to get his ass beat. So you have that distinction of the two. But yeah, I definitely think this adaptation was definitely leaning into, because even when we get to the Cratchit's house, that is still not set.
Their names are still not said. Bob is not said. We just see them interacting a little bit. And then we jump over. And then once we're back in the next day where Scrooge is reformed and he sees this big turkey and he's like, I will have that sent to Bob Cratchit's house. That's the only time. And then Bob shows up later. Yeah. I didn't, I thought that was funny because I'm like, this is way too late in the game for us to get a character name.
This is one of the few adaptations, I'm just gonna go on points now. A few adaptations that does the time travel. And it's literally like one line that just gets changed that completely, it's just Marley saying when the ghosts are showing up. And if you say it is like the first one shows up at midnight, the next one shows up at one and the one after shows wherever he makes the It's how it goes. But then when Scrooge wakes up and is wondering what day it is.
This is time travel, y'all know.
Darien (13:06.222)
which is the most common version.
DJ (13:13.006)
Why does that make any sense? He wasn't told it'd only be for tonight.
I think we just audience interpreted as he's just disoriented about what happened to him, but you're right Marley literally told him you're going to miss Christmas
Yeah, it was like the first ghost will show up tonight when the bell strikes one. The next one will show up the next night when it strikes, I think one or two. And then the final shows up the night after at midnight. Yeah. And you're like, well, shit, now it's December 27th and he's too late.
Yeah, I think it's the same.
Darien (13:42.978)
Yes, that's the thing we've talked about in the past a lot. That means a lot. That, is so small, and it's easy to excuse as, and I think it's only done because they don't want the audience to get confused because you don't really see the trance of the day. And I think the adaptation is done because there are some writers, directors who think it'll confuse the audience. And it won't.
It It takes away some of the, it just takes away. It truly does. Some of the desperation in yet to come scene comes from the fact that he might be feeling like it's too late.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It is important.
Darien (14:22.062)
Yes, a point detracting from this one. No sister. We don't have a sister. really thought when we got the, oh, look at him as a child. We even got the scene where he's like reading the book. Oh wow, we never get the vision. And they were look few years later, I'm like, oh, we're getting, we're at Fuzzy Wigs. And I'm like.
Yeah, I know.
DJ (14:33.652)
We got the visions in his head. Yeah, but then jumps right to Fezziwack and you're like...
Darien (14:42.638)
All right. OK. OK. It's fine. And then we also didn't get the girlfriend's life after, which is a thing we never get. Never get the girlfriend's life after. Yeah. I think.
It never
DJ (14:58.178)
Because it's also to show here's a choice you made and it's this is what you could have had. Yes. This was within reach and now it's gone.
And it also demonstrates that she was right to leave him. Like his whole thing is like, I am afraid of being poor. I need this wealth. But we see, also I think about Scrooge is that he is incredibly wealthy. And lives in squalor because he does not want to share, not even share, spend a cent of it because it's like a hoarder mentality. and that demonstrates that Scrooge is greedy, but this
We live so poor.
Darien (15:35.63)
It does not manifest in the way that a character It doesn't make right there's no opulence in Scrooge and what he has like he won't donate But not because he's gonna turn around and buy like a super yacht, right? And he's eating like leftover potato and stuff and is this also animated Scrooge and his like bed hat It's just sticking like straight up. Why was it sticking straight up like he's goddamn ward and over the garden wall
does not manifest in opulence.
DJ (16:01.144)
fucking goober that's why
Usually it's like flops over. I don't know what the starching in his hat was, but it was choice. It was very funny. I don't know if it was supposed to be funny, but I found it very funny.
Yeah. Sleeping cap is a little goofy.
Yes, you know who I didn't find funny? Ghost of Christmas Past? That's a scary motherfucker. I... It warmed up on me, but when he first showed up, I did out loud say, nope, I do not like.
really liked its design.
