The Story:
The big sell on the case of this DVD is that this animated adaptation features the voices of Tim Curry, Whoopi Goldberg, Michael York and Ed Asner. Why did they waste their talents on this?

A Christmas Carol has been done before, and this one follows that formula—stick closely to the original story, use key dialogue from the original text, add a few new elements to make it a bit different and appealing to children, and once in a while, throw in a musical number.

Aside from the voice talents mentioned above, this version gives Ebenezer Scrooge a dog—a bulldog named none other than Debit. Debit is clearly supposed to add comic relief and attract the attention of children to give this a more cartoonish quality. It doesn't work. Ebenezer has an affection for the famous literary character Robinson Crusoe in this version, as does Tiny Tim. See where this is going? The order of the story is rearranged a bit. For instance, Scrooge meets Tiny Tim at his office when Tim comes to visit his daddy, Bob. Weird. The ghost of Christmas Present gets a makeover as an African-American woman. The ghost of Christmas future looks like a phantom from a Scooby Doo cartoon. The animation is basically line drawings colored in, like any Saturday morning cartoon. The big focus to give it an illusion of high end animation is an excessive focus on shadows. The orchestration is whimsical and spirited—yet the movie itself is rather dark and bland, so the two clash. And the musical numbers are all run of the mill, sounding like the forgettable filler you hear in Broadway musicals to get you to the next big showstopper. And the biggest downfall of the musical aspect of this adaptation? ALL the songs are cued up in the same exact spots as the brilliant songs in the classic Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. Do yourself a favor. Get yourself a copy of that to give your children their first exposure to this classic Christmas tale.

The DVD

Video:
This is a full screen format, its original aspect ratio. For a holiday special, this film is gloomy and dark, making the colors appear dull. The print is excellent, with no visible signs of wear.

Sound:
The audio track is Dolby 2.0 stereo, but there's Pro Logic decoding programmed into the disc so the back speakers get some mono attention. No complaints about the audio, other than the fact that I had to listen to it.

Extras:
No extras. In fact, no menu to be found at all. The movie launches upon insertion into your DVD player. The bright side? A few extras seconds of your life not wasted on this release.

Final Thoughts:
A Christmas Carol is an animated adaptation that has nothing going for it. The talented voice actors are wasted. The musical numbers are lame. The visual presentation is dreary. The addition of a dog to Scrooge's life is a poor attempt at adding charm. The DVD has nothing extra at all. What it should have is a bonus menu that simply says "Do yourself a favor and go buy Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol."