BLOGS
Going into Disney's A Christmas Carol, I was expecting a lot of wacky slapstick comedy, because when you put Disney and Jim Carrey together, that's what you get. But even though Jim Carrey provides many of the voices and a lot of the visual inspiration for the characters, there was hardly any wackiness to be seen. In fact, most of the movie is pretty dark. If you've seen Robert Zemeckis' previous animated feature, Beowulf, you can get a pretty good idea of what to expect here, although the character designs are a bit more exaggerated, and some of their movements a bit more cartoonish. Still, this was one of the creepiest versions of A Christmas Carol I've ever seen, creepier by far than my two reigning favorites, Scrooged and The Muppet Christmas Carol. And you know what? Creepy ain't always bad.
Jim Carrey gets to goof off a bit later on in the film, but from the start, his dialogue as Ebenezer Scrooge is not only quite authentic-sounding, but occasionally verbatim from the book. The timid Bob Cratchit, voiced by Gary Oldman, is a sad but lovable figure, and Colin Firth voice-acts his heart out as Scrooge's nephew Fred. It's all very Dickensian. Then the ghosts arrive. Oldman doubles as the voice of the ghost of Jacob Marley, and he shows his range with his roars of despair. (He also voices Tiny Tim, which is impressive, although Tim is a very minor character here.) Even Bob Hoskins, Cary Elwes and Robin Wright Penn join in the fun, voicing multiple characters each. I'm not normally a fan of celebrity cartoon voices, but here they make sense and are done well.
The remaining three ghosts are played by Carrey with high degrees of creepiness. As the Ghost of Christmas Past, Carrey is depicted as a flickering candle-person, who speaks in a whisper and softly moans as his head darts from side to side, which is as nightmarish as it sounds. As the Ghost of Christmas Present, Carrey reaches down and produces a deep voice and a booming laugh unlike anything I've ever heard from him, and the falseness of it makes more sense as you spend more time with him, and see what he keeps under his cloak (readers of the book already know). The Ghost of Christmas Future doesn't speak, as far as I could tell, but exists as an ever-pointing shadow, directing Scrooge to his death. Standard, but creepy nonetheless.
The film occasionally indulges in 3D tricks, but usually for the purposes of the story, as Marley heaves his hellish weights into the Scrooge's bedroom, or Scrooge soars among the chimneys and spires of London. There is one Christmas Future scene, when he's shrunk to a small size to witness the betrayal of his servants, where we're subjected to a miniature chase and some drainpipe-sliding, but it's all over soon enough. While I wouldn't recommend it to any small children -- it is a fairly scary story, after all -- I do think any adult without an irrational hatred of Jim Carrey would find it entertaining, with a lot of scares and the occasional Carrey-provided laugh.
Did you see the movie? Let us know what you think below, and to see Carrey's 12 Creepiest Characters, click here!
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My sister-in-law and I (she's 26 and I'm 27) went to see this movie this past Saturday, and we really enjoyed it! There were some little kids in the theater (the highlight was the little girl in front of us, no older than 5, who yelled "That's GAY!" during a climactic scene, which cracked the two of us up). I think the part we laughed at the most (besides the angelic "That's GAY!" child - thank you, child - you totally made the experience enjoyable) was the Ghost of Chriatmas Past - something about him (perhaps his speech patterns?) made us laugh (we were the only ones - perhaps no one else had a sense of humor about this?).
Another was the use of the "ultra-sexy" 3D glasses we had to pay for and recycle afterward - we put them on and admired our "sexiness" in them, and when I asked her if she wanted me to take a picture to send to my twin brother (her husband), she said "he could use this against me." In other words, my sibling is a blackmailer.
I plan on highly recommending this to anyone who asks me - Disney's A Christmas Carol, though very dark (and apparently "GAY" - I really need to stop saying it!), is alot of fun, and the 3D effects are fantastic...and dare I say it, well worth the $13.50 (each) she paid (I took care of dinner) so each of us could get a ticket and "ultra-sexy" 3D glasses.