A Christmas Carol

A story that has been retold countless times, A Christmas Carol is a unique adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic. The story is about the greedy Ebenezer Scrooge, who after being visited by the ghost of his late business partner Jacob Marley, gets visited by three demented spirits which will change his ways. What sets this apart from other adaptations, is the Robert Zemeckis animation style used. This animation is something that both helps and hurts the film, while it does make for some eye catching visuals, it does backfire, since it does distract viewers from the movie. Other than that, the film is enjoyable, with Jim Carrey offering a great performance as Scrooge, and the film itself offering a very dramatic morality tale.

Earlier I called the film "dramatic", which unfortunately is huge understatement. Imagine the acting from Star Trek mixed with a ridiculous amount of dark subject matter, and a rather extreme amount of noise. This recipe is the formula for A Christmas Carol a film that seems bipolar, as it awkwardly transitions from quiet moments, to moments that are either disturbingly loud, or just frightening. An example of this would be "the ghost of Christmas present" who after laughing as if he was baked for half an hour, suddenly dies in a dark and loud manner. You may want to warn your child before entering the theatre, since they probably are going to piss out blood after seeing "the ghost of Christmas future" who gave me a heart attack.

Aspects of the film that I like were the animation, writing, and performance of Jim Carrey. Carrey does a marvelous job as Scrooge, successfully capturing the misery of the old geezer. His voice gives a clear indication that he is a grumpy and greedy bastard, who only cares about his own welfare and is seriously in need of three ghost to scare him into repentance.

The aspect that was not to great was the ending, which was solid in writing and performances, but suffered greatly due to the animation. The tone of the ending is dark and serious, but is distracted with exaggerated effects and a chase scene between Scrooge and "death" that greatly overstays its welcome. Minus the chase scene, the ending to the movie was pleasant, but I do wish that more details concerning the transformation of Scrooge were given, since it was the part where Jim Carrey's acting really shined.

Overall, A Christmas Carol is a solid entry in the endless list of adaptions that have made this piece of literature. I do wish the animation didn't go overboard, since it detracted from an otherwise magical and entertaining experience.