Click to play videoCast: Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman
Director: Robert Zemeckis
The Disney version of Charles Dickens' timeless tale of a Christmas-hating miser springs to life in the Robert Zemeckis-directed animation film, Disney's A Christmas Carol. The filmmaker extends the performance-capture 3D technology he deployed on The Polar Express and Beowulf to this grim story that might indeed be too dark for the little ones.
Jim Carrey does a good enough job as Scrooge, and also portrays the three Christmas spirits - Past, Present, and Future - who show the stingy mean-guy the error of his ways. Gary Oldman, meanwhile, is hired to step into the shoes of Scrooge's meek clerk Bob Cratchit.
The camerawork's superb, the performance-capture technology now allows for a greater range of character expressions, but what do you do about the absence of any narrative depth? In spectacle terms, "Disney's A Christmas Carol is as thrilling as anything you've seen - just look at the glorious opening credit sequence in which the camera soars above the rooftops of Victorian London. But the visual excellence aside, it's hard to engage yourself in Scrooge's journey to self-discovery.
I'm going with two-and-a-half out of five for Disney's A Christmas Carol; it's a thrill-ride yes, but someone forgot to add emotion.
Rating: 2.5 / 5
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