It’s reassuring to see that with all the technical dazzle on display in the new Robert Zemeckis adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” the most prominent special effect is still Jim Carrey.
Carrey plays not only Ebenezer Scrooge but also the three ghosts visiting Scrooge on Christmas Eve, who so doomily foretell the miserable miser’s fate.
To say that Carrey “plays” the roles requires explanation, since this movie comes to us in Zemeckis’ cherished “motion capture” animation: Actors give full videotaped performances before a green screen, which are then are digitally animated.
Zemeckis’ first swing at this, the 2004 “Polar Express,” was creepy in the way it blended realistic human performance with animation. But “Beowulf” was a huge leap forward, and still the most dazzling use of 3D I’ve seen.
“A Christmas Carol,” also presented in 3D, is quite seamless. And in most cases the characters are just exaggerated enough — in a fittingly Dickensian way — that they register someplace between cartoon and reality.
Zemeckis and Carrey play the story without lampoonery, even if a few action sequences have been added to keep the kids awake. In one sequence Scrooge is blasted halfway to the moon, in another he’s shrunk down to rat size.
I can hear purists crying that Zemeckis has sold out the original, but consider that the story already offers ghosts and otherworldly visions aplenty. What’s so inappropriate about a trip to the moon?
Partly the movie exists to tell the Dickens tale, but also to let Zemeckis unpack his playbox. Scrooge’s encounter with the Ghost of Christmas Past, for instance, is presented mostly as a single unbroken take, the camera swooping across treetops and across time to depict the childhood of young Ebenezer.
When the chortling Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge how others see him, the floor of Scrooge’s house becomes transparent as it flies over town — a marvelous imaginative stunt.
After all this buildup, the rosy-cheeked redemption at the end is somewhat overshadowed. Zemeckis makes the scary stuff scarier than it’s ever been in a “Christmas Carol” movie, but he doesn’t quite nail the reversal.
Carrey’s terrific, to the extent that he’s in the movie. His ingenious vocal performances suit the different characters and you can see his physical work peeking out from beneath the computer drawings.
Gary Oldman plays both Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim, and Colin Firth (a little too recognizable as himself) plays Scrooge’s nephew.
By the way, the official title of this movie is “Disney’s A Christmas Carol,” in which the studio has bumped Dickens from his proprietary spot.
All right, now the purists really do have something to complain about.
“A Christmas Carol”
A frequently dazzling telling of the Dickens tale, in which Jim Carrey plays not only that miserable miser Scrooge but also the three ghosts who visit him one Christmas Eve. It’s rendered in “motion capture” animation. Luckily, the ingenuity of Carrey’s performances still shine through.
Rated: PG for subject matter
Showing: Alderwood Mall, Edmonds, Everett, Galaxy Monroe, Marysville, Olympic, Stanwood, Meridian, Neptune, Thorton Place, Woodinville, Cascade Mall, Oak Harbor
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