Christmas: Captain Scrooge

Hello & welcome back to the Christmas celebration here on A Look at Disney as we continue our look at Christmas Carol adaptions from the world of Disney and today, we head to the world of Disney Junior to see what happens when you put a pirate spin on this classic tale.  You get one of the biggest lumps of coal, that's what happens. Now look, I understand that this is a show aimed at preschoolers but it so misses the mark on what A Christmas Carol is supposed to be about and waters down the story so much that the central message of the original tale is lost of that people can change.  Instead, it's replaced with a message of don't be greedy.  I'll get into my issues with that in the plot segment but I hated this... thing.

The Plot

No... No...No...No...No....

Ugh, this ticked me off.  The barest of bare minimum was kept from the Dickens' tale and it was instead reworked to teach a lesson about not being greedy.  Which for it's target audience is fine but that also seems to clash with the idea of pirates. Because the whole thing in this episode is that our Scrooge character is so greedy that he won't share his treasure with anyone else and he's visited by one singular ghost to show him the error of his ways and how to be a true pirate that cares for others. Yeah mate, I know of another Disney pirate that is in it for himself.  Who is that again?

Oh, right and maybe it's just me but the idea of only using one ghost kinds feels cheap and with each of Scrooge's interactions with the ghost, I felt nothing because the ghost was the same character throughout whereas in A Christmas Carol,  having it be 3 different ghost meant the interactions with the ghost were different and felt unique to one another.  Was the show so cheap that it could only afford to animate one ghost?  I mean, they didn't even have a Marley ghost, instead that role was filled out by Scrooge's mother, who's played by Sharon Osbourne of all people.  And that was one of the only high points of this series. And now I can forgive this episode for not using Christmas and instead replacing it with a pirate themed party as this is a show about pirates. Though, I still take issue with the idea of pirates teaching kids to share and not be greedy as it seems really contradictory but where I take major issue is with the Tiny Tim stand-in.  Granted, it was very very very minor in the grand scheme of things but instead of having a Tiny Tim that was actually hurt or sick.  The Tiny Tim stand-in here named Tiny Cubby, who I guess is one of the main characters from the show is just upset that he won't get to enjoy the pirate feast and eat coconut cookies. 

Really, just really?  That's the problem that you want to give your Tiny Tim character.  That's such a non-problem that it's ridiculous.  A Christmas Cruella for all of the faults that I had with that episode still understood how to make the audience feel bad for their Tiny Tim stand-in by giving him an actual issue. Kids can handle seeing other kids that are sick and it might help them to understand that not all kids are as fortunate as they might be or kids that are sick might be able to relate what they see in the Tiny Tim character.   Gah,  how can this even be considered to be based on A Christmas Carol?  Bah Humduck, one of my least favorite takes on this classic tale got more right about the story than this did.  That made for TV version starring Tori Spelling, William Shanter, & Gary Coleman was... bad but it was better than this. This may just up there as one worst takes on A Christmas Carol that I've ever sat through.  Now, let's move onto characters because the sooner we get them over with, the sooner, I can look at something good.  

Characters

This'll be broken down into  Main & Supporting. With that out of the way, let's begin.

Main Character

Captain Ebeneezer Scrooge (Captain Hook) voiced by Corey Burton 

Now, I'll give this episode this much, it had the sense to change the name of it's Scrooge character to be Scrooge but they  didn't change the names of any of the other characters, so that was kinda weird.  And look I know that one of m biggest complaints was that this replaced the central message of people can change with don't be greedy. Well, I went back and visited one of my favorite versions of A Christmas Carol, the MLP Audio drama, A Princess Carol and was struck by this line from Princess Luna.

How often doth thou need to be told not to be stingy?

