A stylized revamp of Scrooge’s twisted emotions in “A Christmas Carol”

Ebenezer Scrooge, played in CGI form by Jim Carrey, is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve.

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Kate Schumacher
November 19, 2009
Filed under Movie Reviews, Reviews

Charles Dickens’ classic “A Christmas Carol” is an old time favorite book, which has been created into an exciting, stylized animation movie. “A Christmas Carol” exerts the long life of choosing between happiness or sadness.

Director Robert Zemeckis opens this dark and creepy film with the miserable Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey). Carrey is ideal as the heartless creature–he spends his days counting pennies, snapping at those around him, and rejecting the poor kids who need his help.

Zemeckis emphasizes the characters style by putting a more realistic look on each character. Scrooge comes to life with his defined, old wrinkles, clearly from years of hostility towards everyone, including his own nephew Fred (voiced by Colin Firth), during the season of Christmas.

When the plot begins, Zemeckis strives to stay true to Dickens’ book–he keeps all the original characters, but adds his own humor and wit. In one scene Scrooge shrinks as well as his voice, his vocal chords changing to the sound of a mouse.

Although the vibes given off express happiness and the rush of excitement for Christmas, the downfall of “A Christmas Carol” is Zemeckis did not make this film from a child’s perspective. Not only will children be scared, but even an adult’s heart will skip during certain dark scenes. For example, as Scrooge is sitting by the fire, the wooden door slams open, with chains thrown through, followed by the ghost of Jacob Marley (Gary Oldman, “A Dark Knight.”)

Though the film was animated, Zemeckis thrived in giving the characters, and their setting, a life-like look. In using an abundance of graphic images: the black horses that chase Scrooge across town, the ghost of the future (covered in a eerie black cape), Zemeckis provides an almost too real movie full of ghosts and ghouls, something hardly appropriate for a kids movie.

Nonetheless, the film has a mixture of excellent animation, the stunning use of one actor (Jim Carrey) voiced as four different roles, and an impressive, but sometimes over the top, director.