3-D animated 'Christmas Carol' scary, not in a good way
Tiny Tim looks like one of the malevolent young aliens from "Village of the Damned."
Bob Cratchit looks like one of the innocent bystanders you accidentally shoot during a Wii action video game. So does Scrooge's nephew Fred.
The characters in Robert Zemeckis' 3-D animated adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic story "A Christmas Carol" still possess the strange and creepy qualities that haunted the cast of Zemeckis' 2004 holiday hit "The Polar Express."
Mostly, it's the characters' lifeless, unfocusing eyes that Zemeckis' motion-capture computer animators haven't been able to humanize.
Not yet.
And that small detail becomes extremely important in a movie where your heart is supposed to swell when Tiny Tim exclaims, "God bless us, everyone!" and not appear as if he might chow down on Scrooge's ear.
Jim Carrey, who has made a career out of performing live-action cartoons, supplies a radically un-Carrey sound to Scrooge, whose raspy voice recalls Alastair Sim, who immortalized the role in the 1951 classic "Scrooge."
Carrey voices the younger versions of his main character, as well as the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future.
(The Ghost of Christmas Present's joyous laughter sounds forced and slightly maniacal, as if Carrey had recorded it so many times, he grew tired of the fake joviality.)
Gary Oldman (Sirius Black to "Harry Potter" fans) provides voices to meek Bob Cratchit, cute Tiny Tim and Scrooge's dead pal Marley.
Colin Firth lends his unmistakable voice to Scrooge's nice nephew Fred, with Robin Wright Penn voicing both Scrooge's sister Fan and his romantic interest, Belle. Kindly Mr. Fezziwig receives Bob Hoskins' irrepressible personality.
Zemeckis exploits his 3-D animation strengths to the max, although I have two reservations about the last half of "A Christmas Carol."
First is how Zemeckis gives in to the temptation of cranking up the action for the kids.
During his encounter with the shadowy Ghost of Christmas Future, Scrooge shrinks to the size of a mouse and embarks on a crazy, lengthy chase sequence right out of "The Goonies." (Yep, Scrooge even takes a Disney World water slide ride.)
Second is how Zemeckis depicts the aged Scrooge as extremely flexible, resilient and bouncy, almost like a Saturday morning cartoon character as he outruns a scary coach drawn by demon horses, rolls down cement steps and falls down without apparent repercussions.
This not only violates Scrooge's elderly character, it undermines his joyful transformation at the end when he's supposed to be "as light as a feather" and dance around in blissful rebirth.
Still, "A Christmas Carol" possesses many inventive elements to be recommended.
Zemeckis has embellished his adaptation of Dickens with spectacular, detailed and textured visuals freed from the physical laws that prevent regular movie cameras from performing the daring aerial feats we see here.
The camera rockets through the air, skimming over soot-covered London buildings, sweeping past people, diving into grimy crevices, then shooting through wreaths and tiny holes with breathtaking speed.
Zemeckis also handles the three ghosts with some real imagination.
Scrooge and the candle-like Past become virtual ghosts to the people who cannot see them. But with the Present, Scrooge's floor becomes a magic, flying window into the households around them.
Then, with the specter-like Future, Scrooge shrinks down so tiny he becomes a virtual fly on the wall to hear news of his own death.
But not by a psychotic Tiny Tim with dead eyes.
<p class=factboxtext12col>★★½ </p> <p class=factboxtext12col><b>Starring:</b> Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Robin Wright Penn, Colin Firth</p> <p class=factboxtext12col><b>Directed by:</b> Robert Zemeckis</p> <p class=factboxtext12col><b>Other:</b> A Walt Disney release. Rated PG. 96 minutes</p>