DJ (16:30.414)
This Christmas past is like somebody who's like, like it's it's them every year of their life constantly overlapping and like, yeah, opacity change and just like shifting and morphing and pulsating. That's hard. It's hard. Like a little luck It's like the body has like multiple outlines of it. Yes. So it really is like it's constantly shifting back and forth. And I thought that was really cool.
Yeah.
Darien (16:59.246)
Yeah, the first when he appeared and I wasn't prepared for me because typically past is usually very cute They will go for something very cute. Very sweet And I do like the choice. Yeah, I definitely like he usually described as a candle And that's because Scrooge push about we get the same where Scrooge puts them out. We never get that So I did I did like it and that was another mark for animation for me in general is the
Yeah, just like a candle.
Darien (17:28.148)
really distinct and bold character designs that come with the spirits when it is animated in a way that I really think only the Muppet one has come close to. And that is because the Muppet one is literally dealing with like Muppet puppets and creatures that they can make. Kidding? Okay, I will say nothing scarier than past in, well, I was gonna say Muppet. Muppet past is pretty upsetting, but no, the animated Jim Carrey past is the most upsetting one.
All
Darien (17:58.85)
Yeah, please stop wiggling your head like you're a cobra. don't like.
DJ (18:10.639)
He plays every character.
But I did like this one and it was definitely very truncated because it's an animated TV special it was like 25 minutes long short for you and our animated We never get the workhouses Yeah, there's a thing in like the middle of the Christmas present sequence who looks like a classic Father Christmas and I'm never mad about that Always looks great. I I there's not a lot of creativity in a Father Christmas
The workhouses in this- Come up all too often.
DJ (18:36.45)
He always looks great.
DJ (18:42.575)
The only present I didn't like was Scrooge on Netflix. I thought his was a little cute. one? Yeah.
They swung.
They made a choice for that scene and it didn't land for me.
no it didn't land everyone else landed everyone else went another
But we're not talking about that. His design was great in this one. I fucking loved it. It's just classic. Yeah.
Darien (19:06.734)
Yeah, there's things where he shows like people in a workhouse and also folks out on a lighthouse in like this cold decrepit space singing and celebrating Christmas and demonstrating that even in the harshest conditions There is Christmas joy and people choosing to celebrate in a way that Scrooge himself chooses not to and I realized I'm actually totally fine with adaptations that don't include
I love it. think it's great. I think it's a point. Is it the detractor when it's not there? Like half a point? Because I think it helps express to Scrooge, like what you just said, these people are celebrating in the harshest conditions, but here you are comfortable due to some of these people and you're just...
Really? Why is that?
Darien (19:52.248)
due to some of these people is a good marker.
Also, he kind of told these people to die. Like these are the people he said that should die.
Mm-hmm. We get that line. We're screwed when he's talking to the folks that are coming to collect, which I thought that sequence was also kind of weird.
It was the whole beginning felt again, as you said, it's 25 minutes, so it's a little quick pace.
Yeah, so the conversations that the conversation between him and Fred is a little weird. The conversation between him and the collectors are a little weird. So she was like, is this do we have the pleasure of addressing Mr. Scrooge and Mr. Marley? it's like, well, Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years tonight. We're collecting for the poor.
DJ (20:32.755)
You don't give a I don't even be like, I'm sorry!
Like it's seven years, so like this the loss isn't like fresh
But even still, it's just... It's bad f-
Give us, it's bad form, not even to acknowledge any kind of condolence. Give us money, please.
Yeah, that would have been better than, us money. It was like, well, we're here to, you know, get some
Darien (20:56.398)
They don't even acknowledge that. They responded as if he had said, Mr. Marley's already out for the evening. They not react to it. He's dead. Yeah. And I think that's another thing I like is like when they have that line of like, because Scrooge and Marley or Marley and Scrooge, Marley's name is still in the sign because Scrooge is too much too cheap to pay for a new sign.
I just like, we're here to collect donations.
