Note: For Christmas in July I'm continuing Michael's Christmas Movie Guide for this month.There have been so many movie versions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol over the years it is hard to think of a movie doing anything new with this story. Yet somehow that is just what this direct to video movie featuring many of our favorite Looney Tunes characters does. Now this was not the first time the Looney Tunes characters found themselves in this classic Christmas story. In the first segment of the 1979 TV special Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales this was done under the direction of animation legend Friz Freleng. However this version is different enough from that earlier version that it does not feel like a repeat of what has been done before.
Daffy Duck here is cast in a Scrooge type role playing the manager of the Lucky Duck Superstore. He is consumed by pure greed and mistreats many of his employees (including Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, Wile E. Coyote, Claude Cat, Elmer Fudd, Pepe Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, Gossamer, Pete Puma and more classic Looney Tunes characters), especially his assistant manager Porky Pig (in a Bob Cratchit type role). Daffy hates Christmas as well of course. However he runs across Bugs Bunny who adores Christmas. Since Bugs is an expert on Christmas he informs Daffy that if Daffy keeps up this way he may be visited by three ghosts. He turns out Bugs was right as Daffy is at first visited by the ghost of C.E.O. Sylvester the Investor, Daffy’s idol, who warns the duck that three more ghosts (though it ends up being four more ghosts) would appear to help him change his ways. They do. First comes the ghosts of Christmas past (Granny and Tweety) than the ghost of Christmas present (Yosemite Sam) and lastly the ghost of Christmas yet to come (Taz).
The setting of a big department store while a very simple idea does make the story feel quite different. It of course gives the film a different look from most other adaptions of the classic book. Also Daffy having many more employees then Scrooge does and each one having a strong individual personality, gives this movie a different feel than many of the film versions where Scrooge mostly just mistreats Bob Cratchit. Though the focus is on how Daffy mistreats Porky, each of the other characters do bring something new to the story. Plus Marvin wanting to go back to Mars for Christmas is a nice touch. There are also some quite different story elements that work very well, such as Daffy’s upbringing in the Lucky Duck Orphanage, which while clichéd and short is actually kind of touching, and Porky’s daughter wanting a doll for Christmas but Daffy making the doll too expensive and paying Porky too little. There is also the fact that these things are strongly focused on, while much of the stuff seen in so many other adaptions are either skipped or glanced over.
As an adaption of a Charles Dickens there is a lot of sentimentality. While nothing done in this department is something that hasn’t been seen in other movies (though interestingly often not used in other Christmas Carol movies), it is effective and never feels forced. Of course though being a Looney Tunes movie there is a lot of humor in here as well. This includes some delightfully clever dialogue (“I'm not afraid of ghosts. In fact, I'm not afraid of anything. Except perhaps low quarterly profit projections and personal intimacy”) and some enjoyable slapstick. Add to this Gordon Goodwin’s fantastic jazz filled musical score and you just have a fun film.
This may not be a masterpiece but it is a fun little movie and I highly recommend it.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Delete that Chruistmas SLpam! It's humbug! (Why wasn't Yosemite Sam, who did this befpore in a 1900 special, Sylevestrer or Wile E., say, used?Or Papa Bear from the 1940s cartoos)?Ph well as pepe would saym Say le Girerre (Frnch)
ReplyDelete