Disney's A Christmas Carol 3D

Rating

: * * *

Verdict

:

Technically brilliant, but emotionally leaves you cold.

Director Robert Zemeckis' 3D adaptation of Charles Dickens' Victorian novella is visually stunning, filled with technical wizardry and a great cast but lacks one important ingredient; heart.

Unlike other animations where actors just voice a character, in Disney's

A Christmas Carol

the actors actually act out their parts. Their performance is filmed using a technique called Performance Capture that digitally captures the performances of the actors with computerised cameras in a full 360 degrees. Not only are the animated characters created to resemble the actor's looks, but this technique captures realistic movement and subtle nuances - the detail is remarkable.

All this gets lost though, in Zemeckis' elaborate fantasy world, where the familiar story sees the lonely and coldhearted Ebenezer Scrooge (Carrey) visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley (Oldman). The ghost informs Scrooge that he will be visited by three ghosts (all played and voiced by Carrey), and they each take turns encouraging Scrooge to change his ways and embrace Christmas as a time to be kind and charitable.

As he travels through time with these ghosts, Scrooge is reminded by the Ghost of Christmas Past of his lonely schoolboy years, happier ones working for his mentor Mr Fezziwig (Bob Hoskins), and how his greed lost him his love, Belle (Robin Wright Penn).

The Ghost of Christmas Present shows him just how difficult it is for his clerk Bob Cratchit (Oldman) and his large family, including a seriously ill young boy Tiny Tim (Oldman again), to make ends meet. He observes the happy family life at his nephew Fred's (Firth) house where there is much merriment and laughter, and where he finds himself the butt of their jokes.

But it's not until he is faced with his own mortality by the grim reaper-like Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come that Scrooge is truly convinced to change his ways. The resulting spring in his step and new appreciation for giving seems purely a consequence of finding himself alive on Christmas morning than the result of any other lesson learnt.

Scrooge's journey is action-packed, suspenseful and imaginatively brought to life, but the visuals overwhelm the simple messages of kindness, friendship and charity at the heart of this story, leaving you feeling emotionally detached from this magical tale.

The inclusion of "Disney" before the title is confusing. It implies this is a family film, but it's not. More like Zemeckis'

Beowulf

than his

The Polar Express

this is animation for adults, filled with spooky imagery and eerie ghosts, old-fashioned language and some pretty morbid moments. Respect the censor's rating on this one, it's not the film to take the littlies too, even if they may need some perspective on Christmas.

Francesca Rudkin

Cast

: Jim Carrey, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman

Director

: Robert Zemeckis

Running time

: 96 min

Rating

: PG (some scenes may scare very young children)