A Christmas Carol

Plot synopsis:
Dickens divided the book into five chapters, which he labelled "staves".
=== Stave one ===
The story begins on a cold and bleak Christmas Eve in London, seven years after the death of Ebenezer Scrooge's business partner, Jacob Marley. Scrooge, an old miser, hates Christmas and refuses an invitation to Christmas dinner from his nephew Fred. He turns away two men who seek a donation from him in order to provide food and heating for the poor, and only grudgingly allows his overworked, underpaid clerk, Bob Cratchit, Christmas Day off with pay to conform to the social custom.
At home that night, Scrooge is visited by Marley's ghost, who wanders the Earth, entwined by heavy chains and money boxes, forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness. Marley tells Scrooge that he has one chance to avoid the same fate: he will be visited by three spirits and he must listen to them or be cursed to carry chains of his own, much longer than Marley's chains.
=== Stave two ===
The first of the spirits, the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge to Christmas scenes of Scrooge's boyhood and youth, reminding him of a time when he was more innocent. The boyhood scenes portray Scrooge's lonely childhood, his relationship with his beloved sister Fan, and a Christmas party hosted by his first employer, Mr. Fezziwig, who treated Scrooge like a son. They also portray Scrooge's neglected fiancée Belle, who ends their relationship after she realises that Scrooge will never love her as much as he loves money. Finally, they visit a now-married Belle with her large, happy family on a recent Christmas Eve.
=== Stave three ===
The second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, takes Scrooge to a joy-filled market of people buying the makings of Christmas dinner and celebrations of Christmas in a miner's cottage and in a lighthouse. Scrooge and the ghost also visit Fred's Christmas party. A major part of this stave is taken up with Bob Cratchit's family feast and introduces his youngest son, Tiny Tim, a happy boy who is seriously ill. The spirit informs Scrooge that Tiny Tim will die soon unless the course of events changes. Before disappearing, the spirit shows Scrooge two hideous, emaciated children named Ignorance and Want. He tells Scrooge to beware the former above all and mocks Scrooge's concern for their welfare.
=== Stave four ===
The third spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, shows Scrooge a Christmas Day in the future. The ghost shows him scenes involving the death of a disliked man. The man's funeral will only be attended by local businessmen if lunch is provided. His charwoman, his laundress, and the local undertaker steal some of his possessions and sell them to a fence. When Scrooge asks the ghost to show anyone who feels any emotion over the man's death, the ghost can only show him the pleasure of a poor couple in debt to the man, rejoicing that his death gives them more time to put their finances in order. After Scrooge asks to see some tenderness connected with any death, the ghost shows him Bob Cratchit and his family mourning the passing of Tiny Tim. The ghost then shows Scrooge the man's neglected grave, whose tombstone bears Scrooge's name. Sobbing, Scrooge pledges to the ghost that he will change his ways to avoid this outcome.
=== Stave five ===
Scrooge awakens on Christmas morning a changed man. He spends the day with Fred's family and anonymously sends a large turkey to the Cratchit home for Christmas dinner. The following day he gives Cratchit an increase in pay and becomes like another father to Tiny Tim. From then on Scrooge began to treat everyone with kindness, generosity and compassion, embodying the spirit of Christmas.

Tags: horror

Review:
One small gripe, as was present with Up, the glasses still make everything darker and subsequently duller; especially as this picture is intentionally not well-lit to begin with.We all know the famous Charles Dickens novel for which this is based on and Zemeckis stays faithfully close to it, unworried about making a family movie that has very few laughs.
If dealt with rightly, emotions like these can be healthy and will have a longer lasting effect on you and your kids than something that only makes you laugh.Providing the voice of Scrooge from childhood to old-age, along with the three Ghosts of Christmas, Carrey does a fine job, even with his normal over-the-top voicing toned down a few hundred decibels.
I'm not a Jim Carrey fan but it's a Christmas movie, after all , so I bit the bullet and we saw it at the IMAX in 3-D.The visual effects are great, even though a lot of it was :"Look, we have 3-D!" They stayed very close to the original story, though they added a miniaturization segment that was unnecessary.
There are many such movies that define the season and I truly expect this to be one of them, along with Christmas Story, Home Alone, Miracle on 34th Street, and It's a Wonderful Life.Like the Macy's Parade, we all have our list of must-see holiday movies, no matter how many times we have seen them.
From an artistic viewpoint, the new Robert Zemeckis film from the man who gave us THE POLAR EXPRESS, is another of his animated features using the motion picture capture technique that allows the actors to play several roles.
