Ebony Scrooge is one of the world's most successful popular singers. However, with her cold-hearted soul and nasty attitude, she lacks a great deal of holiday cheer and makes her underpaid manager Bob Cratchett and her band anything but happy. In addition, she also neglects her niece Olivia, which makes her husband unhappy.
While in New York for a charity concert, Ebony (who was once part of the 1980s trio "Desire") is visited by the ghost of one of her former singing partners, Marli Jacob, who died in a car crash in 1990. She informs Ebony that she was unhappy with her for willingly abandoning her during her struggles with her drug addiction which ultimately led to the car accident that killed her. She also mentions that God knows Ebony took advantage of Marli's untimely death to plot her solo career, and the fact that she is using the charity concert as an excuse to add to her own wealth. Because of this, she is still earthbound and in chains. Marli warns Ebony that she may face a similar fate and informs her that she will be visited by three spirits, who will hopefully turn Ebony's life around.
The Ghost of Christmas Past shows Ebony her tragic past with her abusive, alcoholic father, and how she partly became the cold person she is today because of this. The only person that made Ebony feel loved was her brother, Ronnie, and even he tried to continue to be positive for their family, even after the two were removed from their father's custody by their grandmother's call to child services, and separated in foster care. It was also revealed that even though Ebony had been adopted into a nice family and managed to keep in touch with Ronnie, she had refused to visit her father, whom she has never forgiven for the abuse he put both her and Ronnie through. While Ronnie tried to give their father a second chance after he seemingly improved his ways by moving back home with him, he soon learned that Ebony had been right about their father not having changed after he began drinking again. Ronnie subsequently left home for good and later married straight out of high school and had Olivia, before dying of a sudden brain aneurysm.
During her years as Desire's lead singer, Ebony was in a relationship with Bob, who was a DJ at the time, and he was considering marrying her before she coldly broke up with him, favoring her career over love. Ebony had worked well with Desire until her coldness caused rifts, which, combined with Marli's drug problems, eventually broke up the band. Before leaving her, the ghost takes Ebony to Terry Freeman, Desire's other singer and Ebony and Marli's once-close friend, who is now a destitute Meals on Wheels client due to Ebony abandoning her following Marli's untimely death and crushing her financially in a lawsuit regarding the "Desire" name and brand. The ghost confronts Ebony over her maltreatment of Terry over the years, saying she should never had abandoned her friend when she needed her. Ebony tries to attack the ghost, only to be brought back to her suite.
Ebony then finds a wild party in her suite, with a heavy metal rocker at the center of the chaos. He is the Ghost of Christmas Present, who shows her how she is overworking Bob and her crew. She comes to learn just how much her band really hates her and that they insult her behind her back. Ebony shows sympathy and concern for Bob's ailing son Tim, slowly realizing just how strained his relationship with his family is. The ghost also shows Ebony her accountant Ernie Hoskins is spending his Christmas with his girlfriend; Ernie lets slip to her that he has been able to pay for his lifestyle by embezzling from her accounts over the years. This angers Ebony because Ernie was supposed to be her trusted accountant, and also makes her realize why he has always insisted on her staying on a tight budget – the less she spends, the more he can steal from her. The Ghost then takes Ebony to see the homeless people her concert is supposed to benefit, but whom she has never interacted with, showing her how they enjoy Christmas despite having nothing. Lastly, the Ghost takes her to the apartment of her estranged niece Olivia. Olivia informs her husband and friends that despite Ebony's cold attitude, she still loves her aunt. Ebony starts regretting how she treated Olivia in the past, and finally appreciates that she is the only living blood relative she has left. At this point, she starts to see everything in a new light and feels terrible about the way that she mistreated Olivia, Bob, and her band. Before leaving, the Ghost warns Ebony of the two main killers that could destroy her own life: Ignorance and Greed. Ebony reluctantly allows Bob to rush home to be with his wife Kelly and sick son Tim.
The last spirit (the Ghost of Christmas Future) is the one that gets through to Ebony. The Ghost is depicted as a miniature television showing a tragic episode of Behind the Music, which depicts many artists such as Brian McKnight commenting on the life and death of Ebony Scrooge. Her former bandmates use the show to air out their grievances about who she really is inside, ruining her public image in the process. The matter is made worse when one of her disgruntled former backup singers, Tina, theorizes that Ebony had planned to destroy Desire herself by setting up Marli to die in her car accident and deliberately financially ruining Terry, so she could take advantage and make her own solo career more successful. While Bob debunks Tina's theory in Ebony's defense, he also reveals how much he couldn't forgive her for making him work on Christmas; this led to both him missing Tim's death and Kelly divorcing him, a revelation that breaks Ebony's heart. It is also revealed that she died flat broke due to both Ernie draining her finances and her own career floundering in her last years. Ebony also discovers that Olivia was the only person who attended her funeral, while everyone else benefited from her death. The television then begins to pull Ebony into its black void as she screams for help. She begs God to grant her a second chance to make up for her cruelty and let her reopen her heart to Christmas once more.
