A Christmas Carol is not a new story. Based on the classic holiday tale of the same name by Charles Dickens, the only new facets of this parable are the type of animation, the voices and, of course, the 3-D action.
Robert Zemeckis (The Polar Express, Cast Away) helms this renewed narrative about a miser, Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey), who is haunted by three ghosts – Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Christmas Present, Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come - on Christmas Eve in an effort for him to change his whole lifestyle of being the most despicable person in London. In case you’ve been living under a rock for, like, your whole life, I’m very sorry to ruin the ending for you. Scrooge changes through a mixture of fright and the panic of meeting the Grim Reaper on Christmas Day. Then he becomes beloved by all in London, although some think he’s actually lost his mind at first.
All-star voice overs come from Carrey, Robin Wright Penn (Belle – Scrooge’s long-lost love), Gary Oldman (Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim and Jacob Marley) and Colin Firth (Fred - Scrooge’s nephew). The cast is not the best aspect of this film; it’s the animation. All of the characters look like the actors who voice them, so if you couldn’t tell who was voicing whom by the voice alone, you could by the character. Further more, the visual detail the animators put into this film was amazing. You can see every wrinkle around Scrooge’s eyes, every red nose from people trudging through the snow and even the acne on a teenager’s cheeks, which is disgusting but kind of awesome. The 3-D animation will seem much cooler to the younger crowd, but the effects were still visually stunning.
Unless you’re really into the new 3-D animation that the studios are thrusting upon movie-goers with every release of new animated films (and charging up to $3 more), this is the same plot with the same characters and the same feel good holiday warm-and-fuzziness at the end. The attention to detail is extraordinary, but if you rent an earlier version from Netflix, you will feel just as warm-and-fuzzy from the comfort of your couch in your pjs.
God Bless us, everyone.
Ponyo has one of the most interesting plots for an animated feature I’ve seen in a while. It’s endearing, meaningful and kind of touched my soul. It teaches lessons of not to judge anyone based on appearances and loving someone for who they are, while pushing a bit of “green” agenda. It’s quite genious, actually. Ponyo (voice of Noah Cyrus) is a fish with magical powers, including how to turn into a human, given to her by her father, who is a magician. Ponyo is scooped up by Sosuke (voice of Frankie Jonas) one morning and they become best friends. Their friendship continues to strive through several eventful days. Their adventure makes the movie.
If you’re up to double digits in age, you might not find this movie entertaining at all. I was actually bored through most of it, but it was hypocritically and simultaneously ingratiating. While Disney little siblings are at the helm of the movie, the rest of the cast couldn’t be more classy. Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Betty White and Cloris Leachman round out the rest of the cast, and, if you aren’t interested in this anime children’s film, they are the reason to go.
As much as I love these actors, I wish that instead of being an “English version” of the Japanese film, perhaps it could have been a bit more American. I understand that we pompous American aren’t the only ones who speak English, but the film is set in an oceanside Japanese city, with Japanese writings on buildings, and Japanese looking characters, I just thought, well, the tone of the voices speaking English could have been a bit more…Japanese. That is definitely the only flaw in this film. It looks like Hayao Miyazaki may have just pre-nabbed his second Oscar.
