The Stingiest Man in Town is a 1978 Christmasmusicaltelevision special based on Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. It was created by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass, and features traditional animation rather than the stop motion animation most often used by the company. It was an animated remake of a long-unseen, but quite well received, live-action musical special which had starred Basil Rathbone, Martyn Green, and Vic Damone. The live-action version had been telecast on December 23, 1956, on the NBC anthology series The Alcoa Hour, and was published on DVD in 2011, by VAI. The animated remake first aired December 23, 1978, in the United States on NBC, and was telecast in Japan the next day.
Plot
The Stingiest Man in Town is the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, told in the 1978 version through the perspective of the insect B.A.H. Humbug, obviously a word play on Scrooge's catch phrase, "bah humbug". Scrooge is portrayed as the tightwad Charles Dickens intended him to be with his consistent resistance to assist the poor or even have Christmas dinner with his nephew Fred and his family. In hopes of resuscitating the goodness of his one-time friend, the ghost of Jacob Marley, Scrooge's former business partner, visits Scrooge in his mansion, exhorting him to change his ways. Scrooge deems this to be madness and soon prepares for bed. Nevertheless, Scrooge's attitude soon changes after a fateful night wherein three ghosts also visit him and take him through his past and present, and show him what his future would be like if he does not change. Scrooge sees a younger caricature of himself, voiced by Robert Morse and realizes how greedy and miserly he has become. The Ghost of Christmas Present proceeds to take Scrooge to the home of his diligent employee Bob Cratchit and discovers just how much poverty Cratchit and his family wallow in. Cratchit's crippled son Tiny Tim touches Scrooge's heart and instigates a transformation within his personality. The production concludes with Scrooge assisting those less fortunate than himself.
As with previous Rankin-Bass specials, animation duties for the 1978 version were provided by a Japanese studio, in this case Topcraft, many of whose animators would later form the core of Studio Ghibli. Given that The Stingiest Man in Town was actually broadcast in Japan on Christmas Eve of 1978, it is listed as an anime in some sources. The Japanese version was directed by Katsuhisa Yamada, better known for work on such bona fide anime as Mazinger Z and Devil Hunter Yohko and the characters were designed by Paul Coker Jr..
Songs
The production features an unusual number of songs, far more than in other animated productions of the story.