The next morning, Ebony awakens and opens her heart to Christmas once again. During an interview, she mentions that she will do all she can to help the homeless and is open to suggestions for how to alleviate the stress of poverty. Ebony also apologizes for allowing her latest CD to be overpriced. She hires a chef (revealed to be Wolfgang Puck) to make a lavish Christmas dinner for her crew, and encouraging them to invite their families to her concert by buying up every ticket to the show that she can, over Ernie's protests regarding her budget. Ebony next reconciles with her niece Olivia, who reveals her pregnancy, and invites Terry to perform with her. She then makes one final stop before the concert by rushing to the airport and stopping Bob from boarding his plane, revealing that she has flown both his wife and Tim to join him in New York instead. After offering Bob an extended vacation to be with his family, Ebony reveals that she has pulled strings to get Tim into the best pediatric hospital in New York, and will personally fund his medical care to help him recover.
That night, the concert is a big success. During the show, Ebony declares all proceeds and donations (over $1 million) will go to charity. She then fires Ernie and has him arrested for his embezzlement by the police. When he asks his girlfriend for help, she reveals herself to be an undercover FBI agent. Ernie protests his innocence as he is taken away to be booked, and Ebony apologizes for the inconvenience her ex-manager brought them. Now wearing angelic robes, Marli watches Ebony and Terry reunite and perform "Sleigh Ride", an old song from their repertoire, and Ebony sees Marli blow her and Terry a kiss before departing for heaven.
A year later, Ebony, Terry, Bob, Kelly, and a healthy Tim are seen with Olivia's family and her usual guests at her perennial Christmas party. Ebony and Terry reconcile their friendship while planning to reform the Desire group again in honor of Marli. She playfully orders her great-niece to not make a mess on her.
Vanessa Williams sang the songs for the movie's soundtrack, including the original songs "Heart of Christmas" and "Heartquake" (featuring Rozonda Thomas). She also sings a remake of the 1948 holiday classic "Sleigh Ride".
Release
The film premiered on VH1 on December 13, 2000. Paramount Pictures released the film on DVD in Region 1 on November 19, 2002.
Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol is a 1962 animated musical holiday television special produced by UPA. It is an adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, and it features UPA's character Mr. Magoo as Ebenezer Scrooge. The special first aired on December 18, 1962, on NBC and was the first animated Christmas special to be produced specifically for television.
Mickey's Christmas Carol is a 1983 American animated Christmas fantasy featurette directed and produced by Burny Mattinson. The cartoon is an adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, and stars Scrooge McDuck as Ebenezer Scrooge. Many other Disney characters, primarily from the Mickey Mouse universe, as well as Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio (1940), and characters from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) and Robin Hood (1973), were cast throughout the film. The featurette was produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution on December 16, 1983, with the re-issue of The Rescuers (1977). In the United States, it was first aired on television on NBC, on December 10, 1984.
Scrooge is a 1970 musical film adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 story A Christmas Carol. It was filmed in London between January and May 1970 and directed by Ronald Neame, and starred Albert Finney as Ebenezer Scrooge. The film's score was composed by Leslie Bricusse and arranged and conducted by Ian Fraser.
Scrooge is a 1951 British Christmas fantasy drama film and an adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843). It stars Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge, and was produced and directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, with a screenplay by Noel Langley. It also features Kathleen Harrison, George Cole, Hermione Baddeley, Mervyn Johns, Clifford Mollison, Jack Warner, Ernest Thesiger and Patrick Macnee. Michael Hordern plays Marley's ghost and the older Jacob Marley. Peter Bull narrates portions of Charles Dickens' words at the beginning and end of the film, and appears on-screen as a businessman.
A Christmas Carol is a 1938 American drama film adaptation of Charles Dickens's 1843 novella of the same name, starring Reginald Owen as Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who learns the error of his ways on Christmas Eve after visitations by three spirits. The film was directed by Edwin L. Marin from a script by Hugo Butler.
Jacob Marley is a fictional character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. Marley has been dead for seven years, and was a former business partner of the miser Ebenezer Scrooge, the novella's protagonist. On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by Marley's ghost, who wanders the Earth entwined by heavy chains and money boxes forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness. Marley tells Scrooge that he has a single chance of redemption to avoid the same fate: he will be visited by three spirits, in the hope that he will mend his ways; otherwise, he will be cursed to carry much heavier chains of his own.
