Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has proven remarkably durable over the years, turning up in all manner of unexpected guises. Here, cinema and television’s most famous myopic is recast in the Scrooge role – after a fashion – for a 53-minute television special directed by Abe Levitow. It was the first animated special produced for television, a form that would soon become a seasonal staple though subsequent productions tended to be half the length, and in the States, it has been repeatedly broadcast around the Christmas period for most years since 1962.

Mr Magoo (voiced by Jim Backus) is an actor appearing as Ebenezer Scrooge in a musical version of A Christmas Carol on Broadway. The Dickens story plays out as if we’re watching the stage show – UPA were uncertain that audiences would accept the lovable Magoo as the cold-hearted skinflint Scrooge so having him portray the part as an actor was felt to be a good compromise. The rest of the story follows the familiar tale – on Christmas Eve, miserly 19th century money lender Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his business partner Jacob Marley (Royal Dano) who warns him that three further spirits will visit him during the night. The Ghost of Christmas Present (Les Tremayne) shows Scrooge his down-trodden employee Bob Cratchit (Jack Cassidy) and his family and their meagre Christmas; The Ghost of Christmas Past (Joan Gardner) takes him back to his childhood as a lonely schoolboy and reminds him of Belle (Jane Kean), the only woman he ever loved; and the silent Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows him his own fate, doomed to a lonely death, unloved by all who knew him. Will it be enough to make the old man change his ways?

First broadcast on 18 December 1962 on NBC, Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol was produced by United Productions of America (UPA), producers of the theatrical shorts that featured Magoo, first produced in 1949. The animation is relatively crude but is undeniably effective, the colourful, stylised backgrounds and angular character designs being particularly appealing. But the single joke that had propelled Magoo through 56 appearances in short films and one feature film (1001 Arabian Nights (1959)) – that Magoo keeps mistaking people, things and situations due to his poor eyesight – had long since run its course.

As an adaptation of A Christmas Carol, it’s an odd beast. No-one in their right mind would expect fidelity to the original text but surprisingly Barbara Chain’s adaptation is quite faithful – more so than some adaptations, certainly. Having the Ghost of Christmas Present arrive before Christmas Past is an odd choice but otherwise, it’s a compacted but decent enough retelling of the much-loved tale. To cram everything in and to make room for some all-new songs by Jule Styne, writer with Stephen Sondheim of the musical Gypsy in 1959 and later, 1964’s Funny Girl with Bob Merrill, some trimming is inevitable, with Scrooge’s nephew missing completely. Though they special does find room for the scene where Scrooge overhears the near future poor talking about him in an unflattering light while picking over his belongings, often one of the first scenes to go.

Jim Backus, who provided the voice of Magoo in his big screen outings, is back in harness to lend his distinctive tones to the character and the ubiquitous Paul Frees is on hand playing no fewer than five of the minor roles. They all do a good enough job in that unrealistic way that all American animated characters tend to be, though they are defeated by the songs which, despite the successes elsewhere of their composer, are fairly ordinary.

With a few reservations, Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol is a likable attempt to do something a bit different with an oft-told tale. Future seasonal specials tended to be made for a half hour slot which is more manageable than the sometimes rather ponderous 50 plus minutes here, even with all the missing action from the novel. It opened the door for a whole industry of such things that continue to this day. For all its faults, it remains one of the best and most loved examples of its kind.

By the time Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol was broadcast, UPA had closed its animation unit and sub-contracted Jack Kinney Productions and Larry Harmon Pictures to continue the character on television in the series Mister Magoo (1960-1962). The animation was less than impressive, and Christmas Carol is at least a step up from them. Magoo’s popularity and the success of Christmas Carol ensured another television series, in which the old man continued playing famous historical and/or literary characters, The Famous Adventures of Mr Magoo (1964-1965). The special Uncle Sam Magoo followed in 1970 and there have been several attempts to revive the character again over the years, including an ill-advised live-action version with Leslie Nielsen in the role in 1997.