Disney’s A Christmas Carol (Robert Zemeckis, 2009): U.S.

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.  Viewed at Camino Real Cinemas, Goleta.

christmas carolDisney has released yet another version of A Christmas Carol, this time involving Performance Capture 3-D.  Performance Capture is just that, a technology that captures the actor’s movements, likeness, and performance for digital animation.

The film closely follows the Charles Dicken’s tale of the miserable and greedy Ebenezer Scrooge, and the apparition of the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.

Scrooge (Jim Carrey) has no Christmas spirit, but is heartless and stingy.  He makes his assistant Bob Cratchit (Gary Oldman) work for pittance in a sub-zero office in the dead of winter.  He rejects his nephew’s friendly invitation to a holiday meal, because it’s a waste of his precious time to be with losers that make meager incomes.

On Christmas Eve, Scrooge is visited by each ghost, first by the Past – to reveal his selfish choices that lead him to the Present – who shows Scrooge how much warmth and love he is missing out on, and finally the Future – invokes an epiphany on Scrooge when he is shown his tombstone without any mourners.

The film contains a stellar cast of stars beginning with Jim Carrey who out-performs the role of Scrooge and the 3 ghosts.  Followed by Gary Oldman (in 3 roles), Colin Firth, Robin Wright Penn, Bob Hoskins, and Cary Elwes.  These are Performance Capture roles as opposed to voice-over animation.

Since this is in 3-D, there are many extended scenes for that purpose alone – Scrooge is chased throughout the town by the death coach.  This is one of my favorite stories and I felt it lagged a bit (potential snoozability)  in order to get the point across about Scrooge, but other than that I found it entertaining.

This film was made to appeal to a mature audience, but if you kick in the extra bucks (for 3-D) the younger kids will be distracted enough – I get it.  There are some frightening scenes though, that I would not recommend for children under 7  years.  Rather Mickey’s Christmas Carol (Disney, 1983) is highly entertaining for young and old alike.  There are several remakes of this classic tale, but one superb version that I highly recommend is the 1951 A Christmas Carol (alternately titled Scrooge) with Alastair Sim, directed by Brian Desmond Hurst


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