Robert Zemeckis' third film in his ongoing love affair with motion capture CGI. The first, Polar Express, was for the most part an embarrassment, albeit a profitable one. Beowulf was definitely more interesting, exploring darker, more adult territory but still had some issues. A Christmas Carol is in between the two in terms of tone, and probably in terms of quality too. It wisely doesn't anesthetize the darker elements of Dickens' story, and keeps things reasonably scary throughout. On the other hand, as was the case in the previous two films, Zemeckis' love of the technology also detracts from the films as an overall.
The story, famous to the point of common knowledge, sees Scrooge (Jim Carrey), hater of all things Christmas and its accompanying values dismisses family members, charities and basic humanity until three ghosts show him the true meaning of Christmas via incessant shaming of his chosen way of life. As I said before, Zemeckis doesn't shy away from the darker stuff, which is always good to see in kids movies and Jim Carrey, or at least the CGI equivalent gives a good performance as Scrooge, adding a sympathy to him even when the character is yet unredeemed. But this film exists as a platform to test what can be done with the technology, and its visible in every frame. Several unnecessary and forced sequences of action come and go and do nothing but interrupt and intercede the flow of the movie, and while this is OK once or twice, at a certain point you just want him tell the damn story. But Zemeckis is operating under the assumption that everyone has the same die hard crush on the technology as he does, and while the sweeping shots through London are undeniably impressive, as is the visual creation of Scrooge's character, its not enough without more then a passing interest in the narrative and more importantly the content of Scrooge's character. We keep getting glimpses of a more complex approach to Scrooge, but it repeatedly passes too quickly.
The animation looks a treat and kids will love it I would think, but for the most part it felt like wasted potential to me. I'll give it 6/10 because I think its about right for its target audience, but for all its surface sheen it feels a very incomplete film.
Rating: 6/10
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