| A Christmas Carol | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Robert Zemeckis |
| Screenplay by | Robert Zemeckis |
| Based on | A Christmas Carol byCharles Dickens |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Robert Presley |
| Edited by | Jeremiah O'Driscoll |
| Music by | Alan Silvestri |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 96 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $175–200 million[2][3] |
| Box office | $325.3 million[4] |
A Christmas Carol (also known asDisney's A Christmas Carol) is a 2009 American animatedChristmasfantasy film based on the 1843 novelof the same name byCharles Dickens. The film was directed, written, and co-produced byRobert Zemeckis, and stars a motion-captured and voice cast that includesJim Carrey,Gary Oldman,Colin Firth,Bob Hoskins,Robin Wright Penn,Cary Elwes andFionnula Flanagan. Produced byWalt Disney Pictures andImageMovers Digital, and released byWalt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is Disney'sthird adaptation of the novel, followingMickey's Christmas Carol (1983) andThe Muppet Christmas Carol (1992).
The film was animated through the process ofmotion-capture, a technique used in ImageMovers' previous animated films includingThe Polar Express (2004),Monster House (2006), andBeowulf (2007). Like the previous films Zemeckis has directed,Alan Silvestri returned to compose the score.A Christmas Carol was the first film produced by ImageMovers Digital, and also was, along withMars Needs Moms (2011), the only ImageMovers Digital projects made, before the studio was shut down by The Walt Disney Company for unsatisfactory box office results.[5]
A Christmas Carol had its world premiere in London on November 3, 2009, which coincided with the switching-on of the annualOxford Street andRegent Street Christmas lights;[6][7] it was later released inDisney Digital 3D,RealD 3D, andIMAX 3D formats in the United States on November 6.[8] It grossed $325.3 million worldwide against a $175–200 million production budget, and received mixed reviews from critics, who criticized its dark tone and script, but praised its visuals, Silvestri's score, and the performances of Carrey and Oldman. Neverthless, the film was nominated for Favorite Animated Movie and Carrey won Favorite Voice From an Animated Movie at the2010 Kids' Choice Awards.
On Christmas Eve of 1836,Ebenezer Scrooge's best friend and business partnerJacob Marley dies.
Seven years later he becomes a surly businessman living inVictorianLondon who refuses to partake in the merriment of Christmas. OnChristmas Eve in 1843, he declines an invitation to his nephew Fred'sChristmas dinner, harshly dismisses two gentlemen who are collecting donations for the poor, and only reluctantly allows his employeeBob Cratchit to have Christmas Day off. That night, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of Jacob, who is bound in chains. He informs Scrooge that three spirits will visit him over the course of three nights, and he must heed their warnings or suffer a similar fate to his.
At one o'clock, Scrooge is visited by theGhost of Christmas Past, who shows him visions of his early life, such as his lonely days inboarding school, his relationship with his younger sister Fan, and his time as an apprentice under the benevolentMr. Fezziwig. The young Scrooge met a young woman named Belle, with whom he fell in love, but his focus on accruing wealth drove them apart. Overwhelmed, Scrooge extinguishes the Ghost's flame and returns home.
Scrooge next meets the merryGhost of Christmas Present, who shows how others find joy on Christmas Day. Scrooge and the Ghost visit Bob's house and he learns his family is content with their small dinner and meagre home. Scrooge takes pity on Bob's ill sonTiny Tim, whom the Ghost reveals might not survive until next Christmas. They next visit Fred's house, where Fred insists the guests raise a toast to Scrooge in spite of his stinginess. Before the Ghost dies, he shows Scrooge the evils of "Ignorance" and "Want".
TheGhost of Christmas Yet to Come appears to Scrooge and shows him a hypothetical future where people respond to an unknown man's death with apathy and even satisfaction. Faced with the man's covered body, Scrooge asks to see tenderness associated with death, and the Ghost shows him the Cratchit family mourning the death of Tiny Tim. Finally, the Ghost takes Scrooge to a cemetery and points out a tombstone bearing Scrooge's name, confirming that he is the dead man; the stone further indicates that his death will fall on Christmas Day of an undisclosed and possibly imminent year. Horrified, Scrooge vows to change his ways before finding himself back in his bedroom.
Discovering it is Christmas Day, a gleeful Scrooge begins spreading happiness and joy around London, anonymously sending the Cratchits a turkey, providing charity to one of the gentlemen, and attending Fred's Christmas dinner. The next day, Scrooge raises Bob's salary and pledges his support for the Cratchits. Scrooge becomes a father figure to Tiny Tim, who overcomes his ailments and is restored to health, treating everyone with kindness, generosity, and compassion, thus embodying the Christmas spirit.
