This isn't one of their more popular offerings, probably having to do with it being traditionally animated instead of "animagic," plus it's a little rough in the storytelling. It's one of five Rankin-Bass Christmas specials that are distributed by Universal, and when they released a collection of their specials on Blu-Ray, they initially only released three of them, only reissuing a new set recently with all five. Cricket was one of the newcomers, the other was the next one we'll cover.
I have only read a synopsis of the original Dickens tale, and the special says it's "suggested" by the Dickens story. Going from the synopsis, there's a simplifying of the story that Rankin-Bass employs. The original story features a married couple who are not present in the adaptation, who are friends with Caleb Plummer (voiced by Danny Thomas, who appears in live action introducing the special), who's promoted to a protagonist in this animated version, along with his daughter, Bertha (Marlo Thomas).
Getting an adaptation family displacement is Caleb's son Edward, who is now Bertha's beau (Ed Ames) instead of her brother. In Dickens, he was dating a girl named May. He is pronounced lost at sea while serving for the Queen's navy, while in the original, he was lost on a trip to South America. Bertha, in the special, goes blind from grief at this news. In Dickens, she was already blind. (But she was his sister there.) Caleb goes bankrupt trying to find doctors who can restore her sight. As a last ditch alternative to living on the street, Caleb takes a job at a toy factory for Mr. Tackleton (Hans Conreid), who also allows him and Bertha to live in a living quarters there. Tackleton, however, is a stingy man who demands that Caleb only use a small line to paint mouths on dolls, but Caleb sneaks full smiles on later.
Tackleton decides to marry Bertha, who accepts as her father told her that he was kind and handsome, having given them a home. Caleb meets an old man who says he has nowhere to go and lets them stay with him. The man seems disappointed when he hears of Bertha's engagement and leaves.
The main protagonist (and narrator) of the story is Cricket Crocket (Roddy McDowall), who lived on the Plummer's hearth for good luck. He moved with them and has been trying to help. The special invents many misadventures for him, during which he is kidnapped to be sold to China. During the carrying him to a ship, there's a scene in which he's carried through a bar, populated with anthropomorphic dogs and a similarly styled cat (Abbe Lane) sings a song called "Fish and Chips," serving as a "Big Lipped Alligator Moment" of the special. When Cricket is turned over, instead of paying the kidnappers, the human captain of the ship shoots them. Cricket plays dead, then gets tossed overboard, then is carried back home by a perfectly timed series of animals.
Helped by some toys who have come to life while the humans are asleep, Cricket finds the old man sleeping outside and discovers he's a disguised Edward, who returned and isn't dead. He convinces Edward to tell Bertha he's alive and he still loves her. The two marry on Christmas Day. Tackleton is upset, but when Bertha expresses that she still appreciates all he's done for her family and believes him to be handsome, he abruptly does a Scrooge-like change of personality.
The special ends with Caleb thanking Cricket for all the luck he's brought them.
Despite having an easy to follow story (loosely adapted from Dickens, who obviously didn't have all the animal misadventures), this is a really rough special. The runtime is loaded with songs, seven in a forty-nine minute runtime, including a couple reprises. That's close to two songs every ten minutes. The storytelling is obviously bolstered by gags with talking animals and such, and the much-remembered sexist line "You nincompoop! Paying any attention to the words of a gushing female!"
If they'd maybe gone for a half hour timeslot instead of an hour, maybe this would be better. Instead, it's a thin story stretched way too far.
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