He plays several main characters with great skill.Not quite as festive as you might expect, it's a darker version of Scrooge, handsomely executed so that many of the scenes look like Victorian illustrations from the novel.
Doubtless there will be flocks of naysayers who don't buy into this adaptation by Robert Zemekis, but given the ghost story magic Dickens' created, this film takes it one step further and makes the ghostly three spirits very much alive and beautiful fanciful.
The first spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Past, shows Scrooge visions of his own past in which had spent much of his childhood neglected by his father over the holidays at boarding school until he was finally brought home by his loving sister Fan (Robin Wright), who died prematurely after giving birth to his nephew Fred (Colin Firth).A marvelous recounting of a Christmas vintage classic and Jim Carrey demonstrates once again his versatility on screen in this retelling of Charles Dickens' immortal story .
Though most of us,if not all of us, have seen other adaptations in the past or read the story,and know already what to expect, Jim Carrey manages to capture pure magic with his stunningly awesome portrayal of main character Ebenezer Scrooge,and it is definitely worth a look.
It's fun and different approach to the Christmas classic with top notch effects by means of ¨Motion Capture¨ a technique developed by Robert Zemeckis in previous films as Beowulf and Polar Express .
This animated retelling of Charles Dickens' classic novel about a Victorian-era miser taken on a journey of self-redemption will appeal to Jim Carrey fans .Other versions about this stunning story courtesy of several mysterious Christmas apparitions are the following : The rather obscure 1935 version, with Sir Seymour Hicks, the 1951 British production, with Alastair Sim, adaptation released by MGM in 1938 with Reginald Owen , and the 1970 musical, with Albert Finney.
This dark adaptation of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens to the screen is one of those optimistic films that follows the style of Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life" and it is impossible not loving it.
The redemption of the mean Ebenezer Scrooge in a Christmas Eve is one of the most known worldwide novels and this animation produced by Disney Company follows the style of Tim Burton and may not be the best adaptation to the cinema, but it is indeed effective and a good family entertainment.
But for some reason- maybe my heart is a lump of coal or I wasn't in the right Christmas spirit or something- the material in the film didn't connect with me, except those moments that were funny (intentionally or not, sometimes due to Jim Carrey's performance), and it became something peculiar.
What is paramount to mention though is that Zemeckis, in keeping with the tone of the original Dickens text (and having the clout that he has), makes it a true Victorian horror movie.It should be said also that children will be hit or miss with this version; while they'll delight and be awed by the animation and moments of craziness (my favorite being the scene with the ghost Marley and his entire presentation before Scrooge, unhooked jaw uneasily included), they may be put off by the "old" language, some of it in that olde 19th century English Dickens wrote in.
It's entertaining to watch, but awkward to behold at this point of the story.That the motion-capture, for all of its beauty and detail in the faces and people and locations and dazzling set-pieces, doesn't engage on a purely spiritual level (not even to the extent that 'Muppet Christmas' did, that at least had the ghost of Henson on the production to keep things truly haunting), is somewhat forgivable for what Zemeckis does accomplish here.
He puts a modern spin on a classic tale, makes it approximately dark and mostly uncompromising for all ages- adults will jump possibly more than the kids at the WHOA effects- and Jim Carrey is nothing short of astonishing.Carrey plays Scrooge in such a bravura way that only calls attention to itself as a dramatic part (only toward the end, when he becomes "happy" Scrooge are there a few unintentional laughs), and it may even be the best Scrooge seen in many years in any medium.
Visually dazzling, but emotionally bland and hollow would describe the film perfectly.It is an understatement to say that the 1951 film starring Alistair Sim is a fifty times more effective - and affecting, experience.Let me just add that while I certainly enjoyed aspects of the performances of Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, Cary Elwes (also in multiple parts) and even Jim Carrey, the actors are not well served by this format of film-making.
I AM HONEST!Disney's A Christmas Carol is a 2009 American 3D computer animated motion-capture fantasy film written and directed by Robert Zemeckis.
It is an adaptation of the Charles Dickens story of the same name and stars Jim Carrey in a multitude of roles, including Ebenezer Scrooge as a young, middle-aged, and old man, and the three ghosts who haunt Scrooge.
This adaptation of the classic Dicken's novel "A Christmas Carol" has enraged me so much I am writing this review as I'm watching the film.
Considering the budget and cast, I am really disappointed, as I was hoping to see some of the Disney magic we all know and love, while showing one of my favourite Christmas books in a great film adaptation.
