IT is an animated retelling of Charles Dickens?timeless tale of an old miser Scrooge who must face Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet-to-Come, as they help to bring kindness to his otherwise cold heart. The Ghosts remind him of the man he used to be, the hard truth of what the world is today, and what will happen if he does not strive to be a better man. Set around Christmas, the most joyous day of the year, Scrooge realizes the sharp contrast of his own personality.
Review
THIS Disney Dickens is altogether different—and altogether surprising. What I mean is the movie’s faithful regard for its source material. For all of its loop-de-loop kineticism and newfangled visuals, this is, in some ways, one of the more accurate and authentically gothic “Christmas Carols” in a hundred or so years of adaptations.
Zemeckis’ film preserves much of Dickens’ original dialogue and detail while amplifying the utter ethereal strangeness of the ghosts. If some of the animation overdoes it, a lot of it is downright gorgeous.
Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle
THE surprise of this movie—a welcome one—is that, in the midst of obeying the rules of modern-day spectacle, it sticks close to some of the sturdy virtues of the source material. Mr. Zemeckis’s script retains much of the flavor of Dickens’s prose—not just the catchphrases like “Bah, humbug” and “God bless us everyone,” but also the formal diction and the moral concern.
A.O. Scott, The New York Times
DISNEY’S A Christmas Carol by Robert Zemeckis is an exhilarating visual experience and proves that Zemeckis is one of the few directors who knows what he’s doing with 3D.
Zemeckis places the characters in a London that twists and stretches its setting to reflect the macabre mood. Consider Scrooge’s living room, as narrow and tall just as he is. The home of his nephew Fred, by contrast, is as wide and warm as Fred’s personality.
