A Christmas Carol: Overdone oversion has its moments

By: --Jake Coyle | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: November 05, 2009

Lionel Barrymore. Alastair Sim. Laurence Olivier. Albert Finney. George C. Scott. Bill Murray. Michael Caine. Mr. Magoo. Scrooge McDuck.

Of the many to play Ebenezer Scrooge, Jim Carrey now adds his name, starring in Disney's new 3-D animation version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The appeal of the part is clear: You get villain and redemptive hero rolled into one, plus you spend most of the movie in your pajamas.

But the allure of Scrooge alone wasn't enough for Carrey. In this latest incarnation of Dickens' Christmas fable, Carrey plays not only the penny-pinching miser, young and old, but also the three ghosts that visit him: the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.

Carrey's zest for the undertaking comes through clearly enough -- after all, the rubber-faced Ace Ventura and Man on the Moon actor has always been a contortionist. His Scrooge is exceptionally gaunt, topped by limp white hair, and features a downturned mouth below an Ichabod Crane nose.

When Scrooge breaks into a sudden jig or the Ghost of Christmas Past -- rendered here (faithfully to the book) as a kind of flickering candle -- gives a comic twitch, it's easy to recognize the actor behind the animation.

But on the whole, the film feels suffocated by its design, and the liveliness of Carrey and the rest of the cast (including Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Cary Elwes) struggles to shine through.

For a distinctly modern approach, director Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Cast Away) chose to use performance-capture animation, having the actors' movements and expressions transferred from live-action to animation.

Unfortunately, the characters come across oddly inanimate. Many have vacant, almost ghostly eyes and closer resemble the figures that might be used in an architect's model. It seems a curious decision to go to such lengths to make a thoroughly human story so inhuman.

It's a shame, too, because the architecture of this Christmas Carol is at times striking. The mid-19th century London of Dickens' novella is painted with care, animated to be dramatically lit by candlelight. Alan Silvestri's bombastic score is also stirring.