Christmas Marathon: Disney’s A Christmas Carol (2009)

DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2009)

Directed: Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future trilogy, Polar Express, Cast Away)

Voices by: Jim Carrey, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Robin Wright

Based on the classic A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Robert Zemeckis both write and directs this full-length animation.  The story is about a man called Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey) who is very uptight about his money and doesn’t care about the people around him, much less the ones who he sees regularly like his employee, Bob Cratchit (Gary Oldman) or his nephew, Fred (Colin Firth).  On Christmas eve, he goes home and is visited by his former deceased business partner, Jacob Marley (Gary Oldman) burdened with heavy chains.  He tells him that these were from all that he had done while he was alive and that he would be visited by three ghosts: Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Christmas Present, and Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (all voiced by Jim Carrey).  These ghosts bring him to visit memories and visions that he has chosen to ignore and made him realize all his wants had lead him to his ignorance.

The first thing that pulled me to this movie was the idea that Jim Carrey does 7 different voices.  Four are from different stages in Scrooge’s  life: Young boy, Teenage, Middle Age and finally the one we see, as an elderly stingy man.  He also does the voices of the three ghosts.  Jim Carrey and his voice was what drew me to him originally when I first saw him in The Mask.  He does a decent job in that area for this movie.  I have no problem with it.  The voice work was pretty good actually.  I like Colin Firth a lot and his distinct voice was quite himself as Fred.  Gary Oldman did a great job with this one also.  I’ve never heard him doing voices in an animation.

The second aspect of this movie is that I truly love the story and it looked to be really visually stunning.  It did turn out to be quite detailed.  My boyfriend commented about the detail of the reactions and expressions.  The experience was definitely geared towards being seen in 3D, however, I have a normal Blu-ray so it had to do.  It seem had exciting moments.

However, this flick is probably not primarily geared towards young children.  It had a lot of spooky moments near the end.  Although they do try to balance it out with a lot of funny moments to lighten the mood up.  I’m do enjoy this movie a lot.  Its not my absolutely favorite but whats Christmas without a little bit of Christmas carol, right?

There is a CRAZY amount of Christmas Carol adaptations both in animations, or themed like Disney’s, for example, and in real life. Which ones have you seen? Are there some you enjoy more than the others? I heard Muppet’s Christmas Carol is pretty good also.

Christmas Marathon: Disney Classic Holiday Stories

This is a Disney compilation of 3 short Christmas movies: The Small One, Pluto’s Christmas Tree and Mickey’s Christmas Carol.  Its one of my absolute favorite in all my collection because one of my favorite Christmas animation from ever since I was a child is Mickey’s Christmas Carol.

First Feature: The Small One (1978)

Its about a little boy who is forced to give up his donkey who can no longer be supported by his family.  He ends up spending the day in town searching for a person to buy his donkey and will take care of it as well as he has in the past.

Its a nice, short and cute feature.  Its extremely heartwarming and part of me always gets addicted to the song.  My boyfriend has the same problem because he’ll spend the rest of the night (and the day after sometimes) singing, “Small one, small one, small one for sale…” Its very enjoyable and if you haven’t seen it, you definitely should.  Small One (the name of the donkey) does find the perfect home.

Second Feature: Pluto’s Christmas Tree (1952)

This one features Mickey and Pluto who goes out to chop down a tree to bring home to turn into their Christmas tree.  They accidentally end up bringing up Chip ‘n Dale who start exploring their new environment and when Pluto finds out, he starts trying to catch them.

As usual with more Mickey short animations, we get a lot of fun and lighthearted moments.  Its perfect for the Christmas season and a few laughs of Pluto chasing down Chip ‘n Dale.

Third Feature: Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983)

This is adapted from Christmas Carol, the classic by Charles Dickens but with Mickey and other characters from assorted Disney animations.  We meet Ebenezer Scrooge who now runs a business alone since his partner, Bob Marley died a few years ago.  Scrooge is very careful and stingy with his money.  He treats everyone badly and always wants to use them to their max, especially with Bob Cratchett who is his employee.  On Christmas eve, he goes home and is surprised to be visited by Bob Marley, now a ghost carrying chains, who is there to warn him that he has sinned and will carry heavier chains than he is now unless he makes amends.  He tells him that 3 ghosts will visit him at night and then goes away.  We see Scrooge embark on his revelation as he meets with the Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Christmas Present and Ghost of Christmas Future.

This is my most favorite feature of all.  I have no idea why I like it so much.  Maybe its because its with Disney characters so it adds a little funny and cute mood to it, less dramatic perhaps.  Maybe its the actual A Christmas Carol story that I truly enjoy.  It could even be the message that I enjoy a lot, how money isn’t all that important but rather Christmas is about the season to care about others like your family and your friends.  To remember that a simple gesture is better than none.  A lot of wonderful messages that sometimes a lot of people forget and need to be reminded.

So everyone, this always makes me happy to watch it and this morning, it was my version of morning cartoons.  Its a pretty awesome feeling.  Fun, lighthearted, heartwarming…all feelings that really positive.

Have you ever seen any of these features? Do you like them? Maybe you like the actual human versions of A Christmas Carol more?