Z/Web

I was not too excited about this film: I didn’t see much point as the Charles Dickens’ story seems to have been done to death (my favorite is the whacky modernization, Scrooged, with Bill Murray). This seemed like a faithful rendition, which could be good or bad, depending on your viewpoint (you could see it as unoriginal or loyal to a classic). It also is a frightfully early release for a Christmas story, though there’s a part of me that likes that. I went and saw the 3D edition which is probably not worth the extra money, though it’s relatively harmless. The 3D is good, but doesn’t add anything to the story. It’s just a fun gimmick. The animation is fantastic, as you’d expect, though I thought some of the minor characters looked slightly odd and unfinished in places. Compared to the incredible detail of the main characters, they looked flat and cartoon-like. The historical detail of Victorian England is well done, providing some fascinating detail about life back then. For instance, the poor family doesn’t have the facilities to cook their own Christmas goose: they use the bakery’s oven down the street (presumably for a fee). As to the story, this is an extremely faithful adaptation, almost to a fault. Much of the language is archaic and can be difficult to understand, especially for young kids. But the ghosts are done in such a modern way it felt like it clashed. There’s is much about the ghosts added in to pad the movie’s length, like several wild action sequences (Scrooge on a rocket into space, Scrooge shrunk down to mouse size and chased, etc.) that add little to the story and strain credibility (you’d think the poor old man would have a heart attack considering all the trauma he’s put through). Another problem is that some of the ghosts are extremely vivid and could be too scary for young children: for a family film, that’s a strange decision. Overall, this is well-done and excellent. However, my major criticism is that other than being digitally animated and in 3D, it breaks no new ground. It’s odd that I feel this way since usually my criticism of adaptations is that they change too much from the original, but in this case this is such a classic story and it’s been faithfully done so many times before, it would be nice to see something more creative.