{"id":2642,"date":"2009-11-10T10:57:02","date_gmt":"2009-11-10T16:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flovalleynews.com\/?p=2642"},"modified":"2009-11-10T10:57:02","modified_gmt":"2009-11-10T16:57:02","slug":"movie-review-a-christmas-carol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=2642","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review: A Christmas Carol"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scrooge Brought Back\u00a0With Latest Technology<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Maggie Scott<\/strong><\/p>\n

Walt Disney Pictures and director Robert Zemeckis have blessed us everyone with a new film version of the timeless Charles Dickens\u2019 literary classic, A Christmas Carol<\/em>.\u00a0 But, it\u2019s a mixed blessing.<\/p>\n

As a universally relevant and richly adaptive story of human redemption, the work has been set in eras and places other than 19th<\/sup> century London and seen its hero, Ebenezer Scrooge, in many different guises. In today\u2019s highly-charged climate of displeasure with the financial sector of our country, the story might have been set this time on Wall Street to great effect.<\/p>\n

But, writer Zemeckis has chosen to stay faithful in his script adaptation of the novel to how Dickens told Scrooge\u2019s story in words, character and setting; and, instead, has turned to two cinematic technologies-\u2014one new, one old\u2014to offer a newfangled way in which Scrooge and his world appear to the moviegoer.<\/p>\n

Zemeckis has had a long-standing interest in new technology and been willing to risk featuring it as an element of his story telling—not always to critical approval—in such films as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Death Becomes Her, <\/em>the Back to the Future <\/em>trilogy and Forrest Gump<\/em>.\u00a0 Here, he combines the new process, \u201cperformance capture\u201d (formerly known as \u201cmotion capture\u201d), and the old process, 3-D.<\/p>\n

Recent films like Polar Express<\/em> and Beowulf<\/em> have featured performance capture; and the 3-D format seems to be everywhere these days, particularly in children\u2019s films.\u00a0 Unfortunately, England\u2019s own answer to the Grinch fares both ill and well in his new CGI permutation.<\/p>\n

Jim Carrey is an inspired choice to portray Scrooge, and his performance \u201ccapture\u201d is intensely engaging, with no lapses into out-of-character, joshing twitches.\u00a0 The opening scenes of Scrooge at a coffin maker\u2019s disposing of the body of his partner, Jacob Marley, are especially compelling; fixing this rendition of Scrooge as one to be reckoned with.\u00a0 This proves to be the up and down side of the movie.<\/p>\n

While there is thrilling satisfaction to engage once more with this miser in his mixed world of Yuletide merriment and dark need, there is a sense of short shrift to those characters and events that are a crucial element of telling Scrooge\u2019s story\u2014from his detachment from basic human decency and charity in his \u201chonest pursuit of substance\u201d to his Christmas Eve redemption.<\/p>\n

The tyranny of 3-D will occasionally manipulate Scrooge into actions and situations irrelevant and untrue to both the form and substance of Dickens\u2019 work. Also the\u00a0 performance capture format has the unfortunate effect of rendering most of the supporting characters\u2019 faces, particularly the eyes, into something approaching the soullessness of a zombie.<\/p>\n

More care is taken with Carrey\u2019s eyes; and Scrooge is more or less consistently vivid, whether harassing his long-suffering clerk, Bob Cratchit (Gary Oldman), scattering cheery carolers off snow-crusted sidewalks, or confronting in bewildered dread, defiance and dismay his spectral, this-is-your-life-and-death guides.<\/p>\n

Disney can rest assured that this screen version of Dickens\u2019 masterpiece will claim its rightful place among cherished traditions of Christmases past, present and future.\u00a0 Rated PG for scary sequences and images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scrooge Brought Back\u00a0With Latest Technology By Maggie Scott Walt Disney Pictures and director Robert Zemeckis have blessed us everyone with a new film version of the timeless Charles Dickens\u2019 literary classic, A Christmas Carol.\u00a0 But, it\u2019s a mixed blessing. As a universally relevant and richly adaptive story of human redemption, the work has been set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nMovie Review: A Christmas Carol - flovalleynews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=2642\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Movie Review: A Christmas Carol - flovalleynews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scrooge Brought Back\u00a0With Latest Technology By Maggie Scott Walt Disney Pictures and director Robert Zemeckis have blessed us everyone with a new film version of the timeless Charles Dickens\u2019 literary classic, A Christmas Carol.\u00a0 But, it\u2019s a mixed blessing. 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