Machi Ichiban no Kechinbou

A very condensed version of the Dickens novel. It's occasionally re-run here in the U.S. along with all those old Rankin-Bass specials with the stop motion animation at around 1 in the morning long after they've replayed Elf or National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation for the 200th time. They don't run it every year, but definitely every couple of years. In fact, I thought it was just another Rankin-Bass animated cartoon, I didn't realize it was Japanese. It's a very average version of the story (Although the portion with Jacob Marley and the other ghosts is actually quite terrifying and that portion is sometimes cut fromthe rebroadcast). Walter Matthau played grouchy curmudgeons his entire career, so he is sufficiently well cast as Scrooge, but the whole thing just feels rushed and the animation is actually quite poor in spots.