Thursday, December 24, 2009

A Christmas Carol - Part 2



Last year I started reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. This year I went and saw the new 3D movie starring Jim Carrey!

I highly recommend it, just not for children as it is quite spooky. The 3D is excellent, the computer animation even better than The Polar Express (made by the same people as the Disney's A Christmas Carol, and Beowulf [2007]), and the acting, MoCap or not, is very well done. My one main complaint is that it didn't have as many plot threads as the classic Alastair Sims version had (although I think those were made-up for the 1951 movie anyway). Instead, it had a rather long and nonsensical action sequence for the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Oh well, it could have been worse: It could have been a series of senseless action sequences with about three minutes of actual plot like Polar Express.

If I had to rank my favorite versions of A Christmas Carol, I would still place the Alastair Sims version at the top. Second place, though, is a toss-up between A Muppet's Christmas Carol and the Jim Carrey version, with the muppets generally coming out ahead. However, if they ever make a home theatre system capable of displaying the 3D movie as well as the cinema can, then I may have to re-evaluate my list.

Oh, and I still haven't gotten around to reading the last bit of A Christmas Carol, but I know someone who's getting a hard copy for Christmas. . .