Christmas Carol: The Movie (2001)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Jimmy T. Murakami

Writers:

Charles Dickens (book)
Piet Kroon (screenplay)

Release Date:

7 December 2001 (UK)

Genre:

Animation

Plot:

The film begins with a live-action sequence set in Boston in 1857, the site of a live reading by renowned novelist Dickens (Simon Callow)...

Plot Keywords:

Ghost | 1840s | Christmas | Victorian Era | Redemption

Cast

Simon Callow	...	Charles Dickens / Ebenezer Scrooge (voice)
Kate Winslet	...	Belle (voice)
Nicolas Cage	...	Jacob Marley (voice)
Jane Horrocks	...	Ghost of Christmas Past (voice)
Michael Gambon	...	Ghost of Christmas Present (voice)
Rhys Ifans	...	Bob Cratchit (voice)
Juliet Stevenson	...	Mrs. Cratchit (voice)
Robert Llewellyn	...	Old Joe (voice)
Iain Jones	...	Fred (voice)
Colin McFarlane	...	Fezziwig (voice)
Beth Winslet	...	Fan (voice)
Arthur Cox	...	Dr. Lambert (voice)
Keith Wickham	...	Mr. Leach / undertaker (voice)
Joss Sanglier	...	Choir master (voice)
Sarah Annison	...	Mouse (voice)

Also Known As:

Ein Weihnachtsmärchen (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated PG for momentary language.

Runtime:

USA:77 min

Country:

UK | Germany

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:L | Australia:G | Finland:K-7 | Germany:o.Al. | Spain:T | UK:U | USA:PG

Company:

Illuminated Film Company

Quotes:

Charles Dickens: That, ladies and gentlemen is the story of A Christmas Carol. Not quite the same one I wrote in the book, I admit. I hope you enjoyed it, none the less.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Making 'Christmas Carol: The Movie' (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

It's The Heart That Matters Most

Where are Darcel, Pam, Beverly, Jamila, Cooley, Mark, Eileen and Nicole when you really need them?

Darcel, Pam etc are - or were - the Solid Gold Dancers ("Solid Gold" was an American pop music show in the 1980s); in the movie "Scrooged" six of them (guess which two were absent) made a cameo appearance as part of the cast of Bill Murray's TV version of the classic Charles Dickens story... and there's the biggest problem with "Christmas Carol: The Movie" right there. Not the presence of leggy, gorgeous American girls in skimpy attire - such a thing could only have benefitted this movie - but the stunningly definitive and frankly ignorant title; so all the other versions of the novel (and there have been quite a few down the years, featuring casts from Alastair Sim through Henry Winkler [in the TV movie "An American Christmas Carol"] to Michael Caine in "The Muppet Christmas Carol" - not to mention the musical "Scrooge," at least two animated versions, and countless episodes of TV shows borrowing the whole story, like "WKRP In Cincinnati" and "The Odd Couple" to name but two) don't count then?

For a movie to live up to such a title, it would have to be the best version ever, and this isn't. It isn't helped by having live-action bookends of the great man (played here by Simon Callow, also the voice of Ebenezer Scrooge) performing a dramatic reading of his book in Boston. Or by having a pair of mice throughout the movie as the closest things to soulmates the man has (cute animals should be left to Disney and Disney alone). Or by animation that's depressingly crude for the most part (it all looks like a poor 1970s TV show, with the exception of the journeys the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present take our "hero" on, where the movie really does come to life for a bit). Or by Piet Kroon and Robert "Kryten" Llewellyn's script, or Julian Nott's score (pains me to say it, but the songs from Kate Winslet and Charlotte Church are the highpoints).

And as for Nicolas Cage as Jacob Marley... not since the late lamented Lorenzo Music did Peter Venkman on "The Real Ghostbusters" has there been such a shockingly bad case of cartoon miscasting. And some people wonder why so many of us love Pixar.