Written by Captain Conroy
Version 3:
From: A Christmas Carol (2009)
Voiced By: Jim Carrey (Born 17th January 1962: Aged 62 years at the time of writing)
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
First Released: November 3rd 2009 via Cinema
And here he is from one of my favourite adaptations - the 2009 version of the classic tale and directed by Robert Zemeckis. It is more interesting to note with this version that Robert also directed another certain Christmas movie about a locomotive which needs no introduction, and during one scene of said Christmas movie there is a Scrooge puppet, and it does look exactly like what we got here – this is what we call foreshadowing.
Even funnier still how there’s a Pinocchio puppet amongst the lot too given what he’d later direct – only difference with that one though is that it was met with a catastrophically disastrous result. But we’re not here for ol’ Pinoc – we’re here for Scrooge and how well he was done this time around, and the answer is very well.
The film starts with him overseeing Jacob Marley and you can clearly tell there does at least appear to be some feeling for his deceased partner – but if anything, it’s a feeling of emptiness as if the prospect of life and death never seemed to much bother him.
And then immediately after signing a death certificate, he reluctantly gives the Undertaker two coins, and it does show how reluctant he is to part with even the smallest amount of money, once again keeping in with the theme as to how animated versions do like to emphasise how cheap Scrooge is. And if that’s not enough, he takes the coins off of Marley’s eyes which were part of the old tradition of putting coins on a dead person’s eyes to keep the eyes closed. And if his cheapness wasn’t enough, his nastiness certainly shows as he barges through a couple on his way to his office and the carol singers stop singing the moment he glares at them.
Certainly has a lot of influence, doesn’t he? It even goes to show how distasteful this Scrooge is when Fred of all people seems to express a face of disgust about his comment of what would happen to people who went around saying Merry Christmas in his ideal world.
And my favourite one is when he says that people who can’t even go to the establishments he supports should die and decrease the surplus population and the look on the charity workers’ faces express utter disgust how he’d even dare to suggest such a thing.
“No, he did not just say that!”
This is a perfect establishment of Scrooge’s character. He is feared, he is loathed, he is ruthless, he is cheap, he is hard and all of this we see both before the opening titles and after them, and it’s amazing how much of this can even be sold via the facial expressions of the characters. One word sums up all of this: perfection. But yet, how quickly this all fades away once he sees Marley’s ghost in the door-knocker of his home and how quick he is to suddenly become uneasy – this too is perfect as no matter how unfeeling someone may be, it is only natural for us humans to fear the unknown.
It even made this scene somewhat funny as Scrooge asks himself why everything seems to happen to him as he drops his keys. It’s even quick to show how this Scrooge is made of stronger stuff than he looks as he falls back on the stairs, but doesn’t sustain any injuries. I mean he could easily have broken his back, but he didn’t, and there’s plenty more to come of falling and hitting things as we go along and yet he turns out alright – does this Scrooge have an Adamantium skeleton or something?
Anyway, we can cover a bit more on that later, when Marley comes to visit – naturally he tells Scrooge about the chains he wears and that his was as heavy and as long as his seven Christmas Eves ago. And given this Jacob Marley has one of the longest chains of any Jacob Marley ever – just how detestable was Scrooge in his life to have chains as heavy and as long as this seven Christmas Eves ago and that he would have laboured on it since.
Like damn – when you really think about it – that’s pretty messed up. This Scrooge sure is one despicable being isn’t he? But as hard as he was, he was just as quick to start learning his lessons despite any other indications along the way. He may have dismissed a tear as something in his eye when Past noticed but he still took it in as soon as he remembered about his sister and how Fred is her child. And as much as he relives the pleasant memories, the bad ones are just as quick to be relived and my favourite part is when faces of people he knew start flashing before him in Past’s face which brings us a little more with how this Scrooge is made of stronger stuff than he may look. Once he closes out Past’s light – the cap just takes off, fades away and leaves him falling, thus a transition occurs to make it look like he only fell out of bed.
Thunderbirds Are Go!
