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A HOLIDAY MUSICAL TREASURE FINALLY ARRIVES AFTER ALMOST 50 YEARS! @ 21 December 2010 09:59 PM

Even though it had one of the best musical scores in the business by the songwriting team behind Funny Girl (which they wrote at about the same time), with a superb cast and impeccable orchestrations and choral arrangements, done to such a level of perfection that to only listen once was to hear it for a lifetime, there was never a soundtrack album for the first animated TV special in history: Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol.

Until this year.

Now you can own ten rare restored recordings intended for the soundtrack record that was never produced both dowloading it on amazon or iTunes.

Not only that, but several songs are extended so you'll hear them as never before. The haunting "Winter Was Warm" contains a musical bridge that faded out in the special, followed by Jane Kean singing a portion again. Jim Backus' touching reprise of "Alone in the World" includes the entire song, rather than the last few bars. And there is an additional refrain in "The Lord's Bright Blessing," or as it is also known, the "razzleberry dressing" song.

The finale is missing the choral section, perhaps because the final album was never mixed for release. But you can still hear that on the DVD, which has also been reissued this year as a DVD/Blu-ray combo set which includes EVERY bonus feature on BOTH discs.

The new DVD/Blu-ray includes a new audio commentary by veteran animator Darrell Van Citters, who also wrote the recently revised "making-of" Mr Magoo's Christmas Carol book and is to be thanked profusely for his years of dedicated work spearheading the release of all this material for the first time. On the commentary are Jane Kean, Laura Olsher and several others associated with the special, even a clip of Jack Cassidy's recording session.

The DVD/Blu-ray also has a never-before-released overture created for the soundtrack album by musical director Walter Scharf (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory). With the overture and the ten downloaded songs, it truly is the gift of the year for fans of this classic production.

God bless us, everyone!