Which yes, that is a part of who Scrooge was before he was visited by the ghosts but there was more to him than just his greed.  Scrooge was a broken man, who closed off the rest of the world because of past experiences that led to believe that he had to be that way.  Scrooge wasn't always a bad person as it's shown in his past that he once cared for others but here with this take on Scrooge, we see that's he's always been a greedy little brat. This is again the same problem that A Christmas Cruella had, where they expect the audience to believe that they can change for the better, if they've been this way most of their lives.   And look, I understand for the target audience that this show is going for, they can't have their Scrooge character be as complex as the one in the original story but this episode beat over you the head with the message of don't be greedy, that it almost felt like someones flashed that word in neon lights every time someone mentioned greed.




Supporting Characters


Mama Scrooge (Mama Hook) voiced by Sharon Osborune

I'll give the show, this much. The idea of using Scrooge's mother for the Marley role is something that I haven't seen before and that did seem to be a creative spin on things.



Captain Treasure Tooth voiced by Carl Reiner

Once again,  I've not seen any adaption of A Christmas Carol, where all 3 ghosts roles are filled out by one character and that's because that is  not a good idea in the slightest. As I stated up in the plot segment,  the interactions that Scrooge is supposed to have with the 3 ghosts is supposed to be different.  With Past,  he's suppose to wax nostalgic over his past as a lad but then feel sorrowful as the Ghost continues to  show him his past.  Present is supposed to show him how those with very little still celebrate Christmas and that they still find ways to be joyous and this is when it sinks in for Scrooge that people really don't like him and this is when we as the audience are supposed to realize that the words that Scrooge hears do affect him deeply and that he wishes to change.   Yet To Come is supposed to scare the ever living tar out of him.  I mean, there's a reason, Gonzo and Rizzo left the film, when he showed up in The Muppet version.  And look I understand that the show perhaps didn't want to scare it's target demographic  but the weight and impact of that scene felt lost, when instead of it being something truly eerie, it was Captain Scrooge at a treasure chest all by himself overhearing other pirates enjoying each other's company and feeling lonely.



Jake,  Izzy, Cubby, Skully, & Mr. Smee voiced by Sean Ryan Fox,  Madison Pettis,  Johnathan Morgan Heit,  Jeff Bennet, & David Arquette

Yeah, I gotta be honest and say that I felt nothing for Scrooge's crew and I went in thinking that Mr. Smee would've been the Bob Cratchit stand-in but that wasn't the case at all and man, seeing David Arquette's name, just makes me want to watch Scream or the season that he was on Dancing with The Stars over this.  We did get the sense that they didn't like the way that their captain treated them as they often referred to him as a meanie but there was nothing from them to elicit any type of sympathy for their situation.



My Final Thoughts



Yeah, I've made it pretty clear that I don't like this. Now, I'm sure that there might be young kids out there that do like this but looking at this as a take on A Christmas Carol, it just really falls apart pretty fast. Personally, I feel that if you want to introduce a young child to A Christmas Carol, something like Mickey's Christmas Carol is a great way to ease them into the story as it's short enough to keep their attention but at the same time, it get's across all the core points that A Christmas Carol is trying to convey without dumbing it down.   So, there's my suggestion, watch this....

Instead of this episode.  Join me tomorrow as we look at some Disney Princess Christmas Music. Peace!

Christmas: Disney's Christmas Fantasy On Ice

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and the Christmas celebration here on A Look at Disney. Now, I originally hadn't planned on doing anymore Christmas blogs after finishing up my look at A Christmas Carol but over the weekend, I found a Christmas special that I've not seen since I was a young child about 3 or 4 years old but I had a vivid memory of this special since seeing it all those years ago and I'd always cherished the memories of watching this special and getting to see it again was a real treat. I brought this special up once before on my Top 6 Disney Specials list that I did ages ago.