And if it wasn’t Past’s visit where his redemption starts to take form – it was easily Present’s. Scrooge is quick to admit how everything is quite beautiful and heeds what Present has to say when Scrooge chastises him about the bakers being closed on Sundays despite poor people having no means to cook their meals, and he is just as quickly corrected by Present when he tells him to charge these doings to other people – not him or his brothers. Scrooge promises him he will. But my favourite parts have to be even if he is learning the lessons – the one occasion where Present regains Scrooge’s concentration by bopping him on the head with his torch and the two occasions Scrooge tries to sneak away but Present forces him to stay and to listen.
“Actually, I’d rather not listen to Mrs. Cratchit rightfully talking about what a bad person I am, bye-bye!”
“Come back here!”
But even for all of this, he still begins learning and starts asking Tiny Tim whether there is refuge or resource for the poor only to have his own words used against him and then bears witness to what is to Present a pretty brutal death as the bell tolls his last. But even if that’s not enough, Yet-To-Come’s lessons will certainly sink into him as not only are there the lessons to learn, but Yet-To-Come gives Scrooge one hell of a wild-ride as he is chased through the streets of London, slides down a drain, hits various icicles and even surfs on one of them and then proceeds to fall in to Mrs. Dilber’s bag. And if that’s not enough, even if Old Joe was trying to hit a rat, Scrooge has to avoid that and on top of all of that, there are plenty of falls along the way and Yet-To-Come provides most of the jump-scares. It’s a surprise this Scrooge didn’t die of fright along the way! I thought the lessons were supposed to teach him, not traumatise him, this Yet-To-Come is a freaking sadist!
I mostly mean this in good humour but it’s safe to say this Scrooge has had the most traumatic experiences with these ghosts than any other, but apart from that he still seems happy enough once he changes, but the very best part of the lessons being learned is when Scrooge sees the potential future if he does not change and Bob comes up the stairs to go and see Tim. Bob obviously can’t see Scrooge as they’re only shadows of things that may be, but we sure know Scrooge can see him and he ends up looking Bob dead in the eye.
Once again – this is total perfection as far as things go with this adaptation. How perfect is this for Scrooge to learn his lesson when he has to face head on what could happen if he doesn’t change. And furthermore he does show genuine remorse and doesn’t try to shake it off. I know plenty of other Scrooges show remorse for the bleak uncertain future but this is the most perfect of them all having to look Bob right in the eyes – his red, tearful eyes I must emphasise to show that he must change if he does not want this to happen.
And then once the change happens, the lesson is learned and Scrooge is ready to go out and be a better person. One could see it as a little hypocritical that Scrooge just shrugged it off at van draggers – dismissing them as delinquents at the start of the movie, but I don’t look at it that way, I just see his new carefree side coming out.
But I find it extremely hilarious that he did this before getting dressed, and what’s more is that he wasn’t dragged just down the street, but it was a decent way before he let go, and one has to wonder what would everyone had thought seeing him walking back to his home in his nightwear as he goes back to get dressed. It makes me chuckle just thinking about it. But my favourite part is when he goes to Fred’s house and they’re in the midst of their game and you can tell he looks visibly nervous but yet he still does it. That alone takes a tremendous amount of courage, and it reminds me of the Patrick Stewart one as it was a similar scenario there.
Once again – from start to finish, this Scrooge along with this adaptation is perfection and I love it so. And following on from the last entry, his redemption felt very well earned as he took the lessons in despite a few denials, he was quick to start learning and he really did have to endure a lot from all three spirits to earn his happy ending.
“God bless us, everyone!”
To go along with all of this, as stated in the profile, he was voiced by Jim Carrey. Yes, the very same. The Mask, Dumb and Dumber, Bruce Almighty and later after this Dr. Robotnik, you name it. I even remember when this movie was coming out and I heard that Carrey was going to be Scrooge – I remember thinking this was a casting choice foredoomed to failure. But back then, I don’t mind admitting, I was very uneducated and following a bad influence in the form of the Nostalgia Critic, thus when I look back now, I am very happy I was proven 100% wrong when I watched this for the first time.
