Movie review: Disney's new Christmas Carol
Nov. 8th, 2009 06:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamflowerThis afternoon, the DH and I went to see the new Jim Carrey version of "A Christmas Carol". Of course, it's a story that everyone knows and that has so many versions already that you sometimes wonder why the heck anyone would make another.
I definitely had mixed feelings about this one... (Review behind cut, some mild spoilers.)
First of all, I have to say, I was impressed by the job Carrey did-- to my American ears, his British accent sounded fine, and he really captured that irascibility and sarcastic meanness that was Scrooge. He kept a pretty tight rein on his usual OTT tendencies, and it helped that though you could see a bit of him in the character, the animation made Carrey disappear into Scrooge.
The animation was beautiful, especially the aerial views of London. And I quite enjoyed the renderings of the various supporting characters.
There was a certain darkness to this version that is utterly necessary to getting the underlying message of the story across: that there are selfish and greedy people in the world, who by their behavior make life worse for other people, and who need to be taught a lesson. All of the best versions have capitalized on this darkness.
I was very impressed, for example, by the horror of Marley's plight-- one of the best handling of his many chains I've ever seen; the vision of the other condemned spirits which reminded me of a Heironymus Bosch painting of souls in torment; by the depiction of Christmas Past as a candle; and by the vision of Want and Ignorance at the end of Christmas Present. And the way that Christmas Present segued into Christmas Future was horrifyingly apt.
ON THE OTHER HAND: I thought the quality was very incosistent, partially because the filmakers wanted to capitalize on their 3-D effects. There was a lot of superflous swooping around, some bits of humor that were misplaced, and a totally unnecessary chase scene involving a carriage and a shrinking Scrooge (it was the only part of the movie where I thought of him more as Carrey than as Scrooge.)
I also thought that the Cratchit subplot was neglected in this-- I think there should have been a few more scenes of their homelife than we were given.
I'd say that of the many various versions and adaptations of "A Christmas Carol" I have seen over the years, I would rank it about fourth: the 1951 Alistair Sim version at number 1, the Albert Finney musical version of "Scrooge" at number 2, the 1999 Patrick Stewart version at number 3, and then this version to follow (supplanted George C. Scott). I'd say that of all the various animated attempts, this is by far the best animated version.
All in all, a pleasant afternoon at the movies, and a good way to kick off the holiday season!
I definitely had mixed feelings about this one... (Review behind cut, some mild spoilers.)
First of all, I have to say, I was impressed by the job Carrey did-- to my American ears, his British accent sounded fine, and he really captured that irascibility and sarcastic meanness that was Scrooge. He kept a pretty tight rein on his usual OTT tendencies, and it helped that though you could see a bit of him in the character, the animation made Carrey disappear into Scrooge.
The animation was beautiful, especially the aerial views of London. And I quite enjoyed the renderings of the various supporting characters.
There was a certain darkness to this version that is utterly necessary to getting the underlying message of the story across: that there are selfish and greedy people in the world, who by their behavior make life worse for other people, and who need to be taught a lesson. All of the best versions have capitalized on this darkness.
I was very impressed, for example, by the horror of Marley's plight-- one of the best handling of his many chains I've ever seen; the vision of the other condemned spirits which reminded me of a Heironymus Bosch painting of souls in torment; by the depiction of Christmas Past as a candle; and by the vision of Want and Ignorance at the end of Christmas Present. And the way that Christmas Present segued into Christmas Future was horrifyingly apt.
ON THE OTHER HAND: I thought the quality was very incosistent, partially because the filmakers wanted to capitalize on their 3-D effects. There was a lot of superflous swooping around, some bits of humor that were misplaced, and a totally unnecessary chase scene involving a carriage and a shrinking Scrooge (it was the only part of the movie where I thought of him more as Carrey than as Scrooge.)
I also thought that the Cratchit subplot was neglected in this-- I think there should have been a few more scenes of their homelife than we were given.
I'd say that of the many various versions and adaptations of "A Christmas Carol" I have seen over the years, I would rank it about fourth: the 1951 Alistair Sim version at number 1, the Albert Finney musical version of "Scrooge" at number 2, the 1999 Patrick Stewart version at number 3, and then this version to follow (supplanted George C. Scott). I'd say that of all the various animated attempts, this is by far the best animated version.
All in all, a pleasant afternoon at the movies, and a good way to kick off the holiday season!