• she/her

41, queer trans furry trash, actual professional deer, perpetually tired // mostly 18+ but let’s say entirely 18+ to be safe


bsky
deergrace.bsky.social

This one's rough, friends.

  • In his bitter crabbing at Bob Cratchit, Scrooge sneers that he can’t afford a wife, so what gives Bob the nerve to have a family? He’s also super fucking grumpy at nephew Fred about the idea of romance. Dude, if you’re ace, that’s fine, nobody’s going to make you get married.
  • Seymour Hicks is all blustery jowls and ratty hair here; this is a Scrooge who definitely smells, probably of dust and turnip farts and old-man BO.
  • This version has the rare scene of Scrooge crankily eating dinner in the pub, where it's implied he eats regularly. Does he just not taste the staff pissing in his soup?
  • There is a baffling extended comedy scene of cooks and bakers with jaunty music, throwing scraps out at orphans. They, in turn, are catering some kind of Christmas feast across the street presided over by the Lord Mayor of London, with toffs singing God Save the Queen in a toast - which super pisses off Scrooge.
  • Scrooge’s reaction to Marley is a Goofy-like goggle-eyed comic panic, with full-on silly wailing in a shaking, quavering voice. Marley himself is invisible, represented by vague shadow, and a door closed by (presumably) a grip pulling a thread. I have to say, it kind of kills the thematic value of Marley’s chains (“forged link by link”) to not see them?
  • Christmas Past is an amorphous, androgynous being of light, which is actually pretty close to the novella’s description!
  • Scrooge’s fiancee leaves him because she walks in on him being cruel on the job, which – is this really the first time you’ve seen or heard cruel assholery about the sanctity of Business™ out of this man’s mouth? Really?
  • Christmas Present plays up the "gluttony" part of the usual theme of abundance and plenty more than usual; he seems much more focused on eating a whole fucking quarter chicken (falling apart in the actor’s hand as he chews!) than delivering his lines.
  • There's some nice use of shadow and composition in the Christmas Future segment, especially the leering, hag-like charwomen selling Scrooge’s valuables to a fence...but Christmas Future is again just a pointing shadow, which sucks.

FINAL RATING: 2/10. Really kind of just unpleasant, honestly? 😐


You must log in to comment.