I was genuinely blown away, and still am, as to how damn good he was in this role. He plays the seriousness as well as the comedy side of things and he at least goes to the lengths to adapt at least some kind of a British accent and doesn’t just roll with his own. I won’t lie when I say his British accent is very good. I’ve heard worse attempts at our accent, but Carrey manged it very well, and this is coming from a fellow Brit himself.
And if this isn’t enough, Carrey clearly influenced the design of Scrooge, especially as a younger man.
Uncanny isn’t it?
But I guess this helps by the fact that Carrey also provided the motion capture of Scrooge – not just his voice. And I love how Christmas Past has a resemblance to Carrey as well as if to really emphasize how he is Scrooge’s past when Scrooge asked him about it.
Like so – although Carrey did play all three Spirits as well, but more with the character design.
Once again, not far off the puppet, eh? But what we see here is an old man with long grey hair with a balding top and wearing a black three-piece suit with a tailcoat in particular for the jacket with another case of the only spec of colour being his shirt and his overcoat – knee length in this case and top hat are black too. I like how he’s slightly hunched over too as I don’t see this in many Scrooges, and one has to like how he almost looks like a skeleton. It makes sense he’d look so thin as due to his cheapness, he probably eats very little.
My favourite thing about this design is that he looks rather cartoony, yet realistic without looking too uncanny or scary for younger children and so on. I don’t know how many would agree with me on this one, but I am the same person who never found the character designs in The Polar Express or the puppets in Thunderbirds scary. Yes – I’m weird and I know.
But to finish off this load of glowing praise I have for this version, this Scrooge left an instant lasting impression and I knew the first time certainly wouldn’t be the last time watching it and that I would watch it again and again many times more and for many Christmases to come, even 15 years later.
Yes, I know, at the time of writing this film is 15 years old and will be 20 in 2029, feel old yet? I’ll still never forget watching this for the first time and the first time watching was easily enough to tell me that this was an instant modern classic and it’ll easily be a classic for many years to come.
Version 4:
From: Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (2022)
Voiced By: Luke Evans (Born 15th April 1979: Aged 45 years at the time of writing)
Distributor: Netflix
First Released: 18th November 2022 via Netflix
And now we come to the final entry, the Scrooge from Scrooge: A Christmas Carol, a 2022 adaptation that was a Netflix exclusive. And you may remember me saying I’d still take the Tim Curry version as far as adaptations and the road to his redemption goes. Why is that you may ask? Well… let’s just go into it shall we?
So to start with, after nothing short of a great musical number to open this one up, we get Tiny Tim and Kathy, as this Cratchit child is called in this version, busking for money and we first see Scrooge here mostly in shadow as he barges past them and knocks their cup over, causing them to lose their coin. Kathy is quick to insult him but very quickly changes her tune once she realises who it is, which already shows Scrooge’s influence on these people. And it’s at that point we first see his face which makes for an effective reveal. But as you’ll notice, Scrooge is not alone here for this one much like the Tim Curry version is accompanied by a dog.
This one is called Prudence and even though Debit isn’t exactly the meanest dog around despite having his moments, Prudence is considerably nicer than Debit and in this case it’s at least explained as to why Scrooge has her – she was left to him by Jacob Marley, which makes it quite surprising that Jacob Marley would even own a dog – and as we see during Scrooge’s past, Jacob apparently owned more than one!
Anyway, as well as Scrooge’s influence, if there’s anything else that is very quickly established about him – it’s his meanness and when I say meanness – get ready for this one as out of all the animated adaptations that exaggerate Scrooge’s hard nature and meanness, this Scrooge is ramped up to eleven and even further than that!
“Prudence, stop licking that poor boy! You have no idea where he’s been.”
Yes, that is literally what he says to Prudence in response to her licking Tiny Tim. Let alone, this Scrooge like George C. Scott and Tim Curry’s versions sees Tiny Tim before the ghosts’ visits and this is what he has to say. This already falls flat on its face as upon a first impression like that – this to me makes zero sense as to why he would suddenly start caring about him during the visits. Now one can argue he didn’t know he was Bob’s child, but he clearly sees this through his window later on. And even so George C. Scott’s version was kind enough to let him wait for his father instead of turning him away and Tim Curry’s version chooses his words carefully about him in front of Bob, trying not to sound rude, so it still makes sense for them to suddenly care.