Now to kick things off with, I'm going with a Christmas special from '92. Disney's Christmas Fantasy On Ice. This is set in Disneyland as we follow Bronson Pinnchot and his niece Alice as he tells her the story of how it snowed in Disneyland. The characters had to gather pieces of a magical snowflake to put it together. They got help from Jack Frost. It was pretty cool seeing the characters come together and I remember watching this as a little kid, I thought it was so cool. Somehow I must have blocked out the ice skating routines from this special and only remembered the story. This special has stayed with me all these years and I was able to discover some clips on YouTube. I only ever recall watching it once on TV but it stayed with me a very long time and I was rather sad that for years I could not find anything on this special but finally last year, it came back to me. 

Now, admittedly there is very little in terms of plot as this is an ice skating special but there is a story that served as a wraparound to ties all the performances together.




The Plot


An uncle and his niece are at Disneyland and the young girl wants to go on more rides but her uncle wants to rest and he goads his young niece into taking a break by telling her the story of the time that it snowed at Disneyland.

Our two leads are Uncle Bronnie played by Bronson Pinchot perhaps best known to my older readers as Cousin Balki from Perfect Strangers And Lindsay Ridgeway who was the second actress to play Morgan Matthews on Boy Meets World.  Well, that explains why I thought that this aired on ABC but no, it was a CBS special. So,  Uncle Bronnie tells his young niece the story of how a young girl named Allison (nothing to do with her) wished that it would snow at Disneyland and Disney characters including Mickey, Minnie, Snow White, Dopey, Belle and The Beast, Chip 'n' Dale, Goofy and Roger Rabbit, and Donald and Pluto all went to see Jack Frost to grant the young girl's wish.

 

 

And yes, Jack Frost is also played by Bronson Pinchot and compared to his theaterical counterpart played by Martin Short, I like this take on Jack Frost more.

Because A, he's actually an enjoyable character and also I prefer it when Jack Frost isn't portrayed as a villain. Though this'll always be my favorite iteration of Jack Frost.    Well, anyways we learn that in order for Jack Frost to grant the wish to make it snow at Disneyland, he needs two things.  The wish of a young girl and a magic snowflake.  They've already got the first piece but the snowflake  is divided into 6 pieces and protected by guardians. And really, this part of the special is just an excuse for the ice skaters to perform.And the performers included Nancy Kerrigan, Kurt Browning, Peter and Kitty Caruthers,  Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov,  Katarina Witt,  Brian Boitano,
Scott Hamilton

Although one of the segments with Scott Hamilton was cut from the version that I watched.

When the special reaired in 1994, the scene of Scott Hamilton skating to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" sung by Roger Whittaker, with Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore watching was inserted and some scenes from the original airing had to be cut due to time constraints.

So, I'm assuming that I watched the original version as according to information that I've come across, this special only ever aired twice.  And the skaters would skate to either Disney songs such as Beauty and The Beast or Christmas songs such as Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.  Here's the Beauty and The Beast segment from the special. 

It's quite a treat to watch.

You'll notice how they insert clips from the animated movie into the sequence.  It's really cool and I don't know much  about skating but I loved all of the performances here with perhaps my favorite being the Under The Sea segment. Which sadly is not available on it's own as a segment but it was so much fun to watch. And after each performance, the characters that were sent out would be given a piece of the snowflake. And afterwards, they'd take it back to Jack and he'd put the snowflake together and story ended with the snowflake being put altogether or so we thought as the special ends with young Alice wishing that it would snow at Disneyland and who should show up but Mickey and Snow White with the magic snowflake.

 

And just then, they toss the magic snowflake into the air and to the surprise of Uncle Bronnie, it does start snowing at Disneyland.  That was something that Alice had wanted.  And well, while at Disneyland, anything can happen. I absolutely love this special!  It has stayed  with me all these years after seeing it and I never thought that I'd get to see it again but finding it on YouTube was such a treat and I was so happy to watch it again. It's just as good as when I saw it as a little kid but now I can appreciate it even more because as a kid, I enjoyed it for the Disney characters but now as an adult, I enjoy it for both the Disney characters and the stellar ice skating performances.  