DJ (21:08.49)
He's he's he's not here right now
Darien (21:25.87)
Like it's not even out of sentiment for Marley. Yeah, it hasn't been painted over. There's nothing new. There's just.
Or even anything to cover up Marley's name.
DJ (21:35.32)
Just Scrooge and Mara.
I like, that's another reason why I really like the scene of the girlfriend when we get her in the book and that scene is set years after they break up and she is married, she has kids, she's very happy, she has the life she
It's set like seven years prior to the events of this.
It says seven years prior to the events of this, because her husband comes in and mentions, you know your old friend Scrooge. Well, his partner I hear is in his sickbed dying.
He dies like the next day because as we know the past shows Christmas Eve's.
Darien (22:12.652)
Yep, Scrooge tells, no he dies that night on Christmas Eve because Scrooge says Marley died seven years ago tonight. So what we see is, we know, yeah, Scrooge was working while Marley was dying. And that also just gives us more indication of Scrooge and it's not even like, I think another thing I was realizing, watching this one in particular, is that another thing,
It's later after that guy's saying it.
Darien (22:43.51)
Like, not including the sister bums me out a little bit. Because one, as we've talked about a lot in the past, like the sister coming to get Scrooge on Christmas Eve and being like a convinced father to let you come home. He's so much nicer than he used to be and Scrooge getting to come home because of a sister and then reflecting on how much he loved his sister, right? And then how, and then that being an indicator of like, right.
How shitty that you've been treating it. Her daughter.
Yeah, her son, yeah, her child who comes to invite you to Christmas every year and you just seem to have forgotten what that meant. And I like, and that means a lot, it gives a lot to Fred, but it also indicates that, yes, even though when he was a child, he had this like lonely Christmas at the boarding school where all of his friends left and his father didn't send for him and that was a bummer and he just had his books and stuff.
But it demonstrates that not every Christmas he had was sad. in fact, doesn't actually, except for that earliest memory, right, where he's a lonely kid, he doesn't have sad memories associated with Christmas like that.
The only like yeah, we see it's that one then his sister coming to get him and it's Fezzy wig
Darien (24:00.28)
That's huge and when he had tons, whenever he worked for her, he had these big celebrations and then yeah, he and the girlfriend, and if you're new to this, we call her the girlfriend because she doesn't have a name. Sometimes she's Belle, sometimes she's Clara, sometimes we'll give her a name. The sister is often Fanny, also doesn't actually have a name, but one of the early adaptations called her Fanny and so nine times out of the 10, I think she's Fanny. So, know, point against Dickens for not naming the only other. Fred's wife doesn't have a name.
And Mrs. Cratchit is just Mrs. Cratchit. She doesn't, none of the women in this thing have names.
Well, they just, they're just there to shit on Ebenezer. And good for him? All of them except for his sister. Yeah, they're all there to just dunk on this fucker.
They truly are though.
Darien (24:46.776)
Yeah, yeah, who is dead?
Well deserved. But that's the thing, it's like yeah, and then she broke up with, her girlfriend broke up with him on Christmas Eve, and that's kind of a bummer. But that was like his own doing. He doesn't have, it's not that like he doesn't like Christmas because he associates it with a traumatic time or a deep sadness. Like there's one adaptation we watched where his sister died giving birth to Fred on Christmas Eve, and that's like, of course you don't want to. And I think that's super important, and one thing we haven't, I don't know if we've articulated, Scrooge doesn't have a good damn reason to be this much of a jackass.
This is so imb-
It's really it's just we don't know where it came from yeah, it came from like truly his fear of poverty, but he It's probably because every year people come up to him asking for like just handouts And he's that's how we views it. Yeah, that's I've used it I don't want to give out handouts and this is the time of year when I get bothered about it the most So I hate this time this season because of that
Yeah, because he, like you said, he views it as handouts and not opportunities to help folks who are struggling. Like he is very much, even like, he's like, like that's line that is in this one where he's like, well, are there no work houses? Are there no debtors prisons or what debtors? What is the line? Like, no, some people would rather die than go there. Well, then they should die and decrease the surplus population. Which this one does a weird thing where it just has him.