And after that, he avoids his nephew (called Harry in this version – I don’t know why when it should be Fred) or at least he tries to until Harry catches up to him and as he proceeds to go along his way, he turns down the charity ladies hard by making it out like they need a permit to perform and laughs about it as he leaves them with nothing. What a sadist. Then he pays a visit to Jenkins the toy store owner and Jenkins is unable to pay his debt, so Scrooge provides a witty answer and gives him until the end of Boxing Day to pay him an additional 25 pounds to add a total of 50 pounds and says Merry Christmas to him after this – although clearly not meaning it. And if that’s not enough, after scolding street urchins for sticking posters on his walls outside and they scarper clearly not too bothered by him, he storms in and Bob spills the ink to his pen accidently and Scrooge tells him that the cost of it will be deducted from his pay.
“The cost of that ink will be deducted from your pay.”
And he actually means that too as when he pays Bob, he actually does take 5 shillings away from his 15 shilling wages and calls them his pay to him for the ink and the day off he’s insist on having! And even before paying Bob part of what he is owed, the way he speaks to Harry is downright horrible. Yes, it’s not supposed to be nice, but most Scrooges give him credit where credit is due and commend him for being a powerful speaker. But this Scrooge has nothing nice to say to him at all, he recites the whole thing about how it goes when Harry asks him to Christmas Dinner to show him that he refuses his proposal yet again, he doesn’t know his wife’s name and to really show it, I’ll put down here what he says to him word for word after Harry says that his mother would be disappointed at the prospect of them spending Christmas apart from each other:
“Harry! Life is full of disappointments. One such disappointment came on the glorious Christmas Day that you stumbled into this world! The very same Christmas Day your mother, my beloved sister left! I will not be joining you for Christmas Dinner, nor any other celebration of this wretched season! Now please leave, before I say something you will regret.”
I mean Jeez Louise by any standards of past Scrooge, that is freaking evil as far as his nastiness goes! I mean yes I can’t emphasise enough how animated adaptations really ramp Scrooge’s nastiness to eleven, but this one is REALLY exaggerated in terms of how nasty he is! And just how oblivious he seems about it too – I mean he seriously has the nerve to ask Prudence when she glares at him after he turns down Bob’s pleas for his full pay and sends him off home and expects him at half seven on Boxing Day:
“What? What have I done now?” “You know what you did.”
Prudence’s face says it all doesn’t it? And even after a moment alone with Prudence in his office, when he offers to pick her up a bone on the way home, all he can think about is that the butcher owes him money and when Prudence slumps on her bed in response to this he just mutters to himself there’s no pleasing some people. And after a moment bitterly lamenting what he lost in life as Christmas is clearly the biggest reminder for him, he shoos a couple away kissing outside of his office and has a song number to himself basically asking why should he be happy when he’s had a rough life and why should everyone else be happy if he’s not? Seriously, this Scrooge really went through life with his eyes closed! At least he was kind enough to still get Prudence the bone as we see later on during this song number.
But still, some of the lyrics during this song number revolve around treating them tougher. Excuse me mister, but I don’t think you need to treat them any tougher than you are now! I mean Jesus, you have already treated these people the toughest out of any version I’ve looked at on this list, both animated and live action, and you still think you need to treat them harsher? What the hell is wrong with this Scrooge?! To add on top of this, this Scrooge is the most dismissive of Jacob Marley’s visit dismissing it as a dream. But as a side note – he doesn’t see his face in the doorknocker as per tradition – BOO! But even after he starts contemplating and even has the nerve to blame Harry for it and says it in a way which makes him sound like a conspiracy theorist.
“It’s that nephew of mine, interfering! Bringing my blood to the boil! Has me jumping at shadows, seeing things, yes! That’s it, yes.”
