{"id":783,"date":"2010-12-10T10:12:29","date_gmt":"2010-12-10T15:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auchtoon.2gtech.com\/blog\/?p=783"},"modified":"2010-12-10T10:12:29","modified_gmt":"2010-12-10T15:12:29","slug":"honouring-the-spirit-of-christmas-in-grand-rapids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=783","title":{"rendered":"Honouring the Spirit of Christmas in Grand Rapids&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.2gtech.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/GRPR0421.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-784\" title=\"GRPR042.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.2gtech.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/GRPR0421.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"374\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Originally published in the <em>Grand Rapids Press<\/em>, December 4, 2010<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s your favorite version of Charles Dickens\u2019 \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d? A bit of a trick question because for me reading the original story in Dickens\u2019 own words is the very best. I reread it when I got the basic idea for this week\u2019s comic. I knew exactly what I wanted and where it was, but it is such a delight to read this book. It\u2019s amazing, really, when you consider how well it is known and clich\u00e9d in some respects it has become. (And as an editorial cartoonist I say \u201cthank God!\u201d because there are so few literary references these days that are universally recognized.) But every time I read it, the story just jumps &#8212; funny, compelling, and extraordinary.<\/p>\n<p>And I think you have to read the whole story to truly feel the intensity of Scrooge\u2019s graveside transformation when he says, \u201c\u2026I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.\u201d Because it\u2019s one thing to say those words, and it\u2019s quite another to intend to follow through. In Grand Rapids we are blessed with people who seemed to have, in fact, followed through. Next month the new Helen DeVos Children\u2019s Hospital will open (there were tours last week). Something like this doesn\u2019t happen without the spirit of Christmas in somebody\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n<p>But to answer the original question, the best adaptation of A Christmas Carol for me is the one from <a title=\"George C Scott\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/A_Christmas_Carol_(1984_film)\" target=\"_self\">1984 with George C Scott<\/a>. It\u2019s authentic, magical, and Scott is diabolically mean and joyously reformed. I also like <a title=\"Scrooged\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Scrooged\" target=\"_blank\">Scrooged <\/a>from 1988. The casting is inspired, particularly Carol Kane as the Ghost of Christmas present and Mary Lou Retton as Tiny Tim. The worst (again, for me) is a 1970 \u201canimated\u201d version I remember seeing as a kid. It\u2019s the straightforward story set in Victorian times, but will lousy limited animation and no soul. A classic example of\u00a0 the \u201cit\u2019s a cartoon, the kids will like it\u201d mentality that inevitably produces a turd. And along those lines, I\u2019ve never seen <a title=\"Mister Magoo Christmas Carol\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mister_Magoo%27s_Christmas_Carol\" target=\"_blank\">Mister Magoo\u2019s Christmas Carol<\/a>, but I\u2019ve heard a song(!) from it, which was painful. How about you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Originally published in the Grand Rapids Press, December 4, 2010 What\u2019s your favorite version of Charles Dickens\u2019 \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d? A bit of a trick question because for me reading the original story in Dickens\u2019 own words is the very best. I reread it when I got the basic idea for this week\u2019s comic. I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grand-rapids-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}