Characters

Now, I'll only be focusing on three characters as while I love seeing the Disney characters on this special, they really didn't have much to do as they were just sent to a location to get the piece of the snowflake. With that outta the way, let's begin.

Uncle Bronnie played by Bronson Pinchot

I'll be honest and say that this is the only thing that I've ever seen Bronson Pinchot in and I enjoy him here is this role as he plays him like a lovable slakcer that does love his niece and while he does enjoy spending time with her, doesn't want to do everything at the parks and that's how and why he came up with the idea of telling his niece the story.

Alice played by Lindsay Ridgeway

Alice's role was just to be that of a cute kid and well, she worked well.  She was a lot of un here and you could really feel the joy in her as she was spending the holidays at Disneyland with her uncle.

Jack Frost also played by Bronson Pinchot

I loved Pinchot's Jack Frost as he was just so playful and silly.  There was a childlike charm to him and the joy that he took in doing his job was just so infectious. That you couldn't help  but have a smile on your face, whenever he was on screen.

My Final Thoughts

I adore this special.  This is one of my all time favorite Christmas specials and to just see it again, was a huge Christmas treat. It may not be perfect or even the best Christmas special made by Disney but it's perhaps the one that I love the most.   If you are curious in checking it out, it is on YouTube as that's where I watched it.  I hope that you enjoyed my review of this Christmas treasure (at least in my heart) as much as I enjoyed the chance to watch it again.

Christmas: A Christmas Cruella

Hello & welcome back to the Christmas celebration here on A Look at Disney.  Well, we've now looked at two film adaptions and a ride layover that never happened.  So, where do we go now? The world of television.  TV shows doing their own on A Christmas Carol is nothing new but with this territory,  there does come one problem in that sometimes for the show to continue on, the lessons that are learned in these episodes sometimes cannot stick, if the series is to continue onward.  And with these two episodes, there also comes another problem in that,  Disney villains are used as the Scrooge stand-ins.  In today's case,  it is Cruella De Vil.   And  this also does another standard thing a gender flip of the Scrooge character as there quite a few films out there with female Scrooges, perhaps most notably, A Diva's Christmas Carol starring Vanessa Williams. 

101 Dalmatians: The Series is a One Saturday Morning cartoon from the '97 -'98 season  that lasted for two seasons, the second in syndication and in the first season, they aired the Christmas episode, A Christmas Cruella.   Now as for the series, it took inspiration from both the animated film and the live action remake but it's best to think of the series taking  place in it's own timeline as the series takes place in America and all of the characters have American accents.  And the show decided to use Dearly as the last name from the remake instead.  So, with that in mind,  let's get the review started.

Episode Title

A Christmas Cruella

The episode title easily tells you what you are in for.

The Plot

Now like with The Muppet Christmas Carol and the 2009 film,  I won't be going over the whole plot as it's an episode based on A Christmas Carol, and if you've seen any take on A Christmas Carol, then you know the beats.  The biggest changes here being what characters are substituted for the classic roles.  You already know that Cruella is our Scrooge.  Anita is our Bob Cratchit, Lucky is the Tiny Tim of the episode but the episode really doesn't use him for anything other than to tug at the heartstrings.  And this episode also seem to does what Muppet Christmas Carol did with having two characters feel the Marley role using Horace and Jasper.  Now, the other big thing is the why as to why Cruella came to hate Christmas.  Apparently as a child, she wanted a puppy and her parents were never home on Christmas day. Yeah, ouch!  I'll get into more detail with my issues with this in the character section.  Now, let's head down to the characters section.

Characters

Now, I'll be breaking this down into Main Character, Supporting Characters and then ghosts.  With that out of the way, let's begin.