After makingThe Polar Express (2004),Robert Zemeckis stated that he "fell in love with digital theater" and tried finding an avenue to use the format again.[9] He eventually decided that an adaptation ofCharles Dickens'sA Christmas Carol would be an opportunity to achieve this.[9] Upon rereading the story, he realized that "the story has never been realized in a way that it was actually imagined by Charles Dickens as he wrote it," as well as that "it's as if he wrote this story to be a movie because it's so visual and so cinematic."[9] Zemeckis has stated previously thatA Christmas Carol is one of his favorite stories dealing withtime travel.[10]Jim Carrey, who playedEbenezer Scrooge and each of the three spirits, has described the film as "a classical version ofA Christmas Carol [...] There are a lot of vocal things, a lot of physical things, I have to do. Not to mention doing the accents properly, the English, Irish accents [...] I want it to fly in the UK. I want it to be good and I want them to go, 'Yeah, that's for real.' We were very true to the book. It's beautiful. It's an incredible film."[11]
The Walt Disney Company partnered withAmtrak to promote the film with a special nationwide exhibition train tour, starting at Los Angeles in May 2009 and visiting 40 cities, finishing inNew York City in November.[12][13]
The film's music was composed, orchestrated and conducted byAlan Silvestri and performed by theHollywood Studio Symphony. The film's music was also orchestrated byWilliam Ross,Conrad Pope and John Ashton Thomas and performed byLondon Voices andThe Hollywood Studio Symphony.[14] Much of the film's music was based on traditional Christmas carols such as "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen", "Deck the Halls", "O Come, All Ye Faithful", "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and "Joy to the World". The film's theme song, titled "God Bless Us Everyone", was written byGlen Ballard and Alan Silverstri and performed by Italian classical crossover tenorAndrea Bocelli. The film's soundtrack album was recorded in 2009 at The Newman Scoring Stage inLos Angeles, California. The film's soundtrack album was also released on 3 November 2009 byWalt Disney Records.
"Present" byJUJU is the theme song for the Japanese version.[15]
A Christmas Carol opened in London on November 3, 2009, and was theatrically released on November 6, 2009, in the United States byWalt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the film on November 16, 2010[16] in a single-discDVD, two-disc2DBlu-ray/DVD combo and in a four-disc combo pack that includes aBlu-ray 3D, a regular Blu-ray, a DVD and adigital copy. This marked the first time that a film was available in Blu-ray 3D the same day as a standard Blu-ray,[citation needed] as well as Disney's first in the Blu-ray 3D market along withAlice in Wonderland (2010).[17] The DVD containsdeleted scenes and two featurettes called "On Set withSammi" and "CapturingA Christmas Carol". The Blu-ray also has a "Digital Advent Calendar" and the featurette "Behind the Carol: The Full Motion-Capture Experience". The Blu-ray 3D has an exclusive 3D game called "Mr. Scrooge's Wild Ride".
The film grossed $69 million in home sales.[18]
A Christmas Carol grossed $137.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $187.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $325.3 million.[3] Due to its high production and marketing costs, the film lost the studio an estimated $50–100 million, and forced Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group and the head of worldwide marketing, to resign.[19]
The film opened at #1 in 3,683 theaters, grossing $30.1 million its opening weekend, with an average of $8,159 per theater.[20]
In the United Kingdom,A Christmas Carol topped the box office on two occasions; the first was when it opened, the second was five weeks later when it leapfrogged box office chart toppers2012,The Twilight Saga: New Moon andParanormal Activity despite family competition fromNativity!, another Christmas-themed film.
Onreview aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, 52% of 199 critics have given the film a positive review with an average rating of 6/10. The site's critical consensus read, "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 andGary Oldman."[21] OnMetacritic, another aggregator, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[22] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[23]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four, calling it "an exhilarating visual experience".[24]Owen Gleiberman ofEntertainment Weekly gave the film an A, applauding the film as "a marvelous and touching yuletide toy of a movie".[25] Joe Neumaier of theNew York Daily News gave the film 3/5 stars and stated the film "is well-crafted but artless, detailed but lacking soul".[26] Mary Elizabeth Williams ofSalon.com gave the film a mixed review claiming the movie "is a triumph of something—but it's certainly not the Christmas spirit."[27] Joe Morgenstern ofThe Wall Street Journal wrote in his review that the film's "tone is joyless, despite an extended passage of bizarre laughter, several dazzling flights of digital fancy, a succession of striking images and Jim Carrey's voicing of Scrooge plus half a dozen other roles."[28]The Daily Telegraph reviewer Tim Robey wrote, "How much is gained by the half-real visual style for this story is open to question—the early scenes are laborious and never quite alive, and the explosion of jollity at the end lacks the virtue of being funny."[29] Peter Bradshaw inThe Guardian also criticized the technology: "The hi-tech sheen is impressive but in an unexciting way. I wanted to see real human faces convey real human emotions."[30]Time Out London praised the film for sticking to Dickens' original dialogue but also questioned the technology by saying, "To an extent, this 'Christmas Carol' is a case of style—and stylisation—overwhelming substance."[31]
In 2019, Robert Keeling ofDen of Geek praised the animation.[32] He felt Scrooge’s encounter with the final ghost to be “a bit tedious, as it soon becomes an elaborate chase scene purely designed to show off the 3D” but called the film “an enjoyable and memorable version.”[32]
| Award | Category | Recipients | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 Kids' Choice Awards | Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie | Jim Carrey | Won |
| Favorite Animated Movie | A Christmas Carol | Nominated | |
| 36th Saturn Awards | Best Animated Feature | Nominated |
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