DVD Reviews

A Christmas Carol - Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Nov 17, 2010, 10:41 GMT

From Walt Disney Pictures comes the magical retelling of Charles Dickens\' beloved tale - "Disney\'s A Christmas Carol", the high-flying, heartwarming adventure for the whole family, starring Jim Carrey. When three ghosts take penny-pinching Scrooge on an eye-opening journey, he discovers the true meaning of Christmas - but he must act on it before it\'s too late. Complete with spirited bonus features, this exhilarating and touching Disney classic is destined ...more

Charles Dickens’ never out of print Christmas 1843 morality tale is dusted off once again.  It probably doesn’t hurt that the story is public domain, but this time around the latest film technology is employed to bring it to life. 

Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey) is a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner.  He has an intense hatred of Christmas as much as his disdain for spending his own money.  His long suffering clerk Bob Cratchit (Gary Oldman) is freezing in Scrooge’s unheated offices, coal costs money, and has to beg to get Christmas day off. 

The only highlight of the evening is the visit by Scrooge’s cheery nephew Fred (Colin Firth) whose Christmas invitation is vehemently refused by the miser.  Scrooge shuffles back to his cold, shabby lodgings and settles in for his evening. 

His bitter boudoir is interrupted by the ghost of his old business partner Jacob Marley (Oldman again) who tells him of his poor prospects in the afterlife thanks to his grasping, greedy current life.  To offer the old geezer some chance at redemption three spirits (all played by Carrey) will visit Scrooge. 

These ghosts will lead Scrooge on a tour of his miserable life from his youth, his courtship of Belle (Robin Penn Wright), his old Christmas loving boss Fezziwig (Bob Hoskins), his current mistreatment of Cratchit and his family, including his crippled son Tiny Tim (Oldman again), and Scrooge’s bleak future. 

Charles Dickens is dead, there is not doubt whatever about that, but his literary treatise on celebrating Christmas is alive and well.  About the time you think that another adaptation isn’t coming, one pops up. 

Director Robert Zemeckis took a similar holiday themed trip on the Polar Express (2004), took a medieval sojourn with Beowulf (2007), before turning towards Christmas cheer again adapting Dickens.  All three pictures use his motion capture technology to digitally recreate the lands in which the films take place. 

His adaptation is geared towards family entertainment, which may be a good thing but also maybe a bad thing.  For example, we have scenes of Scrooge shrunk down to a mouse size as he outruns the Ghost of Christmas Future.  It seems more like Christmas Carol the video game, though it is exciting.

One problem I had with the film when we took the kids to see it at the theater was the fact that much of the scariness of Marley is dampened by the fact that we have comedy bits of his jaw coming off.  Those are minor nitpicks (the kids didn’t care) though as overall the film does capture Dickens novella as well as the time period in the magnificent animation. 

Carrey actually does his best as the scoundrel Scrooge, shedding his comedic mannerisms.  Those that enjoy those can see some of them in his other bits in the film though. 

It’s still a fun holiday excursion (but my money is still on George C. Scott’s television version or Alistair Sim).  It is gloriously realized on Blu-ray though. 

A Christmas Carol is presented a 1080p high definition transfer (2.40:1).  Special features are in high definition.  First up is the picture-in-picture “Being the Carol” that shows you the actors doing the motion capture. 

There’s also a optional commentary by Zemeckis.  The 14 minute “Capturing Dickens” is a making of, the 2 minute “On Set with Sammi” has the actress Sammi Hanratty giving you a tour of the set where the motion capture is done, there are 8 minutes of deleted, not completed scenes (introduced by Zemeckis), and a virtual countdown to Christmas calendar.  Disc two is a DVD copy of the film. 

A Christmas Carol is a film that the family can gather around the warm glow of the television screen on Christmas Eve with.  Dickens tale has been given Zemeckis’ madcap touch and that might offend purists, but it’s still a nice Christmas treat.  The real treat is the pristine transfer that makes the film shine on the small screen.

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