Moon Minis - A Christmas Carol (2009)


Dark, plodding retelling of the classic Dickens story in 3D animation. Robert Zemeckis is on top of his game here as well, surpassing The Polar Express in my eyes in both story and direction. The film tackles the story's themes with spot-on depth and affection, even utilizing Victorian speech to tell the tale.

A Christmas Carol captures the terrors of the novel perhaps better than any other adaptation so far. Full of visceral images and spooky ghosts, the movie may not cater well toward the children - they may find the animations a bit too scary and the dialogue difficult to understand - but it hits heavy in the hearts of adults. It may be a bit slow-paced, but that is made up for in the sleek animation, stylized 3D imagery, and sheer terrifying ferocity of some of the ghosts. The film is almost like a ride, a scary one at that. Also, one will find a less comedic side in Jim Carrey, and surprisingly less dialogue.

A Christmas Carol lends itself well to animation, where the dreamlike sequences can be rendered in childish style until the film's bleakness in the middle comes to bite at us with its sharp story. Allow yourself to be sucked into the world of the film and you'll find yourself absorbed with Scrooge's nightmares, terrified as if you were a child and didn't know about the real horrors of what it's like to have money - or lack it.