5. "Oh, What a Merry Christmas Day" from "Mickey's Christmas Carol"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9zXG958Aq4 I know there are 18,000 different versions of A Christmas Carol, including a Muppet version, one with a CGI Jim Carrey, a "special Christmas episode" of every single sitcom ever created, and even a clunker romantic comedy called Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, but "Mickey's Christmas Carol" was my favorite. I used to own an audiotape featuring the whole story plus additional dialogue and songs, which I suppose would be considered "deleted scenes" these days. While the extra tunes "Being Tight Is Not Alright" and "This Is the Way Christmas Ought to Be" haven't exactly become lasting standards, the animated special did preserve "Oh, What a Merry Christmas Day," by far the best and understandably only one they kept for the video, and it has become one of my favorite Christmas carols of all time. I believe this was also the first cartoon to introduce Scrooge McDuck, and with a name like "Scrooge," you know he had to be in this story. McDuck would go on to star in "Duck Tales," one of my favorite shows as a kid, which even became a theatrical movie, so this special has always been an essential part of my video collection. Despite being a Disney toon, the voice acting is quite convincing, and the story is surprisingly moving. (Just try not to well up with tears as Mickey's Bob Cratchit looks longingly at Tiny Tim's grave in the end). Of course, it helps that the original Charles Dickens classic is my favourite story, though not favourite book, of all time.
Michael Perone
Michael Perone has written for The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore City Paper, The Island Ear (now titled Long Island Press), and The Long Island Voice, a short-lived spinoff of The Village Voice. He currently works as an Editor in Manhattan. And he still thinks Michael Keaton was the best Batman.
See more from
Michael