The Making of Mickey's Christmas Carol (1984)

Although Walt had devoted glimpses at animated films in production on his TV shows since his very first Christmas specials, this was the first time a formal Making of documentary was ever produced for a Disney animated project.

Mickey's Christmas Carol was an ambitious project for the time. It was produced largely by the team of young animators who came to work at the studio in the late 1970's and early 80's. Some of them you see in this film and they both revered the past and were seeking to prove themselves. We even see a few shots filmed in the studio morgue where the original artwork from the films were kept. Although such documentaries are commonplace today, this was very unusual for the time and was produced for the brand new Disney Channel.

Mickey's Christmas Carol was conceived as Mickey's return to the big screen for the first time in over 30 years but the real star is Scrooge McDuck. It had originally been intended for the TV special market after its theatrical run and so it had to be a shorter running time than other Disney featurettes from the past. As a result, some scenes were left on the cutting room floor that involved Pluto and Minnie Mouse. The entire concept is based on a 1974 LP co-written by Alan Young who also provided the voices of many of the characters. Although there are some differences between the LP and the animated film, there are passages that are similar.

Disney legend Burny Mattinson led this project. He started at Disney in 1953 with Floyd Norman and started out as an animator but primarily worked in the story dept until his death in 2023. When he wanted off The Black Cauldron, at the urging of his wife, Burny approached CEO Ron Miller with the idea and the LP. The project was immediately greenlit. The plan was to release the film in 1982 and a comic strip tying in was released that Christmas, but due to an industry wide animation strike the film was delayed until 1983 with the first reissue of The Rescuers. Burny co-directed The Great Mouse Detective after this.

In many ways, Mickey's Christmas Carol is a historic film. Aside from being Mickey's return to theater screens, it marked the first time Wayne Allwine voiced Mickey in a theatrical project. He took over from Jimmy MacDonald and would remain Mickey's voice until his death in 2009. This was the final film featuring Clarence "Ducky" Nash as Donald Duck. He'd originated the character in 1934 and would pass away shortly after its release. In fact, the film was tied in with Donald's 50th birthday. This also marked the first time Alan Young provided the voice of Uncle Scrooge McDuck in animation. He had supplied the voice in the original 1974 LP. In this documentary he talks about how he got to also portray the voice in animation. He would voice the character across the board until his death in 2016.

Hal Smith and Will Ryan are also interviewed. Smith was a prolific character actor and voice artist. He's perhaps best known as Otis the Drunk on The Andy Griffith Show. In Mickey's Christmas Carol he portrays Goofy. He'd also appeared as multiple characters on the original LP. Will Ryan portrays multiple characters in Mickey's Christmas Carol but the most prominent are Willie the Giant and Pegleg/Black Pete. Ryan was a talented voice artist of the time being part of the primary voice cast of multiple Disney Afternoon shows in the 1980's, a regular on the Focus on the Family radio series Adventures in Odyssey, but he may be best known at that time as the voice of Grubby in the Teddy Ruxpin toy line and animated series.

Mickey's Christmas Carol was also the first major project made up of the next generation of animators without the Nine Old Men. Glen Keane animated Goofy and Willie the Giant. He would go one to be one of Disney's top animators. Mark Henn animated Mickey and he also went on to be the lead animator for many of Disney's princesses in the forthcoming animated features. The other animator interviewed is David Block. He was a lesser known animator of the Eisner era because he spent much of his career at Walt Disney Television developing animated series for TV and direct to video cheapquels before returning to Walt Disney Feature Animation.

For decades Mickey's Christmas Carol was broadcast on network TV as a Christmas special and has aired on all three major networks (CBS, NBC, and ABC.) It was often paired with vintage Disney cartoon shorts with a winter theme and a behind the scenes segment on the latest animated feature from the studio. It's become a perennial favorite but this behind the scenes documentary is rarely seen.

Also of note is this documentary features interviews originally shot for the Disney Channel series The Walt Disney Family Album.

Original airdate December 1, 1984

Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.