Then, the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge on a journey to relive his youth, before he was the terrible miser he has become. He sees himself and his friend, Dick Wilkins (Carey Elwes), as they happily work for jolly and generous Mr. Fezziwig (Bob Hoskins). He also sees the girl he once loved and had hoped to build a life with, the lovely Belle (Robin Wright Penn), but then he sees how he placed his love for money above his love for Belle and caused her subsequent departure from his life. Thinking he can take no more, he is then visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present, who shows Scrooge his relatives celebrating Christmas and discussing what a jerk he is. Then he sees poverty-stricken Bob Cratchit and his family, still joyously celebrating the Christmas holidays, because although they have very little money, they have lots of love. Then he sees the death of a miserly man that absolutely no one misses and Scrooge is shocked to discover that dead man is him! Finally, the Ghost of Christmas Future shows him next year's Christmas and the fact that Cratchit's sweet young son, Tiny Tim, has succumbed to his crippling illness and has died, as a direct result of the family's poverty and the fact that Scrooge pays Bob such a low wage.
Scrooge is devastated to see the havoc his cheapness has created and vows to be a changed man. When he happily awakens in his own bed to discover he has made it through the night, he immediately heads out to spread joy and cheer and most of all, a bit of his wealth.
While everyone knows the basic story and has seen iterations over the years, apparently never has a version been so true to the Dickens' classic. Because of the magic of CG, scenes from the book that hadn't previously been seen in other movies, such as Scrooge looking out his window with Marley and viewing all of the lost souls bearing the chains of their past, can now be seen in grand fashion. I was a little hesitant to view Disney's A Christmas Carol because of the uber-creepiness that Polar Express had to offer. The Uncanny Valley was never so obvious as with that film, but I was pleasantly surprised by Disney's A Christmas Carol, which looks absolutely gorgeous. In fact, what I really enjoyed was trying to figure out who voiced what characters since some of them were clearly modeled after their real-life counterparts. Bob Cratchit is Gary Oldman's face to a tee, as does Fezziwig perfectly mimic Bob Hoskins' face and Scrooge's nephew, Fred, looks just like Colin Firth, who voiced him.
Special features are few, but nicely done. There's a really fantastic featurette on how the motion capture (or "mo-cap" for the uninitiated) was done and I always seem to forget that a lot of CG animated films like this and Monster House use actual mo-capping to bring life to the animation. When you see the animation doing an action, their human counterpart did that exact same thing to capture it for the film, then elaborate backgrounds and extras are added in by the art department. It's truly fascinating stuff to watch. There's another featurette with Zemeckis and others from the cast discussing how the classic tale was brought to the screen, there's a featurette called "On Set with Sammi" which is a fun tour of the set with one of the child actors, Sammi Hanratty (young Chuck in Pushing Daisies). It's very Disney, but something kids will definitely enjoy. There's a neat interactive Advent Calendar showing a chilly street scene and kids can open one door per day starting on December 1st (but it will work now, actually). As each door is opened, an animated clip will play showing an old fashioned toy or something Christmas related such as a Nutcracker. As the days pass, the street scene will become more and more holiday themed and decorated. It's something cool to bring young kids back to the video each day until Christmas. Finally, there are a handful of deleted scenes for you to watch. Now, deleted scenes in a CG film are very different from standard movie deleted scenes. They are almost always unfinished, so you won't be seeing the perfection you see while watching the film. But it will give you a chance to see the animation in action, perhaps with the actor's actual face with the mo-cap dots in place. It's very cool to see how these films come together and these deleted scenes give you a true peek into what goes on behind the scenes.
The acting is Disney's A Christmas Carol is really fantastic. Jim Carrey was amazing as Scrooge, however everyone really brought the characters to life in this film. I will admit that I didn't expect Disney's A Christmas Carol to be as great as it was, but the production is truly fantastic. Parents should keep in mind that very young children may be frightened by the ghostly scenes and there are a couple that are really creepy (I am specifically thinking of Marley's jaw becoming disturbingly unhinged), but overall, this is a great holiday classic brought to life in gorgeous high definition video and audio. Although the film doesn't specifically say 3D, there were a number of scenes that looked like they were intentionally designed to utilize from 3D, so if you've got a 3D setup, you may find added benefits. Highly recommended for the holiday season.
Clips
Ghost of Christmas PresentCratchit Household