DJ (26:04.462)
Thank
Darien (26:13.646)
do that whole instead of it being a back and forth he just says all the lines and I'm sure you'll say this and to that I say it I'm like just listen
Yeah, it's like why? Say it. must have been we only got enough money for like three lines from these guys.
We're not gonna pay him anymore. And then when Scrooge sees him at the inn and he just whispers in his ear, oh yes, I'll see you tomorrow. Like, why is that a whisper? Like, why didn't he just say like, oh please come by tomorrow, I would love to like give you a donation. Like, it's so weird. It's a little goofy. It's not bad, it's just goofy. At the time, this was celebrated as one of the best animated adaptations of A Christmas Carol. And I definitely think it's really strong.
Just a little goofy.
DJ (26:54.584)
Definitely for 71.
Yeah, definitely for 71. And I think even the animation being weird, it's not bad.
No, animation. It doesn't look cheap. It starts off and you're like, and then you get used to it and then you start like noticing the charm of it. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's yeah, it does that thing
It started off like the way that I felt about it started off very similar to how I continued to feel about that last animated one we did last year. I don't even remember what it was, but it was such bad animation. Yeah, it was like, it was like Scooby Doo on a $50 budget. Like that kind of animation. And you're like, oh, but this one started off with that feeling, but it quickly grew into like, oh, no, this is actually really hype.
DJ (27:41.304)
is very good animation is definitely
It's choice. Yeah. The things that are weird about it aren't necessarily because someone. Yeah. But that also could be true. Like it is due to limitations. Limitations, not laziness, I think is what it is. Yeah. Limitations, not laziness. You can tell. Yeah. And that's really charming. I do think it does really strong. And then we get the throwback line when Scrooge is seeing Tiny Tim and he's asking Christmas present, will he be OK? And Christmas presents like in the future, I see a crutch without an owner.
and an empty chair and a family mourning basically. And he's like, no, that's awful. And then that's when President throws back at him, like, wouldn't it be better for him to just die and decrease the surplus population? that line gets cut so often because it is so cruel, so important.
Yeah, but it's just throwing it back in his face. Knowing how cruel those words were.
Yeah, because it's like Scrooge is a selfish asshole who is just not practicing empathy. he's not. He is the Grinch. But he's not.
DJ (28:48.024)
What?
DJ (28:53.614)
or he's what the Grinch was on like, you know, in the stages of like Pokemon evolution, right? He gets to the Grinch later where he wants to steal this shit and doesn't want to fucking deal with it no more. But he got cut off early and became giving, you know, like.
Yeah, yeah, we're here.
Fucking crazy the ghost didn't show up and so then the next he's still Christmas
Wrong house
That is kind of what he's almost doing to the Cratchits, to Bob, when he thinks about, when Paz shows him Fezziwig. That's something I really liked in this one, where the Paz is being like, well, why does it matter? He spent so little money, like, why are you praising him? And he's like, well, don't you see? Like, he could make us happy by just...
DJ (29:35.186)
All he did was spend money and, the full line is really- A small matter, said the ghost, to make these silly folks so full of gratitude. Small echoed Scrooge. The spirit signed to him to listen to the apprentices who were pouring out their hearts in praise of Physiwooks, and when he had done so said, Why is it not?
Yeah.
DJ (29:58.112)
He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money, three or four perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this praise? It isn't that said Scrooge, heeded by the remark and speaking unconsciously like his former, not his latter self. It isn't that spirits. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy, to make our service lights or burdensome.
Pleasure or toil, say that his power lies in words and looks, in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count him up. What then? The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune. He felt the spirit's glance and stopped. What's the matter? Said the ghost. Nothing in particular, said Scrooge.