It is a faithful adaptation of the story but it's not for young children and several scenes were quite dark and scary which actually added to the film and it's not as heartwarming as previous versions but the happy ending remains.
If there is one or criticisms is that some scenes went on a bit too long and some characters were not as well animated and suffered from dead eye.Overall, a great Christmas film and it does show the potential of motion capture and if they continue to improve it then it's going a great tool for filmmakers..
Led into temptation by the C.G.I., the SFX and all the awesomeness of modern movie-making technology, he is now devoid of all the emotion, freshness, thrills that made the fame and valor of his previous masterpieces, as "Back to the Future" or the unforgettable "Forrest Gump".The danger was in air already since the tiresome and useless "Beowulf", but now it became plain for all to see."A Christmas Carol" is simply too perfect, in all its spectacular redundancy, to be able to express any feeling at all anymore.
It is nowhere near as good as the two best versions: the black-and-white, 1951, Alistair Sim "Scrooge," or the simple yet amazingly evocative animated, 1962 "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol." If you've got young children, please don't take them to this movie.
It's got the same odd cold heart as "Polar Express" and the same theme park ride feel of "Back to the Future." Bigger is definitely better to this guy, so he gives Scrooge a house with fifty-foot ceilings and a staircase that goes on forever, but never does anything interesting with that bloated staircase and never makes those fifty feet necessary.Dickens' "Christmas Carol" is chock full of poignant moments, but those moments never came to life for me in this movie till the final scene where Scrooge carries Tiny Tim on his shoulders.
Gary Oldman voices Bob Cratchett, Marley and Tiny Tim, and is less recognizable than he was in Hannibal, through no more or less fault than the elaborate make-up job of that film.The Dickens story stays ageless, and if it's electrified here with a milestone opening credits sequence comprised of a single swooping shot soaring through the bustling winter macro- and microcosmic goings-on of London, well, once you allow poltergeists into a movie, there's opportunity for everything, most importantly letting the story itself shine through where it naturally does.Said phantoms are not news.
That will probably hurt the film as it will need kids to build any type of box score.Definitely worth seeing for the visuals, but certainly not in the top versions if you really want to capture the spirit of Dickens' novel..
While "The Grinch" remains my favorite Christmas film of the past three decades, this most recent installment was surprisingly good, in large part simply to it's clear homage to the original film version, namely, "Scrooge," starring the superb Alistair Sim in the 1951 British masterpiece.
Jim Carrey was great in multiple roles (he played Scrooge but also Ghost of Christmas Present), Colin Firth as the nephew and Gary Oldham as Bob Cratchitt were very good.This is great holiday entertainment.
Although Patrick Stewart's Scrooge in the TNT original movie from 1999 is my favorite Scrooge, I feel strongly that Zemeckis' film is closest adaptation to the spirit of the novel and brings it to life in the way Dickens himself may have imagined.Prior to analyzing this adaptation, as it is a story most of us know and cherish, I'd like to look at why.
Robert Zemeckis, director of such classics as the 'Back to the Future' trilogy and 'Forrest Gump,' turns his talents once more towards animated Christmas magic after his success with the Tom Hanks-driven 'Polar Express.' This time, Zemeckis brings along a stellar cast for his motion-capture version of Charles Dickens's 'A Christmas Carol.' While there have been over a hundred adaptations of this ultimate Christmas tale, the story never gets old nor does its importance ever wear away.We all know the story like the back of our hand: Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey) is a miserly old coot with a cold heart and a tight grasp on his money bag.
To save himself from an eternity of torment, Scrooge must change his ways with the help of three other ghostly presences (all played by Carrey).Through dozens & dozens of adaptations with at least one new version each year, it seemed that 'A Christmas Carol' can't have much more life in it.
Therefore, if children are present to watch what is supposed to be a family film, just be aware that there are several times where they most likely will be scared.Overall, Robert Zemeckis has created a visual stunning version of Charles Dickens's beloved tale.
Robert Zemeckis tries motion-capture animation for a third time, a technology that's been a mixed-bag, creating some very pretty pictures and allowing actors to portray multiple roles but lacking the one thing that a Zemeckis flick always prided itself on in the past, which is a soul.Scrooge (Jim Carrey) is a miserly old man who clings to money while neglecting humanity, his nephew (Colin Firth) and employee Cratchit (Gary Oldman) included.
The movie works the best when Scrooge is at his meanest and there isn't a scene where Carrey doesn't commit to his performance, but like the rest of the movie, it doesn't have the originality of a say "A Muppet Christmas Carol" or "Scrooged".
