365+ movies in 365 days: Day 217 -Disney's A Christmas Carol

I own nine different versions of A Christmas Carol and over the holiday season I will be viewing all of them and right before Christmas there will be a ranking post. In the meantime the first one up is last year's 3D spectacular from Disney; A Christmas Carol starring Jim Carrey. On the big screen it was the amazing graphics, camera movements and 3D effects that carried the film. On Blu-Ray it's the superb performances by the actors under the CGI that really makes the film work. 

This is director Robert Zemekis' third motion capture film; the first two were The Polar Express and Beowulf. The technology has come a long way in just six years. In A Christmas Carol every nuance of facial gesture and eye movement is captured. The characters still look a little weird, but that seems normal for the film. Jim Carrey plays multiple roles in the film. He is Scrooge, young Ebenezer, the Ghost of Christmas past, The ghost of Christmas present and the Ghost of Christmas future. Gary Oldman is Bob Cratchitt, Jacob Marley and Tiny Tim. Bob Hoskins plays Mr. Fezziwig and Old Joe and Cary Ewles plays a number of supporting characters. Watch the movie and pay attention to how well Carrey plays Scrooge, from the voice, to the facial expressions, to the smallest gestures. he plays Scrooge as such an extremely miserable old man that the transformation at the end is truly joyful.

The dazzling camera work and the action sequences added for the 3D effect don't play as well on home video, but they are not that big of a distraction either. 

There are some good things and bad things about this adaptation of Dickens' timeless tale. On the plus side the film does emphasize the ghostly and spooky nature of the story. there are one or two scary moments and Jacob Marley is truly a "dreadful apparition". The movie captures a sense of life in London in 1842 as the camera glides and zooms around the city streets.

On the minus side I felt that Scrooge was more removed from his journey's with the spirits. We don't really see him influenced by what he is seeing until the final spirit. The ghostly visitations seemed hurried and rushed. In the ghost of Christmas present scenes Scrooge watches everything from above. It feels like the narrative was squeezed to make room for some of the razzle dazzle. Since the story is so familiar the viewer just fills in what is missing without realizing it. 

Disney's A Christmas Carol tells the story well and remains true to much of Charles Dickens' prose and descriptions, but it does not touch the heart as much as other versions.

At The Movie House rating *** (add a half star if you see it in 3D in a theatre)