Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- This is my mid-November reminder that Dec. 1st The Paley Center will will host a screening of Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. After the screening there will be a panel discussion which includes the following guests:
- Darrell Van Citters, Animator and Author of Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol: The Making ____of the First Animated Christmas Special,
- Judy Levitow, Daughter of Magoo Director Abe Levitow
- Marie Matthews, Voice of “Young Scrooge”
- Moderator: Jack Doulin, of the New York Theatre Workshop.

The program starts at 6pm and general admission is $20. All guests will receive a complimentary DVD of Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol. It’s a good antidote for the Robert Zemeckis version of Dickens’ story.

May I also recommend, again, Darrel van Citters’ excellent book, Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol: The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special. I’ve long been a fan of the show (I collected reviews, promos anything prior to its initial airing) it was a treasure found when I got this excellent book. The head-to-head production, also directed by Abe Levitow, of Gay Purr-ee was strong material to read about. It’s a page turner of a book and filled with gorgeous illustrations.

- As long as we’re promoting Christmas Carols, Richard Williams’ tightly strung version of the story is still available in old vhs copies. You can also find the entire film (in four parts) on The Thief Archives on YouTube.

I remember Dick having a conversation with me about the brilliant animation Abe Levitow did on this film, and, indeed, I agree. In a film filled with stunningly beautiful animated illustrations, the only real character animation I found belonged to Levitow. The sequence wherein the ghost of Christmas Past opens his robe to reveal “ignorance” and “want” is the capper of the show.

I find the show a little too rushed to properly tell the story emotionally, and it’s an emotional story. But what’s there is as brillinat as anything Dick had done. In some ways, the artwork reminds me of the cross-hatched animation his Soho Square studio did for The Charge of the Light Brigade. (In fact, when I first saw the show in 1971, I wondered whether some of the birds in Christmas Carol were reused from Charge. I never learned the answer.)

The songs from Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol are principal in the success of that show.

When you’re alone, alone in the world
When you’re alone in the world
Blown-away leaves get blown in the world
Swirled-away leaves get swirled

And hand in each hand was made for the world
Where is the hand to reach for mine back
Where are the shoes that click to my clack
I’m all alone in the world

Millions of grains of sand in the world
Why such a lonely beach?

A hand for each hand was planned for the world
Why don’t my fingers reach?
Millions of grains of sand in the world
Why’s mine a lonely beach?

Where are the heels to click to my clack?
Where is the voice to answer mine back?
I’m all alone in the WOOOOORLD!!!

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