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Disney brings Dickens to theaters again with 'A Christmas Carol'
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Dickens takes a thrill ride in Disney's newest.
Anyone who went into stores on November 1st knows that Halloween is gone and forgotten. It's time for Christmas! From the decorations to the tunes, the holidays are already well underway in stores. Not to be outdone, Christmas has also made its way into theaters with the release of A Christmas Carol, Disney's newest foray into 3-D motion capture films.
The original tale by Charles Dickens is the epitome of holiday fare, but it is still at the very base of it, a Dickens' story. And as such, it bears far more rough London edges than the film allows into its digital world. First published in 1843, A Christmas Carol was a criticism of industrialization in the 19th century as well as a summons to bring the holiday back to its idealistic origins.
Since its first publication, Dickens' work has been twisted and turned into countless bits of holiday fare, ranging from dramatic adaptations to loving bits of cartoon fluff (anyone remember Mickey's Christmas Carol?). The latest film, directed by Robert Zemeckis, seems to veer more towards the childish, with Scrooge flying through the air above London, crashing into icicles in a way that feels unlikely to have been the result of anything other than a desire to show off the 3-D feature. Right now it seems the greatest fault of these technologies is that they are so new that filmmakers can't resist showing them off rather than simply using them to aid the story. Despite that, the film is said to remain fairly true to the book, and perhaps the lighter fare is meant more for children than their parents.
Jim Carrey plays not just the miserly Scrooge, but also all three of the ghosts who visit him throughout the Eve. Having already tackled the green monster of How the Grinch Stole Christmas in 2000, one wonders what Christmas tale Carrey will take on next. Will it be The Night Before Christmas, with Carrey playing both Santa and the un-stirring mouse, or the bittersweet story of The Snowman?
Critics are giving the film mixed reviews, some claiming it has no soul, while others call it sumptuously Dickensian. Perhaps the audience for this year's film is not the same as for the original book. And children too young to read Dickens' words will surely enjoy the faster pace of certain aspects of the film, while still taking away the larger moral of the Christmas spirit. For adults, however, we might just be too jaded to view this film without comparing it to the adaptations of our own childhood. The best judges will undoubtedly be the children for whom the film is meant.
For showtimes in Austin, visit Austin 360, then leave a comment and tell me if I'm just being a Scrooge.
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