This motion-capture animated adaptation is a real Christmas cracker.
Comment
11/05/09
Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009)
46
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:28
Fresh:13
Rotten:15
Average Rating:5.7/10
Consensus: Robert Zemeckis' 3-D animated take on the Dickens classic tries hard, but its dazzling special effects distract from an array of fine performances from Jim Carrey and Gary Oldman.
Genre: Childrens
US Box Office: $79,836,002
Synopsis: Director Robert Zemeckis (THE POLAR EXPRESS) continues to work his holiday magic with A CHRISTMAS CAROL. This 3-D adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic will use the motion capture technology... [More]
Starring: Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Reviews for Disney's A Christmas Carol
1 - 16 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Top CriticEnough elements of Dickens's story remain for a viewer to be refreshed by Scrooge's change of heart, and to be moved by his rediscovery of the Christmas spirit that climaxes the story.
11/05/09
Top CriticAgainst the odds, this Disney version, written and directed by Robert Zemeckis, could be the best adaptation to date of the story.
11/04/09
Top CriticEven as [Zemeckis] uses the 3D process to turn A Christmas Carol into a rollercoaster ride through a solidly built fantasy world, he never forgets that at bottom the tale is an awful warning about how egoism and greed can destroy your humanity.
11/04/09
Top CriticThere are nightmarish images, ghostly themes and a feeling that it might be a bit much for kids, but it's a touching film with visuals that will blow your mind. It's a trip.
11/03/09
Top CriticConceptually brilliant with mind-blowing special effects, but who is the intended audience of this visual extravaganza? Certainly not children: the content is far too dark with haunting imagery that could provoke nightmares for impressionable youngsters
11/02/09
Top CriticA branded piece of shiny seasonal entertainment.
11/06/09
Top CriticA Christmas Carol should be as cosy and familiar as piping-hot tea and buttered, toasted crumpets, not a brain-battering sensory assault that feels like downing tequila shots on a rollercoaster.
11/06/09
Top CriticThere is a weird lack of passion here, almost condescension, a sense that Scrooge's agonised moral journey into his past is potentially pretty dull, and so Zemeckis is always livening things up by whooshing the old miser excitingly through the night sky.
11/06/09
Top CriticIt's a heartwarmer that doesn't have much of a heart itself.
11/06/09
Top CriticTo put it bluntly, if Scroogely, Disney's 3-D animated version of A Christmas Carol is a calamity.
11/05/09
Top CriticBy the time A Christmas Carol finishes piling its many shiny presents with their many bells and whistles under the tree, there's no room left for tears for Tiny Tim. Bah humbug indeed.
11/05/09
Top CriticA re-telling should either present a resonant or fresh thematic take. This Christmas Carol seems like a pale ghost of Dickens' magical Christmas classic.
11/05/09
Top CriticThe story that Dickens wrote in 1838 remains timeless, and if it's supercharged here with Scrooge swooping the London streets as freely as Superman, well, once you let ghosts into a movie, there's room for anything.
11/05/09
Top CriticZemeckis' motion-capture animated features continue to be odd presents, offering undeniable technical skill with a host of other obstacles hindering total enjoyment.
11/03/09
Top CriticShortchanging traditional animation by literalizing it while robbing actors of their full range of facial expressiveness, the performance-capture technique favored by director Robert Zemeckis looks more than ever like the emperor's new clothes.
11/03/09
Top Critic1 - 16 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Latest News for Disney's A Christmas Carol
November 17, 2009:
Disney's Christmas Wishes Coming True 
Robert Zemeckis' "A Christmas Carol" has divided critics, but Disney was hoping for a holiday movie with long theatrical legs -- and so far, the studio couldn't be happier. More...
November 08, 2009:
Box Office Guru Wrapup: Christmas Carol Tops, Precious Rocks
This weekend Moviegoers powered Jim Carrey's holiday kidpic A Christmas Carol to a number one opening but some fans remained stingy preventing the Disney 3D toon from meeting... More...
November 05, 2009:
Critics Consensus: A Christmas Carol Dazzles But Disappoints
This week at the movies, we've got some modern-day Dickens (Disney's A Christmas Carol, starring Jim Carrey and Gary Oldman); a button-pushing thriller (The Box, starring... More...
November 04, 2009:
Ho-ho-horror! 10 Scary Christmas Movies
This week's eerie mo-cap rendering of the ghostly, dark Dickens morality tale 'A Christmas Carol' from director Robert Zemeckis is far from being the only yuletide movie where... More...
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