A Christmas Carol (DVD)

...for those who live in a hole or have dementia, _A Christmas Carol_ is the story of Ebonezer Scrooge (Jim Carey) and is passage by fire from twisted, grumpy, old miser who hates Christmas to the very opposite (except he stays old).


After the death of Scrooge's business partner, Scrooge has got even more miserable and spiteful than ever and everyone fears and avoids him. Even his sole employee, Bob Cratchet (Gary Oldman) lives ...
...this film is so fantastic a telling, this would merely enhance the tediousness of an overly told story but the computer generated recreation and the direction of this film make it wonderful to watch.


It’s directed by Robert Zemeckis, the man responsible for _The Polar Express_ and _Beowulf_ . He uses the same sort of 3-D capturing here that he used in those films. Basically this is a technique were he captures the movements etc. ... more

If you do not know the story of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol there is probably something wrong with your think tank. It's possibly one of the most re-told stories of all time and probably has more film-isations than any other book, possibly even trumping the bible. This is Walt Disney's third re-telling alone for God’s sake.

Anyway for those who live in a hole or have dementia, A Christmas Carol is the story of Ebonezer Scrooge (Jim Carey) and is passage by fire from twisted, grumpy, old miser who hates Christmas to the very opposite (except he stays old).

After the death of Scrooge's business partner, Scrooge has got even more miserable and spiteful than ever and everyone fears and avoids him. Even his sole employee, Bob Cratchet (Gary Oldman) lives in misery, not allowed to light a fire in the freezing office and unable to adequately provide for his many children with his pathetic wages. Scrooge won't give money to the poor nor will he give Cratchet more than one day off, children flee from him in the streets and carol singers stop singing as he passes.

Then on Christmas Eve night, seven years after the death of Marley, strange events occur to Scrooge as he prepares for bed. The chained ghosts of Marley appears to him and warns him that Scrooge will suffer for the live he leads just as Marley is suffering and that before the night is out he will be visited by three spirits who will show him the error of his ways.

Scrooge is then visited by: The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

You know the rest.

What I thought

I didn't want to go see this film, I'd actually set out to take my younger sisters and brother to go see The Fantastic Mr. Fox but because we were late this was the only thing showing and I really wasn't looking forward to it. A Christmas Carol has almost been done to death. There are innumerable films and almost every sitcom or cartoon has done it’s own little version of the story. I remember last year, even Holby City had an A Christmas Carol style story.

BUT

I liked it. Why? I don’t know.

Well I do. It takes this worn out story and tells it like it is but really brings it to life. My personal favourite versions of the tale would be Scrooged and A Muppet’s Christmas Carol both of which really make the story their own and retell it their own comical way but this film stays rather irresolutely to the original story. Word for word dialogue in large sections. Yet this is not why this film is so fantastic a telling, this would merely enhance the tediousness of an overly told story but the computer generated recreation and the direction of this film make it wonderful to watch.

It’s directed by Robert Zemeckis, the man responsible for The Polar Express and Beowulf . He uses the same sort of 3-D capturing here that he used in those films. Basically this is a technique were he captures the movements etc. of real actors and translates the actor and their performance into the animation. Having only seen Beowulf I wouldn’t consider myself a fan, I think the way he used real people and try to cartoonise them in that film only made them look all the more fake but he has really tweaked the technique in this film. At times Scrooge looks so real, there are several close-ups of him and even the texture of his skin is so detailed. However, it has to be said that a lot of the other characters look frickin creepy. Whilst Scrooge is an altered version of Jim Carey, barely recognisable, Gary Oldman’s appearance is transplanted into the film and looks so odd as do the rest of them. The technology is coming along leaps and bounds but it’s not there yet.

The environment thought it has to be said was amazing. As the film opens the camera flies over a recreated snowy Victorian London that looks so real and magical and embodies the Christmas spirit. It’s like the cover of those biscuit tins brought to life. All the credit in the world should go to the environment and the general direction. Though very faithful to the book the director has elaborated on it in parts, and made some very visually stunning scenes. It’s a very dark telling of the story at times which is surprising. The death of The Ghost of Christmas Present occurs on the inside of a clock tower and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (the Death Character) leads to an exhilarating chase and very scary elements as Scrooge goes through a sort of purgatory.

Jim Carey played all Scrooge and all the ghosts. This I worried about, I expected some stupid American/Canadian accent to ruin the whole thing but he did do a very convincing old fart voice for Scrooge and as for the ghosts I’m not convinced he done the voices for them even if he did perhaps do the acting. Especially as I’m definitely sure that the Ghost of Christmas Past had an Irish accent. I can’t find out on IMDb or anything who voiced him but I don’t think it was Carey unless he decided to make that odd accent choice. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come was scarier than you’ve ever seen him as only a shadow this time. In fact he’s Scrooge’s own shadow contorted into that of cloaked death. The Ghost of Christmas Past, on the other hand, was a frickin candle. Come on, a candle. I know he’s meant to be light and all but an actual candle just looks stupid.

Gary Oldman as I’ve already said was creepy as Bob Cratchet and looked like a hobbit and he also played Marley’s ghost. Cary Elwes got an unbelievable small part as a friend of Scrooge’s in the past who really doesn’t say anything and as a fiddler who really doesn’t say anything. Going along with the weird conception the world has that anything set in the past and English has to have Colin Firth in it, here he is in this as Scrooge’s nephew. Looking chubby and creepy as himself. Bob Hoskins also appears as Scrooge’s old employer.

It is Christmassy. With the Victorian snow scape and the many Christmas carols that make up the soundtrack for the film as well as the inherent Christmas-ness that comes with the Christmas Carol story. Maybe it’s too early because I did feel it lacked a little something, early November is not near Christmas no matter how many Christmas trees Tesco puts up.

Of Importance

In can’t really think of anything too facetious to say about this film except for the fact that the characters of Dick and Fanny were introduced far too closely together so when the first just rises a crude smile the second brings a laugh.

Scrooge is very politely spoken for an angry dude. I mean the most aggressive he gets is “Bah humbug” and saying “I said ‘Good-day, sir’” loudly and repeatedly. Where’s the bad language Walt?

Who I’d Punch

The candle ghost because he looked stupid and he kept flickering in the wind in a really annoying way.

The views of the little ones

8 year old sister liked it. 10 year old sister liked it and 12 year old brother liked it, though he liked The Vampire’s Assistant which he saw last week better. The girls did also think it was quite scary, but in a good way, they’d jump at times but laugh afterwards.

Trailer

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/achristmascarol/

Overall

It’s the same old Christmas Carol story with little deviation from the original telling. It’s strengths are that it is beautifully retold and directed with an amazing, boundless recreation of Victorian London that encapsulates Christmas. On the downside the animation of the people still doesn’t look completely real despite the fact that it’s the best this style of 3-D capture has come up with yet. They looked creepy though, puppet-creepy.

It's not one you'd buy on DVD but it's maybe one for a watch around Christmas time. It's now up there in my top three re-telling of the story (at 3rd)

Written by Phelim Mc. Don't steal it, or I'll push the red button 

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