The movie may be yet another retelling of an iconic story, but visually it is often quite breathtaking.
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11/06/09
Disney's A Christmas Carol (2009)
55
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Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:169
Fresh:93
Rotten:76
Average Rating:5.9/10
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: $124,426,097
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
61 - 80 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Zemeckis captures all the story’s terror, but its pathos has always been the real challenge, and it mostly eludes him.
11/06/09
You don’t identify with Scrooge at any point, nor is blatant fakery scary. Picture The Seventh Seal with sock puppets.
11/06/09
A branded piece of shiny seasonal entertainment.
11/06/09
Top CriticRobert Zemeckis turns the classic Dickens tale into a 3D performance-capture spectacle, abetted by the versatility of Jim Carrey as skinflint Scrooge and his ghostly visitors.
11/06/09
Succeeds in delivering a respectful--if not always magical--interpretation of Dickens' famous tale.
11/06/09
all science and little sentiment
11/06/09
It feels like Zemeckis wanted to make one movie (a socially relevant ghost story) and Disney wanted another (a Polar Express-type movie). It doesn't work.
11/06/09
The good news about A Christmas Carol, then, is that Dickens' story -- the pure power of it, the grace and gentleness, the sensibility and sentiment of it -- cannot be drowned or destroyed no matter how many technicians and dollars are thrown at it.
11/06/09
A splendidly mounted and visually imaginative animated 3D version of the classic novel.
11/06/09
For the most part, Zemeckis delivers a faithful interpretation of Dickens' work in this PG-rated holiday tale. What he misses out on capturing is the spirit of Dickens' story.
11/06/09
...a remarkable and effective adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel that manages to overcome the familiarity of its source material and become something more fulfilling.
11/06/09
this is not the Scrooge McDuck or Mr. Magoo version of the classic Charles Dickens tale, this A Christmas Carol is the dark, challenging and frightening version of the story
11/06/09
Cinematographer Robert Presley and the design team provide many instances of graphical triumph, influenced by silent cinema.
11/06/09
As for this 'performance capture,' rife with characters sporting the annoying wandering eye, it might be time for an intervention, ghostly or not. You're a filmmaker, Mr. Z, not a puppeteer. Enough is enough.
11/06/09
This Hollywood adaptation is as glossy as Christmas wrapping paper and just as disposable.
11/06/09
A 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 CriticZemeckis has succeeded is transforming a staid and over-familiar story into a rip-roaring and viscerally powerful special effects chase-movie.
11/06/09
The whizzing pyrotechnics aren't quite enough to make this a Christmas classic.
11/06/09
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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