Main Character

Cruella De Vil played by April Winchell 

This is perhaps my biggest issue with this episode as the idea of using a villain as the Scrooge stand-in, I feel like it lessens the importance of the story that is being told.  I know what I said up top about looking at this show as being it's own thing but even within the show,  Cruella is still portrayed as a villain.  So, I find it rather hard to sympathize with her because of that and even the trips to her past painted her in an ugly light.   I mean I can understand always being angry that her parents were never home on Christmas as that is messed up and it was shown that they didn't truly love her. But, Cruella was still shown as being a brat.  From as a baby having her nanny shipped off to other heinous deeds from hurting kids that did get puppies, when she was about 10 or 12.  And look as I said before, not having her parents there is rough for a kid but this episode is trying to tell me that Cruella ended up the way that she did because of not getting a puppy.  Now look, it's clear that this episode was more interested in playing up the comedy rather than telling a straight forward version of A Christmas Carol.

Supporting Characters

Anita voiced by Kath Soucie 

A I said up top,  Anita feels the Cratchit role and they made a nice attempt here such as having Cruella fire her and trying to get us to feel bad for her that way. And I swear, when we saw the Dearly's Christmas during the Present segment, it was less of A Christmas Carol and more of The Gift of The Magi.  As it was shown that the family couldn't keep the presents that they bought for on another.

Roger voiced by Jeff Bennett 

Roger's interactions with Cruella were pretty good and I did like hoe he stood up to the devil to get his wife the day off for Christmas. Granted, it caused her to lose her job but she did get it back in the end.

Lucky  voiced by Pamela Segall Adlon

I'd like the idea of using one of the puppies in the Tiny Tim role and admittedly the idea that Lucky had to get a cast because of a pine needle infection was funny but they really didn't do much with the idea.

Ghosts

Horace and Jasper voiced by David L.  Lander & Michael McKean 

So, this episode decided to go with the dual ghosts for the Marley stand-in and well, I'm sorry but if you do that, I'm going to compare you to Marley and Marley from The Muppet Christmas Carol and say that they did it better.  Now admittedly, they were playing it up more for laughs and it was kinda funny that they were from a corporation that handles these kind of things on a regular basis.

Cadpig (Ghost of Christmas Past) also voiced by Kath Soucie 

It was clear that when we got to the three spirits that the episode was playing it more laughs because when Cruella refused to go with the Ghost of Christmas Past,  she threatened to use special effects and then did. Which was actually pretty funny and in a way from what I remember of the show, it did make sense to use Cadpig in this role as she in the brains of the group. And the one that was most willing to listen to other's problems.

Ghost of Christmas Present (Rolly) also voiced by Kath Soucie

Now, here I like what they did with Rolly as the Ghost of Christmas Present and casting him as that ghost made a lot of sense being the friendly and joyful that he was and you could really feel the warmth coming through but he wasn't afraid to show anger at Cruella for not getting that she's ruined other's Christmas.

Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come (Spot) voiced by Tara Strong

Now, here again Spot as The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come was actually pretty funny and she again broke the fourth wall by saying that she had a big song and dance number but it was cut.  And I do admit that it was funny that in Cruella's future,  her body was buried in a pet cemetery. The idea that Cruella was surrounded by animals considering that her hated of animals.

My Final Thoughts

While I don't think this is a bad episode, it does highlight some of the problems with a TV show doing a Christmas Carol episode.  It feels rather problematic in some of it's execution.  It's not bad but not something that I would say is worth checking out unless you are really interested. Join me tomorrow as we head to (Disney Junior's) Neverland as we see how well a pirate take on A Christmas Carol can go with Captain Hook as our Scrooge stand-in as we look at...

Captain Scrooge

The Scrooges of Disney

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and we are coming to the close of our Christmas Carol celebration and for this particular blog, I will be looking at the 3 most well-known Disney iterations of Scrooge.  With that outta the way, let's begin.




