Humbug

Humbug is a CGI animated Christmas, comedy-drama film, inspired by A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Plot

Ethan Starling, a glamorous singing star in Victorian England and the owner of a theatre house. However, Ethan is self-centered and loves only himself. He is very arrogant and believes that "In a selfish world, only the selfish succeed". He is frequently accompanied by his snooty cat, Fezziwig. Ethan does not believe in Christmas and orders all his employees to work on Christmas Day, threatening that if anyone talks about Christmas or goes home to celebrate, they will get fired.

Ethan's employees, Ginny, Pam and Sam, Fritz, and costume designer Calvin, also Ethan's best friend since childhood, are disappointed to hear the news. Calvin tries to persuade him otherwise, but is met with no success. That night, he receives a visit from the spirit of his late Uncle Maurice, who is chained with chains bound with mirrors, pocket watches and wallets for his cruelty to the way he raised him. He reveals that Ethan is heading down the same path as he once was and intends to send three spirits to see him. The three spirits will convince Ethan to change his life, each by showing his past, his present, and his future.

In Ethan's past Christmases, Uncle Maurice was very strict. He insisted that Ethan should practice singing and playing piano without giving him a chance to take a rest on Christmas. Secretly, Ethan went to his old, dearest friend Calvin's house to celebrate Christmas. There they sang together, but Uncle Maurice showed up and forbade Ethan to celebrate Christmas after that. It showed how his arrogant and selfish behavior began to manifest from it. Ethan demands the Spirit of Christmas Past returns him to his bedroom.

Meanwhile, the Spirit of Christmas Present shows Ethan what the present Christmas Day will be like. Ethan sees his co-workers teasing him behind his back, which offends him. He tells him to lighten up because they want to like him, but are never given the chance. The Spirit of Christmas Present also shows him that Calvin is a truly generous person as he gives the orphans clothes and helps at the orphanage. Ethan is touched by this and has a change of heart. However, overhearing a conversation between the owner, Mrs. Olive Goodwin, and Calvin about the orphanage is closing down before spring due to a lack of funding, he shows concern for the orphans' future. When Ethan asks the Spirit of Christmas Present what will happen to the orphans if their only home closes down, he becomes more offended when he hears him repeat the cruel words he had originally said to Calvin about them surviving as street urchins and demands they leave at once.

Finally, the Spirit of Christmas Future brings Ethan to what his future Christmas will have in store if the shadows remain unchanged. After firing his co-workers from the Gadswell Theatre for coming in late on Christmas Day, the replacements he hired to fill in failed to live up to his expectations. Arriving into the future, Ethan has lost his fame and becomes so poor, even Fezziwig's only dinner, a rat, runs away! He is not happy by this, but the spirit uses his magic staff to open a window to show him it's real. The Future Ethan is cold and he shuts the window. However, he sees an advertisement of Calvin's new fashion studio to see the new fashion line. Thinking this is a sign things will change, Ethan encourages his future self to visit him because he knows that Calvin would never let him live like this. Emboldened, future Ethan tells Fezziwig they're going to see an old friend. Immediately, Ethan and the Spirit of Christmas Future has followed his future self to the fashion studio.

Unfortunately, Calvin has not only become a rich and popular fashion designer, but he also adopts an arrogant attitude, much like the previous Ethan did. He is very cruel to his own co-workers in refusing to take the Holidays off and demands they keep working in order to present the new fashion line on time. When a visibly poor Ethan asks for help, Calvin refuses because he was bitter with the way he treated him and stopped celebrating Christmas with his family. He also tells him that he had tried to be selfless in looking after everyone and helped the poorest orphanage in town.

After he was fired by Ethan for coming in late on Christmas morning, Calvin had to scramble for work and found another job. However, it took him out of town for months. By the time he returned to town for Christmas, he was financially secure and ready to adopt Tommy, an orphan boy with a limp, right away. Unfortunately, Calvin was unaware that the orphanage closed down while he was away and was frantic to find him. He frantically looked for Tommy everywhere and soon learned that he and the other orphans have become street urchins. After that, Calvin stopped caring and focused on himself more in order to cope, showing that he took Ethan's advice to heart. Future Ethan and Fezziwig are turned away by him, only being left with a scarf which is dropped in the snow.

Now horrified from what he saw, Ethan begs the spirit to give him another chance because he has changed and awakens from his dreams in his own bedroom. He decides to let his employees have a holiday and is good to them too. He also goes with Calvin to the orphanage and "adopts" the place, announcing that they were to go straight to him if any of the orphans needed any help. Through his good deeds, Ethan ultimately learns to keep the Christmas spirit every day of the year. Through these journeys, Ethan is able to change his life and learns to help and love others.

Cast

Tom Hiddleston as Ethan Starling, a famous Victorian actor/singer and the main protagonist of the film

as Young Ethan

Justice Smith As Calvin Beadnell, Ethan's Costume Designer and Childhood Friend, and the duerotagnist of the film

Andre as Young Calvin

Alan Tudyk as Maurice, Ethan's dead Uncle and the Reformed Main Antagonist

Kristen Chenoweth as The Spirit of Christmas Past

Jeffery Tambor as The Spirit of Christmas Present

Gary Oldman as The Spirit of Christmas Future

As Pam, Sam's twin sister

As Sam, Pam's Twin sister

James Corden as Fritz

Anne Hathaway as Ginny, Calvin's Love interest