Darien (30:47.416)
feel like I must have had this conclusion years ago. do this every year. like this one, feel like, I'm like, why did it never click to me that the reason we have the Fezziwig scene is to demonstrate how...
Fezziwig treats Scrooge versus how Scrooge treats Cratchit.
Yeah, and that's what all of these scenes are to do. They are actually anchoring Scrooge's behavior to the people in his current life. Like for the past, it was the way he treats Fred and how that is,
a terrible is also to their memory to the memory of people who used to make his life so full like f the sister is gone and how does he treat her memory in regards to her son he talks about how fuzzy wig is is gone at this point and how is he treating fuzzy wigs memory in how he treats his own employees like and then with i think that's so good
And it also demonstrates what the spirit says, like it doesn't cost Fezziwig a lot of money. Like he's not doing anything that's actually exceptionally crazy except for trying, except for putting in the effort and the intent to make the day pleasant. Whereas Scrooge, who actually puts in the effort and the intent to make Bob Cratchit feel more miserable, to make him feel guilty about wanting the time off to spend with his family, not like cutting his pay for taking it off like.
Darien (32:03.874)
being dismissive and not caring. Like that is the difference and how simple it is. And he just, the thing about Scrooge is he's just choosing not to. But as I saying, like he's not a sociopath, right? Or even like he's not a monster where if he saw a kid freezing to death in the street, he would just walk by and not care. Like when he sees, the thing I was mentioning earlier, when he sees Tiny Tim and he is brought to like, hey, is that kid gonna be okay? Cause he's a
person. Scrooge is human and he has humanity. He has just... It's frozen. He's frozen in the favor of profit and forgotten how to care. And so that's when he said the line earlier about they might as well die and decrease the surplus population. He's just thinking in numbers and data and statistics. He's not thinking of... And that's that quote where it's like, oh, one person's death is a tragedy and a thousand people's death is a statistic. It is...
The heart is there, it's frozen.
Darien (33:03.468)
That is the comprehension of numbers where suddenly it doesn't feel real anymore. And that is what Scrooge has done to everyone else. They're all just numbers. They're all just data points.
Yeah, it's just the separation from it.
Yeah, but seeing Tiny Tim as a person who is at the risk of being lost and then hearing his own words thrown in his face in the context of Tim and then having to grapple with the fact that that is every single person he was talking about. Every single person is a Tiny Tim no matter who they are. And that's why I don't like it when they take away that line.
because I think it's so important to underline Scrooge is needing to remember how to have empathy for other people.
This was the... Yeah, we do. get... Ignorance and want.
Darien (33:53.247)
we get the weird kids too!
Darien (33:57.568)
Ignorance and want. Because it's also a scathing indictment of greed and capitalism, where we just ignore the starving humanity.
This was the first adaptation that I've seen to do a relatively... What is it? Accurate, yet to come. Just like fully the whole sequence and yet to come also being shaky towards the end there. not being nearly as... Yeah. Soft. He softens up a bit to Ebenezer when he's begging.
Minus. Yeah.
Yeah, usually it's...
Darien (34:42.47)
These spirits are coming because they want to help Ebeneezer. That's what Marley frames it as, I have done this to help you. And Scrooge thanks him. I don't think we necessarily got those lines exactly in this version, unfortunately. Because I do love it when he's like, I have helped you. thank you, Marley. You'll be visited by three spirits. Could you help me in some other way, perhaps?
Yeah, it's good.
It's funny, but yeah, usually, especially in the animated versions, Yet to Come is a Grim Reaper character who seems to delight in Scrooge's suffering. Like specifically in the Mickey Mouse one when it's Pete and he just screws Scrooge into the open graves.
This is P.
