It’s Christmas Day, of course!
I probably speak for a lot of people when I this has been an extremely bizarre Christmas. I’m in the same boat of people who can’t be with their families and have to make do at home. In self-isolation thanks to interacting with somebody who happened to test positive for Covid I couldn’t even go for a Christmas Day walk this morning, which given how sunny, crisp and cold it was this year is a big shame.
But escapism and normality can be found in animation. Richard Williams’ and Chuck Jones’ A Christmas Carol (1971) is required viewing for me this time of year and I had the privilege of seeing it on one of the BFI’s cinematic screens on December 9th, 2018.
While this roughly half-hour adaptation of Dicken’s immortal fable condenses many of the details of the novel and feels somewhat rushed in spots, it’s an absolutely beautiful retelling that purposefully echoes the style of illustrations and engravings of the mid 19th-century, artwork that would have been used to illustrate the original novel.
Many remember this version for Alaister Sim voicing Scrooge, though it’s also of note that Richard William’s son Alex voices Tiny Tim, who at the time was a very young child. Alex is now a grown man who tutors animation students, runs a YouTube channel and website as well as having animated on films such as The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995) and The Road to El Dorado (2000).
I particularly love the design and voice for the ghost of Christmas past, who here is portrayed as an androgynous entity who’s face continously flickers and morphs like the flame of a candle. Their voice is also suitably soft, cold, scratchy almost macabre, reminding me of those detached and creepy public information films of the 1970s and 1980s that coldly remind the viewer of the dangers of smuggling rabies into Britain or playing near dangerous waters.
Also impressive is how up until this point, Richard William’s animation had been compraitively primitive in design and style. Having started off working as an animator in the late 1950s and continuing to make short experimental films and commercials in the 1960s, the animation style is an enormous leap and challenge, throwing him and his animators into deep waters. That being said, though, the animation style is similar to Richard Williams’ animation for Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), another 19th century period film with some breathtaking animation that mirrors the political illustrations of the 1860s. It was, after all, Brigade that got Chuck Jones on the scent of Williams’ talent, allowing the former to stampede towards the latter like a bloodhound on the trail for somebody who was capable of bringing the art styles of the 1800s to life through animation. There are also signs of more daring trademarks such as rotating rooms and objects, animation of realistic humans and incredibly detailed scenery. The animation was also all directly drawn onto cels in grease pencil with no pencil tests. Blimey.
God bless us, Everyone.