Scrooge McDuck - Mickey's Christmas Carol

We start with the original Disney Scrooge.  Scrooge McDuck from Mickey's Christmas Carol. And you couldn't have picked a better character for this role. Alan Young as Scrooge is really solid.  As I went over last year, he first played the role of Scrooge in the vinyl record that was the inspiration for this fantastic short and  while this was the first time that Young would play Scrooge in the animated medium, he really brought a lot to the role. Now as I made mention in my review, he doesn't have as much as depth to him as other takes but for being the first Disney Scrooge, he was really good and one of the best.



Michael Caine -  The Muppet Christmas Carol

As I mentioned in my review last week, Caine is my favorite Scrooge as you really see the progression that he goes through over the course of the film as he starts out as cold and heartless man but as you see him go on his journey with the Ghosts, he really starts to shed the layers of the cold and ruthless man that he was and we see the good man inside of him that had been buried for years.


Jim Carrey - A Christmas Carol (2009)

Again, as  I said in my review, Carrey isn't too over-the-top and he plays the role seriously and shows a huge amount of respect to the character and doesn't try to make him silly but rather he gives his turn as Scrooge, a rather solid performance that while not as good as Young or Caine,  is still highly respectable and enjoyable.




There you have it, my look at the three most iconic takes on Scrooge from Disney. Join me tomorrow as I close my look at Disney's take on A Christmas Carol by looking at the score of A Christmas Carol (2009)

Christmas: A Christmas Carol (2009)

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney.  And last week,  we looked at one of my favorite takes on A Christmas Carol by looking at The Muppet Christmas Carol.  Today,  we jump to the year 2009 as we look at the Motion Capture adaption from Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers Digital.   Which was a short-lived venture between Zemeckis and Disney as they only made two movies together. This and... Mars Needs Mom.  Yeah...   I refuse to watch that movie.    Now,  this film was another in a long line of Motion Capture films that Zemeckis made starting with another holiday film, The Polar Express back  in 2004.   And I will say on that front, that the animation does take some time adjusting to but I don't think it's that bad.   And as for Robert Zemeckis doing an adaption of A Christmas Carol,  it makes sense because I recall an interview with him  and Bob Gale or The Bobs as they're known in the BTTF community and they mentioned that A Christmas Carol was a source of inspiration for Back to The Future.  Which makes sense in terms of how time travel works and I do think that people sometimes forget that this story has time travel elements. And funnily enough,  Zemeckis' time travelers would do their take on A Christmas Carol in the Saturday morning cartoon that aired for a while and who else but a Tannen was the Scrooge.     With this out of the way, let's begin.



Trailer





I have to completely honest and say that the year that this film came out, I was really excited for it because that year I had read A Christmas Carol for the first time and I was excited to see an adaption on the big screen after having read the book.  And while the trailers gave me cause for concern, I was still stoked to see it. And throughout most of that year, I was in love with this movie.  And well, I do like this movie to a certain degree but as time goes one, the problems are more noticeable.




The Plot


I will give credit to this film as it does remember the ghost story aspect of A Christmas Carol but man is that also a problem.  Look, I am not saying that children's movies can't be scary and I'm not even saying that A Christmas Carol can't be scary but some of the scares are rather distracting.  Such as the scene right after Scrooge is visited by Marley and you see how  the other ghosts that have to repent for their misdeeds and they want to help and you hear their moaning.

Oh and I had to mute the TV during the bell ringing scene of this film as that got to be a bit much for me.   And I will give credit to this film as it is very faithful to the source as it is one of the only film adaptions that I know of that includes Ignorance and Want.

But I personally feel like this scene went on too long.   I appreciate what Mr. Zemeckis was going for here but I have to wonder if this was a case of being too faithful.  Because to be frank, this film had more scares than The Haunted Mansion movie.  And well, I know that was a comedy but you'd think something called The Haunted Mansion would be scary.  Oh, and let's not forget that they showed the skeleton of Present after he died.

