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A Christmas Carol (2009 film)
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Wikipedia article
'A Christmas Carol', is a 2009 American computer-animated Christmas film written and directed by Robert Zemeckis. It is based on Charles Dickens's 1843 novel of the same name and stars the voices of Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, Robin Wright Penn and Cary Elwes. The film was CGI-animated through the process of motion-capture, a technique used in Zemeckis's previous films 'The Polar Express' (2004) and 'Beowulf' (2007). It is Disney's third adaptation of the classic story, following 'Mickey's Christmas Carol' (1983) and 'The Muppet Christmas Carol' (1992), and one of only two films produced by .
'A Christmas Carol' was officially released in Disney Digital 3D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D on November 6, 2009 by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Its world premiere in London
Plot
On Christmas Eve 1843, in London, miserly business man Ebenezer Scrooge refuses to partake in the merriment of Christmas, declining his cheerful nephew Fred's invitation to an annual Christmas dinner party and rejecting two gentlemen's offer to donate money to charity. His employee Bob Cratchit asks Scrooge to give him a day off on Christmas Day to spend time with his family, to which Scrooge reluctantly agrees. Returning home that night, Scrooge encounters the ghost of Jacob Marley, his business partner who died seven years earlier, bound in heavy chains. Marley warns Scrooge to change his wicked ways or be condemned to a worse fate. Before leaving, Marley informs Scrooge that he will be haunted by three spirits over three nights.
Scrooge is visited by the uncanny Ghost of Christmas Past, who takes him back in time and makes him relive his lonely childhood in a boarding school. The spirit then shows his beloved younger sister Fan, Fred's future mother, and how he became an employee under Fezziwig, and became engaged to a woman named Belle. However, the Ghost shows Scrooge how Belle left him when he became obsessed with wealth. A devastated Scrooge extinguishes the spirit with his candle snuffer cap and is rocketed back to his house.
Scrooge meets the jolly Ghost of Christmas Present, who shows him the joys of Christmas. Scrooge and the Ghost visit Bob's house, learning that his family is content with their small dinner, and Scrooge starts to take pity on Bob's ill son Tiny Tim, whom the Ghost comments will likely not survive until next Christmas. The Ghost slowly begins to age as they next visit Fred's Christmas party, where Fred insists that they raise a toast to Scrooge in spite of his cold demeanor. Arriving in Big Ben, the Ghost warns Scrooge the evils of "Ignorance" and "Want" before dying when Big Ben begins tolling midnight: "Ignorance" and "Want" manifest themselves before Scrooge as two wretched children who grow into violent, insane individuals, leaving the spirit withering away.
The reaper-esque host of Christmas Future or Yet to Come arrives, appearing as a dark shadow, and takes Scrooge into the future. He witnesses a group of businessmen discussing an unnamed colleague's death, saying they would only attend the funeral if lunch is provided. After being chased across London by the Ghost, Scrooge recognizes his charwoman Mrs. Dilber selling the stolen possessions of the deceased. Shortly after, Scrooge sees the aforementioned colleague's body on a bed, but is too anxious to see his identity. Scrooge asks to see emotion connected to the death, and is shown a family who is relieved that he is dead, as they now have more time to pay off their debt. When Scrooge asks to see tenderness connected to death, he is shown the Cratchit family mourning Tiny Tims death. Scrooge is then escorted to a cemetery, where the Ghost points out the mans neglected grave, revealing Scrooge as the man who died. Scrooge promises to change his ways as the Ghost causes him to fall into his empty coffin above Hell, but before he strikes the coffin, he finds himself back in his own room.
Learning it is Christmas Day, a gleeful Scrooge anonymously sends Bob's family with a turkey dinner, and ventures out with the charity workers and the citizens of London to spread cheer in the city, and later attends Fred's Christmas dinner, where he is warmly welcomed. The following day, he gives Cratchit a raise. Cratchit addresses the audience how Scrooge became a father figure to Tiny Tim, who escapes death, and that Scrooge now treats everyone with kindness, generosity, and compassion, thus embodying the spirit of Christmas.
Cast
* Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge, a stingy, grouchy, and selfish old man whose sheer miserly nature leads him to despise Christmas and all things which engender happiness.
** Carrey also portrays other roles in the film including:
*** Ghost of Christmas Past, the first spirit to visit Scrooge. He is depicted as an androgynous man with a flickering flame for a head and a body like a candle. He speaks with an Irish accent.
*** Ghost of Christmas Present, the second spirit to visit Scrooge. He is depicted as a towering man with red hair, a full beard, and a green ermine robe. He is a jolly figure prone to hearty laughter and speaks with a Yorkshire accent.
*** Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, the third spirit to visit Scrooge. He is depicted as an ominous shadow of a figure in a large black hooded cloak. He is silent throughout the film with Carrey acting as the performance model for the character.
* Gary Oldman as:
**Bob Cratchit, Scrooge's cheerful assistant and underpaid clerk.
**Jacob Marley, the ghost of Scrooge's former business partner who is bound in chains.
**Oldman also provides the motion capture for Tiny Tim, Cratchit's youngest son.
*** Sage Ryan provides the uncredited motion-capture performance of Tiny Tim.
***Ryan Ochoa provides the uncredited voice of Tiny Tim.
* Colin Firth as Fred, Scrooge's cheerful nephew and only living relative. He is the son of Scrooge's younger sister Fan.
* Bob Hoskins as Mr. Nigel Fezziwig, the proprietor of a warehouse business for whom Scrooge worked as a young apprentice.