DJ (35:28.312)
so crazy. So funny. But yeah, no, this one actually, it did have a second of just like that split second, it's in the book, where the the finger that is pointing just doesn't become nearly as hard. I don't know how to describe it other than that.
waivers. Yeah. No, I love usually so we'll get the characters all Scrooge scene like characters responding to his death like the other folks like the men at the trading house who are talking about they're not going to go to the funeral because it's going to be cheap and they're only show up if there was food. The folks who have stolen like someone's bed sheets and their bed curtains and stuff like that.
We don't often get the body in the bed.
No, that's what I was saying. it cuts, because that's the first attempt of the spirit trying to tell Scrooge this is, because he doesn't know it's about him yet. And then we get the full on denial. When we see the body in the bed and Scrooge refuses to look at it, that's when you know this man is in denial. Because it's not just like,
If you didn't know was you, have no reason not to go look at who that body is and who they were talking about. You do know. You're not ready to face that yet. And that's why we keep going. And that's when we see that Tiny Tim has died. And that's when we get to the grave. And you can't even ignore it because it's like you don't get to be in denial. Like that's the important, that's the last lesson you have to acknowledge that you can't be into denial about all of this. You can't wake up tomorrow and say it was just a dream. You really do have to accept this. And Scrooge does.
DJ (36:35.266)
an inkling.
Darien (36:59.152)
And then when he's like begging yet to come, who never speaks? And I think that's also really interesting. Good. And you don't know why yet to come doesn't speak.
Maybe because words are definitive and yet to come, isn't? Like that's the point of it.
Because it's yet to come. It's not Christmas future. And it's not like future is such like a new trendy word that wasn't like. I think Dickens used
Because he's like it's past present and future but past present yet to come
And Dickens did that, I would say very specifically because it's not, like you said, yet it's not a future set in stone. is things yet to come a little bit more of open ended. And I think that's very good. And so giving him that and then turning around. I think also that's why when he wavers, the spirits want to help him and yet to come cannot comfort Scrooge.
Darien (37:58.764)
He can't tell him. You can still change. can't tell him.
No, you have to get him to face the cold hard truth.
Yeah, when he's begging at Scrooge, please, please, please, like, promise I'll do better. He can't praise him. He can't guarantee him. He can't do anything for Scrooge because it is all on Scrooge. Like whatever the future is, like Yet to Come is the most... We see Christmas present died, essentially. And we see the past be shut out while Scrooge literally like puts him out. But Yet to Come can't be manipulated like that because it's always in flux.
And then wakes up. And he knows, what day is it? It's Christmas Day. And that's amazing.
It could also arguably the reason that yet to come doesn't pass like that is because, well, sure, the present is going to become the past, is going to go away. The past is going to be forgotten. But the future is.
Darien (38:54.932)
Always there. Yeah. It's always going to come, but you will never be in it. Because you're always going be in the present. I like that this one doesn't send Bob Cratchit's house.
I definitely way prefer when they don't.
Don't not I like it when he just sends him turkey since the turkey because he knows they don't have a lot
Dens the turkey. Yeah, because it's like you send the turkey, it's a gift and I assume probably anonymous at this point. Yeah.
because we should because the next day Bob shows up and he's still like
DJ (39:23.278)
He has no idea. He has no idea what's going on. Send that and go hang out at your nephew's. Big fan of that. Way prefer that. I do hate it when he goes to Cratchit's and that's where it ends. Or that's where it then cuts to the next day, No, I guess that's where it ends.
Your family where you were invited.
Darien (39:35.042)
Yep, yep, it's a...
Darien (39:46.68)
If he goes to Cratchit's, that's where it is. He brings him the presents. tells him, I'm going to... Yeah, sometimes he'll see Fred and be like, I'm going to come to your house later. But we got the Fred. This one was a little bit softer with the other characters. We don't have Bob being like a Toast to Scrooge, the...
We're gonna sound like the rest of the staff.
