Dickensian Guides

Tag Area: Fictional Collective
Short Film

Scrooge, or Marley’s Ghost

The surviving footage of this first silent film of A Christmas Carol—nearly three and a half minutes at the British Film Institute—has no dialogue cards, but does include intertitles at the start of each scene, including one that makes it clear that Scrooge sees only visions of the past with no interactions (and thus, no actual time travel. The few seconds of the Christmas “that might be” is not enough to tell whether it’s also a mere vision. I enjoyed the special effects, possibly made with double exposures (note the convenient black curtain). —Michael Main
Scene II
Marley’s Ghost
shows Scrooge Visions of himself in
christmasses past
Scene two, Marley
  • Fantasy
  • Definite Time Travel
Short Story

Journey into Mystery #2

The Pact

Frances Conrad learns the dark truth about an unholy pact made by his ancestor from the horse’s mouth itself. —Michael Main
The year is 1693, the month is June, and the day is the fifteenth. Come and watch with me.
No image currently available.
  • Weird Fiction
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Debatable Time Travel
Feature Film

Scrooge

A faithful musical retelling of the original (complete with humbugs and the ambiguity over whether viewing the past and present consists of actual time travel). —Michael Main
Humbug! Insolent young ruffians coming here with their Christmas nonsense!
A cartoon Scrooge highkicks at the front of a top-hat-wearing Christmas crowd.
  • Fantasy
  • Debatable Time Travel
Short Story

retold for children

A Christmas Carol

The tale is a somewhat faithful retelling for children, abridge to about a third of the original length, in simple language, and with copious illustrations by Chris Russell. It even retains the metaphysical thought that the future will be bleak for Tiny Tim if things remain unchanged. —Michael Main
If these shadows do not change, Tiny Tim will not see another Christmas.
Dressed in green and holding a torch high, the ghost of Christmas-yet-to-come beseeches a cowering Scrooge in his nightshirt and nightcap.
  • Fantasy
  • Audience: Children
  • Definite Time Travel
Short Movie Cartoon

Mickey’s Christmas Carol

You’ll enjoy all the Disney characters’ renditions of all the Dickens characters, from Scrooge McDuck (as Scrooge, of course) to Goofy (as Marley), Jiminy Cricket (as the Ghost of Christmas Past), and the weasels (as Scrooge’s gravediggers).


With Dickens, we always want to know whether Scrooge actually time travels or merely observes the past and present. In this case, none of the spirits explicitly explain one way or the other, but if you watch carefully when Scrooge and Jiminy arrive in the past, you’ll spot Scrooge definitely interacting with a physical object the past when he’s unable to see the festivities inside Fezzywig’s. Verdict: probably time travel!

This cartoon was based on a 1972 audio musical entitled Disney's A Christmas Carol, although the cartoon is not a musical. —Michael Main
If these shadows remain unchanged, I see an empty chair where Tiny Tim once sat.
Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and three little ones gather around Scrooge McDuck in front of a Christmas tree.
  • Science Fiction
  • Audience: Families
  • Definite Time Travel
Novelette

Magic Tree House: Merlin Mission 16*

A Ghost Tale for Christmas Time

Jack and Annie travel back to Victorian London when Merlin asks them to use their magic to inspire Charles Dickens to write “A Christmas Carol.” —based on fandom.com
A giant, bearded ghost with a torch beseeches young Annie and Jack who are dressed as 19th-century London street fiddlers.
  • Fantasy
  • Audience: Children
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

A Christmas Carol

Patrick Steward delivers a nuanced portrayal of Scrooge in this faithful adaptation. Much of the dialog came verbatim from Dickens’s original, and the costumers paid careful tribute to John Leech’s original illustrations. —Michael Main
Scrooge: Is there no chance that boy will be spared?
Christmas Present: Not if the future remains unaltered.
Dressed in a black Victorian tophat, black coat, and black gloves, Patrick Stewart (as Scrooge) raises his cane as if to strike.
  • Fantasy
  • Debatable Time Travel
Novella

Hello Now

Teenager Jude enjoys thinking in similes and metaphors, so much so that perhaps Jude’s whole story—being uprooted, meeting an odd man, and meeting an otherworldly boy who sees no difference between space and time—is itself a metaphor for first love. The odd boy, Novo, has equally odd conversations with Jude—I’m unsure whether the conversations are deep or metaphors or both or neither—while he manipulates time, space and memories. —Michael Main
You are the place I return to, in between times. My fulcrum, the point at my center, around which all of me turns. You are my chance at stillness. The rock in my water. I know you.
Six circular photos show an empty sea and two children jumping into it from a small cliff.
  • Fantasy
  • Experimental
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Debatable Time Travel
TV Episode

WandaVision

I don't understand this power, but I will.
No image currently available.
  • Eloi Gold Medal
  • Superhero
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Debatable Time Travel
TV Episode

Fantasy Island (v3s01e03)

Quantum Entanglement

The new Fantasy Island inches closer to actual time travel when Elana helps “invisible” Eileen understand her relationship with her grown daughter by acting as a Dickensian guide and showing Eileen how her daughter experienced growing up. And young Ruby receives news of how her family is managing without her. —Michael Main
Eileen: She absolutely loved it here.
Elena: Are you sure?
Kiara Barnes (as young Ruby Akuda), dresseed in white, looks wiser than her years with tropical trees behind her.
  • Fantasy
  • Debatable Time Travel
Feature Film

Ghosts of Christmas Always

This time around, the usual three ghosts are only one of the many three-ghost teams who are given a yearly assignment to scrooge one of the many Scrooges who seem to be more numerous than ever before. Together with their 2022 assignment—Peter Baron, an unsatisfied son of a food baron—they provide a nice tear-jerker for the entire family. —Michael Main
He’s like the anti-Scrooge.
No image currently available.
  • Eloi Honorable Mention
  • Fantasy
  • Romance
  • Audience: Families
  • Debatable Time Travel