Seriously?! What ever happened to indigestion like Patrick Stewart’s version or a slight dis-order of the stomach like most versions? In fact, tell him Georgie.
“Something I ate.”
But for all his nastiness, I suppose to a degree it makes it satisfying when the ghosts start completely messing with him – especially Past being the wittiest and taking the most delight in mocking him at every available opportunity. But there are times when it begins to feel like a satire of the classic story – especially when she keeps getting Fezziwig’s name wrong and Scrooge corrects her at times. Scrooge is particularly keen to get away from her, but obviously he can’t, and Past really rubs it in his face about how he clearly never learned from his past. Things are at least a little bit interesting from here though as this Scrooge’s past is showcased before Marley made him a partner and Scrooge at least had some prior interaction with the Cratchits as he and Marley close down their bakery.
Yeah, look Scrooge – there’s the boy you’ll eventually employ. Scrooge even stated how he left Fezziwig in favour of Marley because Marley offered him a more stable position. Interesting to think that Jacob Marley of all people would pay that well. Clearly he never did any of his fellow men any favours. But still there are moments Scrooge shows moments of regret, yet he proves a tough nut to crack still. Past’s visit did nothing for him other than remind him of what he lost and during Present’s musical number, Scrooge outright has his fingers in his ears as if to say he’s not listening and even kicks one of Present’s little friends during this song number and hits one during the visit to Harry’s house.
I mean usually Scrooge would learn from Past despite the painful reminders and Present is when his redemption begins to take form. However there is none of this here and it’s not until the very end of Present’s visit he seems to start showing the semblance of learning something. But again it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense as to why he would suddenly start caring about Tiny Tim given the way he spoke to Prudence about him at the start of the film and there’s no mention in this adaptation at all about how he behaved in church and what a thoughtful little fellow he is which brings us to a rather large problem with this version – the three visits feel rather rushed in comparison to most adaptations and they miss some key parts out – including some of the stuff that would open Scrooge’s heart. Yet-To-Come’s visit is particularly rushed, but we will get to that. Along the way there were even times he asks in an annoyed tone where they’re going and expresses irritation at witnessing another toast and how he says “Here, here.” when he’ll gladly take Bob’s praises instead of learning the lesson he’s supposed to be learning.
Sorry Scrooge, they do say credit is due where credit is due, but nothing Bob says excuses what a bad person you are. I mean George C. Scott’s version takes credit for himself when mentioned about that there would be no feast without him, but he was still gradually learning along the way and Tim Curry’s version was even quicker to learn, as much of a tough nut to crack he was. And once Yet-To-Come visits, Scrooge witnesses unknowingly to him at the time a celebration of his passing and is quick to join in the merriment that accompanies a song number about the people being happy he’s dead when he thinks he himself is being celebrated.
Which is fine enough, but it begs one big question, this starts in front of his office which is locked up, boarded and chained and the sign is in sight, and he doesn’t recognise it?!
I mean look, right there, see it? That’s his office locked, boarded and chained up and he clearly can’t see it’s his office and he’s nowhere in sight for himself to see! I mean is he blind or something?! Jesus Christ Scrooge, get a clue! Let alone how the hell did this pass the editing stages?! And no – nobody make up any excuse for this as he was quick to recognise his office during Past’s visit, so there is no justification for this blatant piece of ignorance. But after Scrooge starting off here and the musical number, we go straight to Tiny Tim’s grave without any other showcasing like businessmen talking about his passing and Old Joe going through his belongings brought to him by Mrs. Dilber and others. this further backs me up on what I said about the ghosts’ visits, especially Yet-To-Come’s being very rushed, which is shameful for any Christmas Carol adaptation. Not to mention by the time Scrooge realises he’s dead and that he wasn’t being celebrated the way he thought, that is when he finally starts to make the effort.
“If I am beyond salvation, then so be it! But please, the boy need not die! Not when I have it in my power to help him! I beg of you, spare me for this reason if nothing more!”