DJ (40:09.368)
What does it say?
founder of the feast and Mrs. Cratchit being like a founder of the feast. Fuck off, I'm the founder of this feast. He doesn't do a damn thing. And even at the party when they're making fun of Scrooge and being like he's such like, he's the stingiest animal in all of, most stubborn animal in all of England. But even Fred makes fun of him and is like, but I do like toast my uncle, right? It's still soft but it also demonstrates this is what other people think of you. And he doesn't like that.
They don't, most people don't like you. The reason Cratchit kinda likes you is cause you pay him. You give him a job, you give him a job in this trying time.
You pay him and you don't even pay him enough and his
Darien (40:46.7)
I think it's just Bob Cratchit is a loyal human being. And so he appreciates what Scrooge does, but for real, real, Scrooge doesn't deserve that loyalty.
He's a good man.
DJ (40:59.758)
Definitely deserved the raise he got.
Y'all can watch this on YouTube. It's right there. I recommend it. It's short, it's fun, it's weird. The animation. The way it pans between scenes sometimes when it goes down the building, so there's one scene where you're following some rats and stuff.
Yeah, it's just a camera on a flat thing. That's all it is. They have it painted out and at the early scene, I think, I'm pretty sure it's just like spinning. Yeah, that was this loop of the rooftops. And it was a little strange. But yeah, anytime it's like the backdrop and it's just still like that, it's because I assume it's a camera looking over the image.
But I really liked it. And I do find it endearing that Alastair Simm and then Marley are coming back for those roles. It's a lot of fun. It's really cool. Yeah, think it reads different than like a Disney animated one that they're just going to recast James Earl Jones as Mufasa. Because you all knew that was the right choice.
I cannot believe it. I'll never get over that. That's fucking ridiculous to me. Like, come on, Jesus. Like that. At that point, again, just re-release these movies in the theater. I will go see them.
Darien (42:11.374)
We're releasing them with like special popcorn buckets.
Like you got the popcorn buckets to get people into the theaters now you can you can do this. Yeah, okay Do a little BTS it's like the ending of it like That's what that's Coraline did last year. It great
We'll see it. It's crazy. It's. Come on. haven't seen like. What's weird is that don't know why they don't do both. Like you're going to release this movie. Fine. But like, why aren't you also going to be ghosting like.
That's printing money, Disney, okay?
Stop it. When they do that, when they bring back an actor from the animated one to the live action, it just feels like you knew this was fine from the start. But if you flip it and you bring the actor from the live action, then it's like a great homage.
DJ (42:52.01)
It's really cool. You know, like, when I heard James Earl Jones casting, I'm like, yeah, you guys knew it was perfect.
Yeah, you knew this was great from the jump. didn't have to.
to do this. Just release it. What do you not want Matthew Broderick attached to it anymore? I guess.
I guess you don't need big names, whatever. So that is the first of our Musemas and we've got many more. If you're here on the main feed, tomorrow's episode will be over on Patreon. It will be available to all paid and free members. you can jump over and listen to it there. And then after that, it is just the gift to our Patreon supporters at all tiers. But that's where can find the rest of Musemas if you wanna keep up.
If you were like, I feel like I talked a lot about the book and I need more context, you can go back a couple years and listen to a specifically talk about the novella.
DJ (43:42.222)
Yep, and that is just a nice quick rundown of, well, the novella. We just go through it point by point.
Maybe thinking that maybe we need to revisit it now that we've developed some very specific and strong opinions about a Maybe next year, episode one is us revisiting the novella again, because now like we've been doing this for a while, we have a lot of really serious thoughts. DJ, how do you rate this one out of four Christmas ghosts? Yeah, this is four Christmas ghosts.
Absolutely.
DJ (44:10.092)
or?
DJ (44:14.734)
3.25.
Yeah, yeah.
I think it was good. Yeah, it could have been better.
could have been better. It was pretty good. It was good for what it was. Yeah. Yeah, give it three out of four Christmas ghosts. All right. We'll see you all tomorrow. And happy holidays.
Thank you guys so much for joining us. Merry Christmas.