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
No comments:
Post a Comment