James Berk

No Christmas Carol updates from me the last few days. I'm Scrooge right now.

Fuck Ticketmaster.

Fuck scalpers and scalperbots.

Bah Humbug.

Unique Takes: The 80s setting, and it being entirely sung.

Music: The songs come close to rivaling the ones from Muppet Christmas Carol at some points. I’ll be singing “Christmas Electricity” for the rest of the night.

Inclusion of Rare Elements: As mentioned, lots of little touches that didn’t have to be there, but it made it great that they were!

Empathy with Scrooge: It’s not too deep - it’s a funny musical. But yes, there’s an especially great addition of Scrooge’s frustration at his younger self letting his fiance slip away.

Scary Ghost Stories: Only if synthesizers terrify you.

Christmas Feeling: It’s all 80s music, dress and decor, but it’s fun and joyful and that gives a good Christmas feeling.

Thematic Elements: It’s not played for full seriousness, but there are definitely some cutting points which emphasize the problems with being rich, and the need to care for the poor. The writers got the message for sure.

Faithfulness: Surprisingly so - not down to the word, but for a 45 minute musical to include as many components of the novella as it did was surprising and delightful. This wasn’t a bare bones adaptation, but one which hit all the important scenes and many other details besides.

I was completely unaware of the existence of this adaptation before this afternoon when I found the soundtrack on Spotify while creating a playlist of soundtracks and scores from the various adaptations. I may share the playlist here eventually.

Cast of Starkid's "A VHS Christmas Carol"

The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come

A Christmas Carol Marathon 2024

Starkid presents A VHS Christmas Carol (2021)

Music: It’s a fun musical with a great musical score between the numbers. “Good Afternoon” is probably my favorite of the soundtrack.

Even at his most deflective, Ryan Reynolds has some great points. It takes me back to the end of the original text - Scrooge’s decision to change is one that involves work day after day.

Unique Takes: The concept of “Unredeemable” is part of what makes this a good addition to the Christmas Carol lineup - looking at what it means to really change.

Empathy with Scrooge: They cast Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell for a reason. It’s hard not to root for them throughout the journey.

Inclusion of Rare Elements: The song and then running gag of “Good Afternoon” was particularly ingenious.

Scary Ghost Stories: With Ferrell and Reynolds? Unlikely. And that’s okay.

Christmas Feeling: There’s a whole song (and reprise) called “Christmas Morning Feeling,” if that answers the question…

The overall message is there - old “Scrooge” is working as a political and business consultant with a lack of scruples. It isn’t until he learns about the consequences his choices make that he moves towards any change.

They have both bottled up some early childhood trauma, they both think that they have people’s “number” figured out, and they’re both pretty quick to exploit their knowledge of how people work.

Thematic Elements: My original feeling was that there really wasn’t much of the care for the poor in here. But while the feeling is significantly lighter, I felt like Ryan Reynold’s “Scrooge” is a not so distant relative to the Guy Pearce one.

Will Ferrell as The Ghost of Christmas Present on the mountain of food, inviting Ryan Reynolds to “Come in and know me better, man!”, The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come mostly just pointing a lot.

Faithfulness: I mean…they’re not really trying for faithful here. But a few fun touches here and there - all of the bells ringing before the arrival of Marley,

There really aren’t. But that’s okay - it’s still fun and resonant, and in my opinion, worthy of adding to the modern Christmas classics canon.

This was my first rewatch since reading and watching so many other versions, and I was kind of hoping that there would be some more nods to the source material that I would notice.

When watching the film in theaters a few years back, I had yet to do my deep dive into the story. I knew that it was a favorite, but I was rusty beyond the basic story elements.

Poster for 2022 movie "Spirited"

A Christmas Carol Marathon 2024

Spirited (2022) with Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell

(cont)

I know that it really doesn't matter, but it's frustrating the hell out of me that I misspelled Guy Pearce as "Guy Pierce" in my last set of Christmas Carol posts.

Next, I think it’s time for some lightness, music and humor. I think I’m headed towards a rewatch of Spirited…

Overall, this is one I really enjoyed. It’s not perfect, but it added very new perspectives. And it felt very timely in the midst of news stories where people are feeling the burden of the gaps in society and the rich getting richer at the expense of human life and flourishing.

Music: Great score by Dustin O’Hallaran. There were a couple of themes in particular that I want to go back and listen to if they are available on streaming.

Again, I feel like it might be controversial for some, but I ended up thinking it really worked both within the time period, and in adding a new perspective to the story.

Unique Takes: Going to tread carefully around a major spoiler here, but Mary Cratchit has a significantly larger role in this adaptation, and a choice she makes is instrumental in both our seeing the depths of Scrooge’s worst, and eventually his capability for change.

Inclusion of Rare Elements: Not really the point of this adaptation. But I’ll turn again to the inclusion of the cultural context and how the condemnation is made not just of Scrooge, but by extension the exploitation of people, economically, sexually, etc.