A Christmas Carol: The Musical is a 2004 American musical television film based on the 1994 stage musical by Alan Menken and Lynn Ahrens inspired by the 1843 novella of the same name by Charles Dickens.
The Ghost of Christmas Past is a fictional character in Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. The Ghost is one of three spirits that appear to miser Ebenezer Scrooge to offer him a chance of redemption.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is a fictional character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. The Ghost is the last of the three spirits that appear to miser Ebenezer Scrooge to offer him a chance of redemption.
A Christmas Carol is a 1999 British-American made-for-television film adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol that was first televised December 5, 1999, on TNT. It was directed by David Jones and stars Patrick Stewart as Ebenezer Scrooge and Richard E. Grant as Bob Cratchit.
Tiny Tim Cratchit is a fictional character from the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Although seen only briefly, he is a major character, and serves as an important symbol of the consequences of the protagonist's choices.
Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas is a 2006 animated direct-to-DVD Christmas comedy film starring the Looney Tunes characters, directed by Charles Visser, produced by Warner Bros. Animation and animated overseas by Toon City Animation. The film is based on Charles Dickens' classic novella A Christmas Carol (1843). The special was released on DVD on November 14, 2006, and was then broadcast on Cartoon Network in December 2006. The special was rereleased on DVD as part of the Looney Tunes Holiday Triple Feature on September 1, 2020.
A Carol Christmas is a TV movie starring Tori Spelling, Dinah Manoff, William Shatner, Jason Brooks and Gary Coleman. It premiered on the Hallmark Channel in 2003. The film is an adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol.
Ebbie or Miracle at Christmas: Ebbie's Story is a 1995 TV movie directed by George Kaczender, written by Ed Redlich, and starring Susan Lucci in the title role. It is a gender-reversed retelling of the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, with a hard-hearted female character named Elizabeth "Ebbie" Scrooge in place of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, and the three spirits that come to visit Ebbie resemble three of her employees who she had been overly rude towards that day.
A Christmas Carol, the 1843 novella by Charles Dickens (1812–1870), is one of the English author's best-known works. It is the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a greedy miser who hates Christmas, but is transformed into a caring, kindly person through the visitations of four ghosts. The classic work has been dramatised and adapted countless times for virtually every medium and performance genre, and new versions appear regularly.
Scrooge: The Musical is a 1992 stage musical with book, music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse. Its score and book are closely adapted from the music and screenplay of the 1970 musical film Scrooge starring Albert Finney and Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. Bricusse was nominated for an Academy Award for the song score he wrote for the film, and most of those songs were carried over to the musical.
Scrooge & Marley is 2012 film adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, which is retold from a gay perspective, co-directed by Richard Knight Jr. and Peter Neville, and co-written by Knight, Ellen Stoneking, and Timothy Imse. It also features David Pevsner as Ebenezer "Ben" Scrooge, Tim Kazurinsky as the ghost of Scrooge's business partner Jacob Marley, Ronnie Kroell as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Megan Cavanagh as the Ghost of Christmas Present, David Moretti as Bob Cratchit, and JoJo Baby as the Ghost of Christmas Future. The film adaptation received a mixed critical reception.
A Christmas Carol is a 2019 British dark fantasy drama miniseries based on the 1843 novella by Charles Dickens. The three-part series is written by Steven Knight with Tom Hardy and Ridley Scott among the executive producers. It began airing on BBC One in the U.K. on 22 December 2019 and concluded two days later on 24 December 2019. Prior to this, it aired in the U.S. on FX on 19 December 2019, with all three episodes shown consecutively as a single television film.
A Christmas Carol is a 2020 British Christmas drama dance film directed by Jacqui Morris and David Morris and based on Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. It features the voices of Simon Russell Beale, Siân Phillips, Carey Mulligan, Daniel Kaluuya, Andy Serkis, Martin Freeman and Leslie Caron. It received mixed reviews from critics.
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol is a 2022 animated musical fantasy comedy drama film directed by Stephen Donnelly from a screenplay by both Donnelly and Leslie Bricusse, adapted from the 1970 film Scrooge, in turn based on the 1843 novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Produced by Timeless Films, the film features the voices of Luke Evans, Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Jonathan Pryce, Johnny Flynn, James Cosmo and Trevor Dion Nicholas. It was released in select theaters on November 18, 2022, and made its streaming release in Netflix on December 2 of the same year. The film is dedicated to Bricusse, who died a year before the film's release. The film received mixed reviews from critics.
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