28 December 2009

A Christmas Carol, Robert Zemeckis


A Christmas Carol is the classic tale by Charles Dickens about a miser - Ebenezer Scrooge - during the Victorian era in England, making everyones life as well as his own rather miserable.
It's a man who doesn't like seeing other people happy or wanting to help anyone but himself.
This tale has been told in many a various and fascinating versions and this one was also fascinating in its own particular way. Director Robert Zemeckis has done a good job or rather the technical staff around him.
First of all one have to give credit to those working with the animations/the techical side of the film. Nowadays animated films are so well done that it takes something special to make an impression and in this particular case I think they have succeeded.
The most particular figure of all was of course Ebenezer Scrooge himself.
Both they way he is depicted, how he talks and reacts faced with all the peculiar things happening around him, made him both tragic and funny.
That he is a man of few emotions is clearly shown both by his actions - or lack of actions - and appearance.
The different ghosts haunting him and wanting him to repent - or die - are all very different but the most fearsome one is however his former - now dead - colleague.
The second one in fire is quite cuddleome.
The third ghost, an incarnation of Santa from Hell, is somewhat tiresome with his recurrent laugh: "How, how, how!"
As we all know Scrooge decides to live on, changing his way of life. This after having seen his life in retrospective (thanks to the ghosts), displaying all the lost chances in life, the opportunities whereby he could have done something good both for others and for himself.
He undergoes a metamorphosis and becomes the benevolent maecenas!
The story follows the original Dickens very well although maybe not in details. It's long since I read the book whereby I can't claim this with certainty.

Among the visitors in the cinema there were many children (with parents) and I think that a story of this kind is more suited for us adults, depending of course on the references and expectations of the children - and their parents.
In older times, however, children were told stories by the Brothers Grimm and these stories - and the stories by H.C. Andersen - were by no means nice and harmless!

I didn't see this film in 3D but from what I saw I can imagine that this is a powerful experience.
However nothing new was added to the story and I wasn't surprised by any particular element in the film, more impressed - as I wrote - by the technical skill, sometimes eradicating the border between 'real' and animation!
When it comes to creating a certain ambience corresponding to a time and a place, I'm not as impressed. Compared to a film like Rattatouille, the latter succeeded much better.
A happy end in Christmas times might also add to the plus.

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