There have been many different film adaptions of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol in Prose; Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, better known as A Christmas Carol, starting with silent films as early as 1901. IMDb has a list of 72 TV and movie remakes of the classic Christmas tale. Scrooged is rated as the most popular.
The first adaption was a six-minute silent short titled Scrooge; over time the story has mostly remained the same. A greedy, miserly businessman who mistreats his employee and ignores the needs of humanity, a man who sees his value in the pile of coins in his safe. He is taught the error of his ways in a long evening filled with visits from the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, which will show him deep truths that his cold heart had long ignored.
In 1951 Alistair Sim starred as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol and it is considered by most critics to be the best adaption of the Dickens tale. On IMDb it has the highest rating, but what I found interesting is the next four titles on that list. (I’ve included links to the free versions that I could find, if you’d like to check them out.)
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Mickey’s Christmas Carol 1983
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A Christmas Carol 1984 (starring George C. Scott)
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The Muppet Christmas Carol 1992
“Saturday Night Live” got in on the fun in 2022 with their take that shows the best intentions can go terribly wrong if you have really bad aim. With Martin Short and Steve Martin.
The newest remake is coming out in 2025 and it looks to be the most terrifying A Christmas Carol to date, starring Donald Trump as Scrooge. Who will play the three spirits in this maladaptation? My suggestion for the Spirit of Christmas Past be all the women he has harmed. We can skip the Spirit of Christmas Present because it sucks and jump right to the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come. In the original story that Spirit shows Scrooge what has happened in death to a much despised man: There is much rejoicing and no one weeps for his loss. Scrooge vows to change his ways after being shown his neglected grave. Although I sense in this version of Dickens’s story there will be no redemption for Scrooge.
Scrooged stars Bill Murray, Carol Kane, Karen Allen, Alfre Woodard, David Johansen, Bobcat Goldthwait, John Mitchum, Robert Forsythe, and Brian Doyle-Murray. Directed by Richard Donner.
Scrooged is available with subscription on Prime and Paramount +. Free with ads on Pluto TV and $3.99 in the usual places.
To make requests and see the movie lists and schedules, go to WonkMovie.
For our cartoon I have the full length animated musical version starring Tim Curry, Whoopi Goldberg, and Ed Asner from 1997.
Find me on Bluesky as ziggywiggy.
On Christmas Day we will be doing a matinee of Die Hard at 4 p.m. ET. It’s not Christmas till Hans Gruber falls from Nakatomi Plaza!
