We'll Have the Brightest Christmas

Began the morning with Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. I'm not the biggest fan of the nearsighted 50s cartoon character, but so many people raved about how good this special was that I broke down and bought it for myself about three or four years ago. They were right - this is one of the best animated adaptations of A Christmas Carol, up there with the Disney version. The name voice cast includes, in addition to Jim Backus as Magoo himself, June Foray, Morey Amsterdam, and as Bob Cratchet, then-Broadway favorite Jack Cassidy, and other than flip-flopping the Past and Present sequences and dropping the Nephew Fred subplot, the story stays fairly close to the original book.

The music, by real-life Broadway veterans Jules Styne and Bob Merrill (just prior to Funny Girl) is the real selling point. The opening "Back On Broadway" is fun, "We'll Have the Brightest Christmas" is a rousing number for the Cratchit family, and I always get teary at "All Alone In The World" (I can relate sometimes). My favorite song is the touching, bittersweet "Winter Was Warm," the ballad for Scrooge's former fiancee Belle that also plays over the closing credits.

Work was steady-to-busy, no problems other than frazzled managers. Between Christmas coming and the possibility of winter weather this evening (though I think it's only raining now), people were buying huge orders and even with half the registers open, the lines were still long.

I rested and had a Weight Watchers Smart Ones Meal while watching a long-time favorite of mine, Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas. Emmett and his mother, living in a rural community and facing a bare Christmas, take a chance on a local talent contest in order to be able to raise money for presents. Emmett joins a couple of his buddies in a jug band; Mrs. Otter performs a folk ballad solo. The winner of the contest ends up being a surprise...but there's an even better one waiting for the Otters and the other Jug Band members afterwards!

What I love about Emmett Otter is how simple it is. It's a Muppet special, but the animals are all fairly realistic-looking, unlike most of the Muppet Show and Sesame Street Muppets. The landscape is mostly bleak, in earth tones and gray and white with an occasional splash of color, rather than the Technicolor rainbow used in so many holiday specials. The songs are among my very favorites from any holiday special, and while they don't technically speak of Christmas, they certainly have the right feeling. (My personal favorites are the catchy "Barbecue" and the gorgeous ballad "When The River Meets The Sea.")

Emmett Otter was made for HBO, and run for many years on that cable channel. (It may still run on HBO; I don't know, I haven't had HBO in years.) That's how we first saw it. My mom and stepdad probably still have the version we taped off of HBO in 1988. The video copy I have now has a few extended scenes (including some extended musical numbers and more of the talent show), and a few missing scenes, including all of Kermit the Frog's narration and his final scene at the Riverside Rest.