** Hoskins also portrays Old Joe, a fence who buys the belongings of the deceased Scrooge from Mrs. Jill Dilber.
* Robin Wright Penn as:
**Fan, Scrooge's beloved younger sister who has since died.
**Belle, Scrooge's neglected fiance.
* Cary Elwes as Portly Gentleman #1/Dick Wilkins/Mad Fiddler/Guest #2/Business Man #1
**Elwes would also act as a stand-in for Scrooge or the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present in scenes where these characters appear together, as all were portrayed by Jim Carrey.
* Fionnula Flanagan as Mrs. Jill Dilber, Scrooge's charwoman.
* Steve Valentine as Funerary Undertaker/Topper
* Daryl Sabara as Undertaker's Apprentice/Tattered Caroler #1/Beggar Boy #1/Peter Cratchit/Well-Dressed Caroler #1
* Sage Ryan as Tattered Caroler #2
* Amber Gainey Meade as Tattered Caroler #3/ Well-Dressed Caroler #2
* Ryan Ochoa as Tattered Caroler #4/Beggar Boy #2/Young Cratchit Boy/Ignorance Boy/Young Boy with Sleigh
* Bobbi Page as Tattered Caroler #5/Well-Dressed Caroler #3
* Ron Bottitta as Tattered Caroler #6/Well-Dressed Caroler #4
* Sammi Hanratty as Beggar Boy #3/Young Cratchit Girl/Want Girl
* Julian Holloway as Fat Cook/Portly Gentleman #2/Business Man #3
* Jacquie Barnbrook as Mrs. Allie Fezziwig/Fred's sister-in-law/Well-Dressed Caroler #5
* Lesley Manville as Mrs. Emily Cratchit
* Molly C. Quinn as Belinda Cratchit
* Fay Masterson as Martha Cratchit/Guest #1/Caroline
* Leslie Zemeckis as Janet Holywell, Fred's wife.
* Paul Blackthorne as Guest #3/Business Man #2
* Michael Hyland as Guest #4
* Kerry Hoyt as Adult Ignorance
* Julene Renee-Preciado as Adult Want
Production
After making 'The Polar Express' (2004), Robert Zemeckis stated that he "fell in love with digital theater" and tried finding an avenue in order to use the format again. He eventually decided that an adaptation of Charles Dickens's 'A Christmas Carol' would be an opportunity to achieve this. 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." Zemeckis has stated previously that 'A Christmas Carol' is one of his favorite stories dealing with time travel.'Making the Trilogy: Part 1' featurette on the 'Back to the Future Trilogy' DVD box set. Carrey has described the film as "a classical version of 'A 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."
Disney partnered with Amtrak to promote the film with a special nationwide train tour, starting in May 2009 and visiting 40 cities, finishing in New York in November.
Release
'A Christmas Carol' opened London on November 3, 2009, and was theatrically released on November 6, 2009, in the United States by Walt Disney Pictures.
Home media
Disney released the film on November 23, 2010 in a single-disc DVD, two-disc 2D Blu-ray/DVD combo and in a four-disc combo pack that includes a Blu-ray 3D, a Blu-ray 2D, a DVD and a digital copy. This marked the first time that a film was available in Blu-ray 3D the same day as a standard Blu-ray 2D, as well as Disney's first in the Blu-ray 3D market along with 'Alice in Wonderland'. The DVD contains deleted scenes and two featurettes called "On Set with Sammi" and "Capturing 'A Christmas Carol'". The Blu-ray 2D 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".Reception
Box office
'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. Due to its high production and marketing costs, the film lost the studio an estimated $50100 million, and forced Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group and the head of worldwide marketing, to resign.The film opened at #1 in 3,683 theaters, grossing $30.1 million its opening weekend, with an average of $8,159 per theater.
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 toppers '2012', 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon' and 'Paranormal Activity' despite family competition from 'Nativity!', another Christmas-themed film.
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 53% of 202 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 and Gary Oldman." On Metacritic, another aggregator, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.Roger Ebert of the 'Chicago Sun-Times' gave the film four stars out of four, calling it "an exhilarating visual experience". Owen Gleiberman of 'Entertainment Weekly' gave the film an A, applauding the film as "a marvelous and touching yuletide toy of a movie". Joe Neumaier of the 'New York Daily News' gave the film 3/5 stars and stated the film "is well-crafted but artless, detailed but lacking soul." Mary Elizabeth Williams of Salon.com gave the film a mixed review claiming the movie "is a triumph of somethingbut it's certainly not the Christmas spirit." Joe Morgenstern of 'The 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." 'The Daily Telegraph' reviewer Tim Robey wrote, "How much is gained by the half-real visual style for this story is open to questionthe early scenes are laborious and never quite alive, and the explosion of jollity at the end lacks the virtue of being funny." Peter Bradshaw in 'The 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." '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 styleand stylisationoverwhelming substance."
Keith Uhlich of 'Time Out New York' named 'A Christmas Carol' the eighth-best film of 2009.
Awards and nominations
Music
'Track listing'
The music was composed by Alan Silvestri and orchestrated by William Ross, Conrad Pope, Silvestri, and John Ashton Thomas. The entire score was conducted by Silvestri and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony alongside Page LA Studio Voices and London Voices. Much of the music was based on actual carols, including God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen, Deck the Halls, O Come, All Ye Faithful, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and Joy to the World. The album was later issued physically through Intrada Records. The theme song "God Bless Us Everyone" was written by Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard and performed by Italian classical crossover tenor Andrea Bocelli
See also
* List of Christmas films
* List of ghost films
References
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