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I had both exciting and nervous feelings about seeing this one. I was excited because it is a Christmas film and I love Christmas! Also, it stars Jim Carrey and he is returning to a Christmas film. What I was nervous about was that Zemeckis has done a Christmas animated film before and it was quite disappointing. When I saw this film at the cinema, I thought it was an absolutely fantastic film! The 3D experience made it an even better film than it already was. I mean, in some scenes it felt like riding a rollercoaster because of some of the scenes within the film. I have always been a fan of Charles Dickens and I personally think that A Christmas Carol is his most famous novel. A lot of film adaptations of A Christmas Carol that have been made were all done in different generations but despite I haven't seen very many adaptations of the classic story, I personally think the 2009 version is the best one so far.
However, there was only one slight flaw that this film did have and that was I couldn't quite feel the Christmas spirit within the film. It didn’t feel as magical as I have seen in other Christmas films. It was like there wasn't a firm, binding connection between the characters and the Christmas season. That didn't affect my liking for the film despite that and I would still call it a Christmas film. A Christmas Carol is a children's book but I find it to be quite a disturbing and terrifying one which actually really surprised me. Mostly, because of the ghosts that haunt Scrooge on Christmas Eve night. Bit of advice: don’t take kids under at least 8 to see this because it did become quite scary on occasions and would be scary for little kids.
Set in the Victorian age of a bitter, grumpy old man called Ebenezer Scrooge who has hated Christmas since his partner Jacob Marley was buried on Christmas Eve and is usually loathed by the public for his cold attitude. Seven Christmas Eves later, he still is that cold-hearted man and that night after finishing his work, he is confronted in his home by the ghost of Jacob Marley. He tells Scrooge that he will be haunted by three ghosts: the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present and the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come (Future). When those ghosts approach him, he goes through his childhood and adulthood during Christmas and hearing the words about him from his nephew, work colleague and others, he begins to learn the error of his ways and discover who he really is and what the true meaning of Christmas is.
Jim Carrey's performance as Ebenezer Scrooge was absolutely fantastic!! Jim returns to another Christmas film playing a character who hates Christmas (he previously portrayed the Grinch in How The Grinch Stole Christmas). Ebenezer Scrooge is an absolutely typical Jim Carrey character because Jim really is that grumpy, cold type but can also be that hilarious and terrified type as well which is pretty much all of what Scrooge is in this film. His performance as The Grinch is unforgettable and so is his performance in this one. When I found out that Jim Carrey was playing Scrooge, I thought to myself "Why aren’t I surprised? We've already seen him as The Grinch! He’s bound to deliver another hilarious yet quite terrifying performance as Scrooge." Jim also plays Scrooge as a young man and as a little child and all three ghosts that haunt him. Gary Oldman plays multiple characters as well. He plays Bob Crachett, Tiny Tim and Jacob Marley. Cary Elwes, Colin Firth and Robin Wright-Penn have other roles in the film too and did pretty well.
Robert Zemeckis hasn’t been a huge director after Cast Away and has changed the style and genre of his films because he is now an animated filmmaker and the previous two he has done haven’t really been very successful although he did have experience with animation before the three animated ones he's done so far with Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. I am a big fan of Zemeckis and I have to say that A Christmas Carol is without a doubt his best animated film so far and his best film since Cast Away. I was worried that this was going to be too much like The Polar Express but it is very different! Yes, they’re based on the same theme but plot and character-wise theyre very different. The effects in A Christmas Carol are literally flawless. In my opinion, it is technically perfect! I am not sure what film Zemeckis is going to do next but I think it’ll be pretty hard to beat this one.
Overall, A Christmas Carol is a very successful animated film that I think should be appreciated more critically and publicly. Animation is top-notch, acting is brilliant, directing is great! I would definitely say it is something I would watch on Christmas despite the connection of the Christmas spirit isn't a firm hold but it is a brilliant, visually stunning, exhilarating, entertaining and surprisingly scary film to watch!