Yes... lovely.  Again,  scares in a family film are fine but I think the scares actually got in the way of some decent performances in the movie.  And the same is true of how the movie treated the Ghosts. As the ghosts felt less like characters and more part of a set-piece that was meant to be a part of a 3-D spectacle.   And some were just bizarre or downright dumb.   I'm looking at you, Ghost of Christmas Past.

Just why?  And this was even one of the posters for this movie.

This.... this is how you want to treat a literary icon!  I mean look at the other poster for this movie and tell me, which one invokes A Christmas Carol more to you.  That or this...

I don't know about you but I'm going with this one.  However that is nothing compared to the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come.  Okay, the chariot chasing Scrooge through the streets of London was cool.

But what in the name of Jacob Marley was the point of shrinking Scrooge down to the size of a mouse? I don't remember that being in the book.   And apparently, the whole shrinking thing was made up for the movie.

The whole "future" scene with the horse chase and Scrooge becoming smaller is not in the story. In fact, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in the novel is nearly immobile except for the pointing finger.

Seriously,  it felt like this movie became Honey, I Shrunk The Stingiest Man In Town for a second there.    I know that I am coming across rather hard on this version but that's only because I saw glimmers of what could've been a good adaption as the performances in this movie are rather solid.  And I will say that while I am not the biggest fan of Jim Carrey, he does a really good job, not only as Scrooge but also as the Ghosts.  And everyone else in the cast is pretty good too but I feel the cast gets overlooked in favor of scares and spectacle.   I think that if the film had let the cast shine more instead of the scares & spectacles, this could've been a really good adaption because where it currently stands, this is just an okay  adaption.  With this out of the way, let's look at the characters and see how the cast did bringing them to life.




Characters

As always, this will be broken up into Main Character, Ghosts & Supporting Characters. But seeing as we are looking at a Motion Capture animated movie,  not only do we have to look at the voice actors but also those that did the performances for the motion capture and save for all but one character, they had the same voice actor and performance actor for motion capture. And also, when you get down to it, this is actually a relatively small cast as most of these actors played more than one role.


Main Character



Ebeneezer Scrooge voiced & performed by Jim Carrey

Admittedly, someone like Jim Carrey is not a person that one would expect for the role of Ebeneezer Scrooge but he does rather well in the role.  He doesn't play it too over the top and because of Carrey taking the role seriously, that allows the audience to buy into Carrey as Scrooge.  I will admit that like most people had reservations, when I heard the casting announcement for this movie.  But while he isn't my favorite actor to play Scrooge,  he still turns in a solid performance and hey compared to this other on an icon of Christmas, I'll take this instead

Yeah....   the less said about that film, the better.



Ghosts


Jacob Marley voiced & performed by Gary Oldman

Gary Oldman was rather good as Marley but I do think that this scene went on a bit too long.  It was fine but when it got to the point about Mankind was his business.  Marley's jaw breaks and that really ruins the moment.

This silly scene ruins what is one of Marley's best moments by having him trying to speak while he tries to realign his jaw.  If they had trimmed this scene a bit and taken out the sequence of Marley's jaw,  Marley would've been more effective.



The Ghost of Christmas Past also voiced & performed by Jim Carrey

Okay, what is up with that face?  That is creepy.  That does not look right.  Now, a lot of adaptions portray Past with childlike innocence and that's no different here. And while I do think that Carrey does a good job voicing the character, I think he tried a little too hard here.  I think that he was going for a whisper here to match the aesthetic of Past having a flaming head. It's not a bad performance but it was in parts, a bit distracting.





The Ghost of Christmas Present also voiced & performed by Jim Carrey

Now, I already went over the scene of Present dying and yeah that was a but unsettling and I recall watching Doug Walker's Disneycember video on this film and he made mention  that this character that was the closest to being a typical Carrey character.  And perhaps I haven't seen enough Jim Carrey movies but I don't see it.  Though I will say for a character that I typically think of being a joyous soul, there are some rather unsettling moments with Present. We already talked about his death.