Yet one of its better films to come out recently is Disney's A Christmas Carol, which features real and personified death in such prominence that even the dark Dickens might be surprised.Although the 3-D has plentiful, pretty cool, and too many aerial flights, it's the emphasis on the end of Scrooge that I noticed more than ever in another of the many iterations of the classic Christmas story.
A very greedy, self-centered and rude old man is about to be visited in the Christmas eve by three Christmas spirits which will try to change his miserable life, offering a last change for salvation.A classic and very popular story of Charles Dickens transformed into a Disney animation, with Jim Carrey interpreting the main character is definitely a recipe for success, as this movie will prove.
Given that the budget was $200,000,000 I wonder if they might have spent more of it on live actors rather than motion capture animation (Jim Carey looked, sounded and performed exactly as he had in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events).In watching all these screen version it is clear that there is only one perfect thing - the book itself.
I liked the change, but it's not suitable for a child maybe under twelve.Overall Zemeckis' take on Dickens' Christmas carol is visually intriguing and has a great voice cast.
And while one could accuse it of going a trifle overboard in its search for the requisite 3-D sensation (as most of these films by their very nature are wont to do), the movie remains forever focused on the human heart that beats at the core of the work.Even in semi-animated form, Jim Carrey is so remarkable as the miser Scrooge (and the three main ghosts who visit him) that, in the spirit of the holidays, we're even willing to forgive him for his desecration of the Grinch a decade or so back.
A Christmas Carol (Imax, 3-D, 1:36, PG) — Fantasy: Supernatural, biggie, remake, OSIT romanticsThere's a Hollywood story about how Dustin Hoffman, on the set of the movie Marathon Man, was suffering thru his method-acting efforts to get into the proper mindset for his tormented character when his co-star Sir Laurence Olivier — a guy who'd never lacked encomiums in the performance department — inquired "My dear boy, why don't you just try acting?".The same question springs to mind upon seeing Robert Zemeckis's Imax 3-D efforts: The Polar Express (2004, into which he lured Tom Hanks, the in persona propria star of his 2000 film Cast Away), Beowulf (2007), and now the umpteenth remake of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.Here it's Jim Carrey who gets the Tom Hanks / Peter Sellers treatment, playing multiple roles thru the dubious "miracle" of motion-capture CGI.
Indeed, as Roger Ebert has described it, all these efforts to get close to looking like a real human but not quite making it lead the viewer into the "uncanny valley" where you're just creeped out by this obviously fake simulacrum of real life.The story is familiar to everyone over the age of 4: Skinflint Ebenezer Scrooge thinks of Xmas as "humbug" until he's visited on Xmas Eve by the ghost of his late business partner, Jacob Marley, and thereafter by the spirits of Xmas Past, Present, and Yet To Come, the combined impact of which produces a 180° attitude adjustment in the old miser.But the basic story, despite being a time-tested classic, obviously wasn't sufficient for Zemeckis, who has to take us swooping, barrelling, and skidding thru the streets and over the rooftops of 19th Century London (at one point arrowing thru a wreath), repeatedly tumbling Scrooge ass over teakettle during the course of the spirits' revelations.
I'll keep this concise: The pace at the beginning is slow, took a while before I stopped considering leaving to trade in tickets.There's an entire ~10 minute scene dropped in; I assume to lengthen the movie, since it serves little other purpose except perhaps as a means of getting Scrooge from on place to another.Not for kids, particularly the over-done, "boo!" ghost attacks, presumably put in to show off the 3d.Music is well done, and 3d is still impressive.Anyone not familiar with the original book (story aside) might be confused at certain points.
I don't get why this movie doesn't get talked about more, me and my family watched it for the first time in theaters when I was only 10 years old and my brother was 9, it made for a good, albeit a little bit scary and more dark retelling of the classic Charles Dicken's book.
Fortunately, this Christmas Carol takes a very different approach, focusing primarily on the horror aspect of the classic story.While I was already somewhat worried upon hearing that this movie was even going to get made, knowing that Jim Carrey would star in the lead role didn't help much.
Every aspect of his performance, right down to the way he moves, nails the character perfectly, and the unnaturally thin body of Scrooge sure is one monstrous creation.Speaking of the CGI in this film, A Christmas Carol has never looked so beautiful, yet so frightening, than in this version.
He brings life to the character and also takes his role very seriously.The one thing I'll remember about this film is the nightmare scene with Scrooge and The Ghost of Christmas Present.