Trama

The classic Disney animated characters play the roles in this animated retelling of the Charles Dickens masterpiece.

It's the same old classic Charles Dickens story with an all star Disney cast. Uncle Scrooge McDuck is appropriately enough Scrooge and is visited by his dead partner and 3 spirits one night to remember the joys of Christmas.—Kevin Gillease <gillease@scf-fs.usc.edu>

Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and many more of your favorite characters join the cast in this adaptation of a classic holiday tale. Scrooge is too greedy to understand that Christmas is the time for kindness and generosity. So, with the help of some wise ghosts, and the examples set by his clerk Bob Cratchit and nephew Fred, Scrooge learns how to embrace the true spirit of the season.—Disney

On Christmas Eve 1843, while all of Victorian England is in the merry spirit of Christmas, Ebenezer Scrooge (Alan Young) thinks only of the money he has made in life already and of making more. He charges people 80% interest, compounded daily. Scrooge looks down upon the beggars in the streets with disdain and would not even consider giving them a penny. Scrooge's business partner Marley (Hal Smith) died 7 years ago. Scrooge remembers that he left Scrooge enough money to pay for his tombstone and Scrooge buried him at sea and took the money regardless.

While Scrooge walks the street to his office, a beggar approaches him, but Scrooge brushes him aside harshly without a second thought and continues on to his office called "Counting House".

While Scrooge's selfish thoughts cascade in his head, Bob Cratchit (Wayne Allwine), exhausted and underpaid a meager two shillings and a half penny per day, which hadn't been raised for 3 years now, continues to work long and hard for him. Scrooge allows Cratchit to use one piece of coal a week in the heater, even though it is freezing cold inside his office.

Cratchit reluctantly asks for a "half day off" for Christmas, to which Scrooge replies that it will be unpaid. To Scrooge, Christmas is just another workday, and he considers that there is nothing special about it. Scrooge dismisses any talk of the Christmas cheer with his trademark phrase "Bah Humbug".

Scrooge's cheery nephew Fred (Clarence Nash) visits Scrooge and gifts him a wreath. Fred invites his crotchety uncle to a holiday feast fit for a Roman emperor -- roast goose with chestnut dressing, candied fruits, and cinnamon cake with lemon glaze. Scrooge turns him down flat, stating that such rich festive cuisine gives him digestive and other health difficulties. Scrooge throws Fred out along with his wreath. Fred is still adamant to spread the Christmas joy and hands the Christmas wreath on Scrooge's door before he leaves.

Charity collectors Rat and Mole, arrive at Scrooge's office and kindly ask for a simple donation. Scrooge responds to Rat and Mole 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." Scrooge gives the collectors the wreath left by Fred and shuts the door on them. Scrooge cannot understand how the world works. He argues that he worked his whole life to earn money and now people just expect him to give it away.

Cratchit finishes his workday at 7 PM and prepares to leave. Even then, Scrooge watches every minute on the clock and is reluctant to release Cratchit even a minute early. At the end of the day, Scrooge himself walks home in the freezing winter night.

Later, at home, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley (Hal Smith), Scrooge's greedy former business partner who died seven years earlier. At first Scrooge cannot believe this and locks himself up in his room upstairs. Doors cannot stop the ghost, who enters Scrooge's room by simply floating through the wooden door and then trips on Scrooge's cane.

Due to Marley's cruelty in life, he is doomed to wear heavy chains for eternity. He warns that a similar fate will befall Scrooge unless he changes his ways, and that Scrooge will be visited by three spirits. Marley then leaves, falling down the stairs when he tries to avoid tripping over Scrooge's cane again.

Scrooge goes to sleep after checking for the spirits that Jacob mentioned. The first spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Past / Jiminy Cricket (Eddie Carroll), arrives at 12:10 AM on Christmas day and shows Scrooge his past. His obsession for money led him to break the heart of his fiance Isabelle (Patricia Parris). The Past shows him visions of his early life of his time as an employee under Mr. Fezziwig for his Tea Company, whom Scrooge admits was a very kind man.

There, at Fezziwig's Christmas party and the young Scrooge meets a young Isabelle, with whom he falls in love. Isabelle drops several hints that she wants to kiss Scrooge, but he is oblivious to her advances. Ten years pass and Isabelle had wondered when they will marry. Scrooge declined her, loving money more than Isabelle by foreclosing the mortgage on her cottage for being one hour late on her payment. Isabelle leaves in tears and forever. Seeing this, a distraught Scrooge begs the Ghost not to show any more visions as he returns home.

Alone in bed, Scrooge laments because he was so stupid about his priorities in life. At around 2 AM, the second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present / Willie the Giant (Will Ryan), arrives and shows Scrooge the poverty-stricken Cratchit family, who still keep a festive attitude in their home despite their hardships. The Present tells Scrooge that while he never showed anyone any generosity in his life, there are still people who think of him, thank him for his kindness, and care for him in their prayers. The Cratchit family has Mrs. Cratchit, and 3 kids and they only have a small chicken to share as food across their dinner table. Bob's young son, Tiny Tim (Dick Billingsley), is revealed to be ill. Even though the meal is meager, Tim still sees no reason why they should not thanks Scrooge for the meal, since he is Bob's employer. The spirit then cautions Scrooge that if things do not get better, Tiny Tim will die. However, just when Scrooge is desperate to know Tim's fate, the Ghost of Christmas Present and the house disappear.

The third and final spirit, Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (a hooded figure later revealed to be Black Pete) (D'Arcy Corrigan), takes Scrooge to the future in a graveyard. When he sees Bob mourning Tiny Tim's death, Scrooge is horrified and asks whether this future can be changed.

Scrooge is incensed by this but then grows even more shocked when he finds his own grave, freshly dug. Two gravediggers are amused that no one attended this funeral while digging the person's grave. After the weasels leave to take a break from their work, the ghost reveals Scrooge's grave by lighting a match. The ghost shoves him into his grave calling him "the richest man in the cemetery." Despite his pleas that he will repent, Scrooge falls into the open grave. Falling into his own coffin, it opens to show the gates of Hell. While vowing to change his ways, Scrooge finds himself back in his own his bedroom, where he discovers that it's Christmas Day.

Having been given another chance, Scrooge 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 (including 100 gold sovereigns to Rat and Mole; the charity collectors from earlier) and telling Fred that he will come to his Christmas feast after all. He tries to play a prank 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, and Tiny Tim proclaims, "God bless us, everyone!"