Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey) is a cold hearted miser with no love for the holidays and places value only on money. Following a visitation from the ghost of his friend and partner, Jacob Marley (Gary Oldman), Scrooge is informed he will be haunted by three spirits who are the only hope of Scrooge escaping Marley's fate.
Yet another adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 classic, A Christmas Carol, the film marks the final outing for director Robert Zemeckis in his trilogy of motion capture films (following Polar Express and Beowulf) with the underperformance of this film and the disastrous performance of Mars Needs Moms leading to the shuttering of Imagemovers Digital and the scrapping of Zemeckis' planned Motion Capture remake of The Yellow Submarine. Garnering mixed reviews like other Zemeckis' mo-cap films, A Christmas Carol has many of the same issues as other films of this ilk, but is probably the best from this wave of films by virtue of the strength of the source material and the additions and executions that do work.
While I was skeptical of Jim Carrey's performance as Scrooge, despite an over the top design Carrey surprisingly dials back his usual manic energy and gives a good performance as the iconic miser (though sometimes Carrey's Ace Ventura-esque deliveries and mannerisms eek their way in). In a unique approach to the story, all three ghosts are played and/or voiced by Carrey himself which I thought was a very clever twist on the material, at least in concept. The Ghosts are well realized with the Ghost of Christmas Past having an interesting design looking like a ethereal candle and flame but also has an overly breathy voice and an odd attempt at an Irish accent. The Ghost of Christmas Present is well rendered with a unique way in which he travels over London with Scrooge (which looked amazing when I saw this in 3D 12 years ago), but overdoes the laughing to a rather grating degree. And lastly is the design of Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come who is rarely portrayed in three dimensions and most of the time is only seen as a shadow on the floor or walls in a very visually interesting depiction, but unfortunately the design is undermined by many dumb chase/action sequences including Scrooge shrinking to the size of a mouse. The scenes where the movie goes for broad slapstick comedy or fast paced action sequences are very groanworthy, including a very stupid gag with Jacob Marley's ghost involving his corpse's slacked jaw. The movie also sometimes overdoes its over the top scare scenes including a scene where the Ghost of Christmas Present withers into a laughing skeleton. But despite my misgivings with the "rollercoaster" approach to the source material, there are some really good performances and sequences in the movie that are immersive and unique, especially with the rendering of 1840s London which is beautifully realized and in 3D on a big screen makes you feel like you're flying alongside Scrooge.
Robert Zemeckis' Christmas Carol has many of the same issues as other motion capture films of this ilk, but the strength of the source material and immersiveness of the world the movie creates overcomes the gimmicky nature of the shoehorned in action beats and slapstick comedy. This isn't a version of A Christmas Carol I revisit very often and I'm not sure if it would rank in the top 10 for adaptations of the source material, but it's a good adaptation that gets the spirit of the story down and adds its own spin on the material. Whether or not that spin is enough will vary from person to person, but for me I saw enough that I liked in this version to give it a pass.
Yet another adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 classic, A Christmas Carol, the film marks the final outing for director Robert Zemeckis in his trilogy of motion capture films (following Polar Express and Beowulf) with the underperformance of this film and the disastrous performance of Mars Needs Moms leading to the shuttering of Imagemovers Digital and the scrapping of Zemeckis' planned Motion Capture remake of The Yellow Submarine. Garnering mixed reviews like other Zemeckis' mo-cap films, A Christmas Carol has many of the same issues as other films of this ilk, but is probably the best from this wave of films by virtue of the strength of the source material and the additions and executions that do work.
While I was skeptical of Jim Carrey's performance as Scrooge, despite an over the top design Carrey surprisingly dials back his usual manic energy and gives a good performance as the iconic miser (though sometimes Carrey's Ace Ventura-esque deliveries and mannerisms eek their way in). In a unique approach to the story, all three ghosts are played and/or voiced by Carrey himself which I thought was a very clever twist on the material, at least in concept. The Ghosts are well realized with the Ghost of Christmas Past having an interesting design looking like a ethereal candle and flame but also has an overly breathy voice and an odd attempt at an Irish accent. The Ghost of Christmas Present is well rendered with a unique way in which he travels over London with Scrooge (which looked amazing when I saw this in 3D 12 years ago), but overdoes the laughing to a rather grating degree. And lastly is the design of Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come who is rarely portrayed in three dimensions and most of the time is only seen as a shadow on the floor or walls in a very visually interesting depiction, but unfortunately the design is undermined by many dumb chase/action sequences including Scrooge shrinking to the size of a mouse. The scenes where the movie goes for broad slapstick comedy or fast paced action sequences are very groanworthy, including a very stupid gag with Jacob Marley's ghost involving his corpse's slacked jaw. The movie also sometimes overdoes its over the top scare scenes including a scene where the Ghost of Christmas Present withers into a laughing skeleton. But despite my misgivings with the "rollercoaster" approach to the source material, there are some really good performances and sequences in the movie that are immersive and unique, especially with the rendering of 1840s London which is beautifully realized and in 3D on a big screen makes you feel like you're flying alongside Scrooge.
Robert Zemeckis' Christmas Carol has many of the same issues as other motion capture films of this ilk, but the strength of the source material and immersiveness of the world the movie creates overcomes the gimmicky nature of the shoehorned in action beats and slapstick comedy. This isn't a version of A Christmas Carol I revisit very often and I'm not sure if it would rank in the top 10 for adaptations of the source material, but it's a good adaptation that gets the spirit of the story down and adds its own spin on the material. Whether or not that spin is enough will vary from person to person, but for me I saw enough that I liked in this version to give it a pass.