Oh sure, now make the effort! I mean yes, he did ask Present about Tiny Tim, but Present gave no precise answer compared to other versions where they tell Scrooge what they think and use his own words against him. But once Scrooge is back in his home, he of course changes very quickly after realising once again it’s not a dream and changes into brighter colours. Given he had to dust that suit off, I wonder how long it was since he last wore it? And then he hosts this great big party to which the urchins who hung the posters up, Harry, Hela his wife, the charity workers, Bob and all his family and Mr. Jenkins are all able to attend despite the very short notice.
Once again this feels so rushed given, he’s seeing everyone at once instead of separately and more realistically compared to most versions, and it begs another question, how do you rush the most crucial parts of this story despite this movie being an hour and 36 minutes long? But to close off the overall analysis before we talk about lasting impressions and presentation on a brighter note – at least a good song number goes with this ending and it’s my personal favourite song in this movie.
So for lasting impressions, as you might be able to tell – this Scrooge was not very well done – absolutely not. And it pains me to have to say this as the depictions of Scrooge tend to be my favourite thing in Christmas Carol adaptations and like most other people it’s my favourite Christmas Story – of course it is right? But after talking so positively about the last entry, it gives me no pleasure to have to end this essay on a sombre note – but this Scrooge along with this adaptation – it's rubbish!
It rushes the most crucial parts as they’re too busy doing their own things and adding their own scenes instead of following the story properly, the dialogue is over simplified and it plays it too safe for kids – I mean you know you have it bad when Present burps at one point interrupting himself. And once again I take the redemption of Curry’s version over this one, as this one’s redemption is just not very well earned at all given how long it took for him to get a clue, how over-the-top nasty he was, and had nothing going for him to deserve a redemption. Abysmal.
But as far as presentations go – at least this is something that’s done somewhat right.
He is dressed appropriately for the time period and once again dresses mostly in black with the tailcoat, trousers and shoes being black, but the waistcoat is brown and the cravat is white like the shirt, and for outdoors his black top hat and long black coat with the attached cape. This sells me for a costume for Scrooge and we have the transition to brighter colours once he has reformed with most notably a green waistcoat and a blue tailcoat and cravat. He also carries a pocket watch saying To Our Happiness that was given to him by Isabelle, this is used throughout the film and is a constant reminder for Scrooge. I guess it shows that he never bothered to replace is as he’s so cheap and of course once he redeems, why would he want to get rid of it?
But then there’s the design, does anyone else other than me think he looks a bit young for Scrooge? I mean they somehow turned him into the silver fox Scrooge instead of the old man Scrooge we’re all familiar with. Furthermore of all the unfitting casting choices for Scrooge, they chose Luke Evans.
Yes, I mean the very same. Do not get me wrong Luke is a phenomenal actor and an outstanding singer, and he certainly has his vocals going for this Scrooge and he certainly doesn’t act badly in this film at all – it’s just that he’s not fitting for Scrooge and whenever he speaks, I do not hear Scrooge I only hear Luke Evans because it is Luke Evans. Now I fully understand why George Lucas thought Orson Welles was too recognisable as Darth Vader, because this is exactly how I feel about Luke Evans here as Scrooge – he’s just too recognisable – but at least Welles would have been fitting for Vader – Evans for Scrooge is not. Damn shame if you ask me – oh well, hopefully Luke will get something better to work on.
It says a lot when Jim Carrey managed to be a better Scrooge than Luke did, and everybody thought HE was a bad choice at the time!
But like Fred, I mean to keep my Christmas Spirit to the last and this now concludes my lengthy look at various versions of Ebenezer Scrooge. Now let’s hear it from you, both live action and animated – what are your favourite versions of Scrooge? Do you favour one on this list or one that isn’t one this list? Please do share your thoughts as I would love to see what you guys think.
But until the next time that’s it from me and I’ll certainly have more blogposts to contribute in the future. I have a few ideas but one particular one I’m excited to do will most certainly interest fellow Thomas fans like me – but I won’t give away anything else about it yet. All I’ll say here is until the next time, Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year everyone!
This essay is dedicated to the following:
Alastair Sim George C. Scott Ron Haddrick
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