This latest presentation, which sees Jim Carrey giving voice to most of the main characters, is by far the darkest of the adaptations I’ve seen. It needs to come with the rating highlighted, because some scenes may scare the wits out of young children.
This is a faithful retelling of the story and has no additional characters or subplots to clutter the narrative, proving that strong tales such as this are better off without embellishment.
The enhancements here come not in the source material, but in the look of the film, which is beautifully rendered in 3D. And if you’re going to have 3D, then falling snow is the perfect weather to accompany it, drawing the viewer into the action.
Director Robert Zemeckis chooses to give us a close up look at the main characters, a move that lets viewers really appreciate the animation craft that has gone into rendering Scrooge down to the last pore, although some of the subsidiary characters, in particular, Scrooge’s lost love and Tiny Tim, do end up looking rather expressionless by comparison.
The spirits, also voiced by Carrey, stick rigidly to the Dickens script. The nocturnal visitors themselves, however, are less important than the ride they take Scrooge on, with Zemeckis wasting no opportunity to take him and the audience on a whistle-stop journey across the rooftops of 1840s London, with stop-offs in the streets and sewer system.
It’s here that the animation is at its finest, but for once, these wild flights, despite being set pieces, are included as part of the story, blending with it and providing an action counterpoint to some of the more sombre and spookier parts of the narrative.
Equally, the ghost and spirits are given just the right amount of peril, so that children will find them suitably scary at the time, but not so much that thoughts of them linger long past bedtime.
Although it lacks the humour and warmth of the Muppet version, this Christmas Carol has charms of its own and is free from the over-use of sentiment that has marred other versions.
There will be those who may “Bah humbug!” A Christmas Carol due to the feeling that it has been done to death. As far as I’m concerned there will always be room in cinemas for well-told stories with morals we can all buy into.
Of course, it does help to have images that will leave your jaw on the floor!
– Scotty Moorhead