Seriously, should I have watched this back in October?   But there is also the sequence where Present repeats Scrooge's famous line about people dying and decreasing the surplus population. And here, Present's face turns into Scrooge's face.

Yeah, that was a bit unsettling.   I will be honest and say that I never really felt any warmth this character and that is most likely a decision that Robert Zemeckis  made to be more faithful to the source and I'm all for that but he almost felt cold in some areas.



Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come performed by Jim Carrey

Yet To Come was very effective in this version but this isn't too surprising considering how much this adaption loved the ghost story aspect of this tale.  I really think out of all three ghosts, they put their best effort into Yet To Come.  He was so chilling and unnerving and it just felt great.    Out of all the Ghosts, he was easily the highlight.





Supporting Characters


Now, I really do hate saying this because I do like most of the cast and think that they turn in an excellent performances but I think they take a back seat to Scrooge and the scares.  And also, please not that I will not be looking at all of the supporting cast as some characters are rather minor in the grand scheme of the story. So sorry, Cary Elwes. With that out of the way, let's begin.




Bob Cratchit also voiced & performed by Gary Oldman

Gary Oldman was really good as Bob Cratchit. I honestly forgot it was him and that allowed me to enjoy his performance.   On the whole, he was quite good but I do apologize for spoilers here but what was up with this movie ending with Bob breaking the 4th wall and talking directly to the audience about how Scrooge changed his ways.  Was that left over from a draft, where Bob was meant to be an on screen narrator a la Gonzo and Rizzo in The Muppet Christmas Carol.  I mean, that would've been a neat idea but I'm not sure how well, it would've worked.



Tiny Tim voiced by Ryan Ochoa & performed by Gary Oldman

I'm sorry to say but I feel that Tiny Tim suffered the most from the movie focusing so much on scares and spectacles.  He almost seemed like an afterthought compared to everything that went on in this movie.



Fred voiced & performed by Colin Firth

Colin Firth was perfectly fine as Fred but it was a bit noticeable, who was playing him. And also I was curious, so I looked up his age and Colin Firth is actually two years older than Jim Carrey. I guess that I should be thankful that this was animated movie because I have a feeling that otherwise, this would've been really distracting.



Fan voiced & performed by Robin Wright



Apparently, they didn't think to find a child to do the voice acting for Fan but to her credit, Robin Wright was rather convincing as Scrooge's sister.  And I could feel the love this younger sister had for her older brother.



Fezziwig voiced & performed by Bob Hoskins

Bob Hoskins as Fezziwig in my opinion was easily the best casting in this whole film.  He fit this role to a tee.  And  for this being one of his last roles, he couldn't have played it any better.  He brought so much life into the role that I couldn't help but enjoy the limited screen time that Fezziwg had.





Belle also voiced & performed by Robin Wright

Yeah...  having the actress that played Scrooge's little sister also play his love interest.  I'm not really sure how I feel about that decision.  But that is just a side point because Robin Wright also does a good job as this character because you could really feel the heartache in her when Scrooge chose his profession over her instead. There was still some love left in her for Scrooge but she knew that she couldn't compete.


Mrs. Cratchit voiced & performed by Lesley Manville

Lesley Manville was perfectly fine as Mrs. Cratchit.  You could feel the love that she had for children and Bob.  And the heartbreak that you saw in her face, when he learned of Tiny Tim's death was just heartbreaking.




My Final Thoughts


While I was a bit hard on this film, I still do like it but it does have it's share of problems.  It's not bad but if the film had let the cast shine more and focus less on the scares and spectacles, this could've been a really good adaption.  Whereas right now, it just stands as an okay adaption.  It's not bad but I wish that it could've been better.   Join me tomorrow as I head into the world of TV to see what happens, when you put a Disney villain in the Scrooge role as I look at...


A Christmas Cruella