Disney’s A Christmas Carol

I might as well be seasonal, even if the next few posts are all going to be film reviews. I had a bit of a film-fest catching four films today. It would have been five, but I wanted to ensure I was home early enough to help my little cousin put out the magic reindeer food to guide Santa‘s sleigh in.

So – Disney‘s A Christmas Carol. Another adaptation of the classic Charles Dickens novel, this time at least not featuring any cutesy characters other than those introduced by the author himself.

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Incredibly tight money-man Scrooge makes everyone’s Christmas miserable until he’s visited by a series of ghosts.

There’s no real need to explain the story as it’s so well known, but this has to be one of the best adaptations I’ve seen. Robert Zemeckis used the bizarre semi-realistic animation he introduced with The Polar Express and it suits the film perfectly. Jim Carrey‘s voice is almost unrecognisable as Scrooge (through all the stages of his life) and is excellent. I was amazed when I checked afterwards to find he did the voices for all three Christmas ghosts as well.

What sets this film apart is the way it’s been made. Visually it is simply superb. The ghosts are portrayed in four wildly different fashions, though they’re all pretty creepy. Leah has told me that most of her primary pupils that were taken to see it are still having nightmares a week on. I can’t say I’m surprised.

Zemeckis has done a wonderful job of keeping the film true to the original material. As far as I can tell, the dialogue is straight from the book. Carrey and the rest of the cast do a top-end job of making it sound good, too. Not too hokey and not so old-fashioned or archaic.

If I have any complaints, it’s the fact that the IMDB page has two questions in the FAQ: “Is the film based on a book?” and “Is one of the characters snorting cocaine?”

Good grief.

Incidentally, I saw the film in 2D and I can see a few sequences where 3D would have worked well. However, I don’t think it’s lacking anything by being seen without silly specs on.

A lovely film, beautifully crafted and closely based on a highly enjoyable piece of literature.

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