Review: A Christmas Carol

Posted by Rob at 23:12 on 16 Nov 2009 Reviews A-Z

A Christmas Carol is one of the most well-known and much-loved stories of all time - a story that's been adapted so many times that it's hard to get particularly excited about a fresh take. So, when it was announced that Robert Zemeckis was going to make yet another version, using the same motion-capture technology he used with The Polar Express and Beowulf, it registered with a tremendous meh. A Christmas Carol without the Muppets just doesn't seem right.

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7 comments.

Posted by neophyte at 20:11 on 17/11/09

I guess "A Christmas Carol" it's not the best place to mention it, but there has just been released an interesting, so to say, trailer of a film called "Bitch Slap" and I was wondering how you guys find it...

Posted by Ori at 15:50 on 17/11/09

Well, I'm guessing that when the technology perfects itself, it would be pretty cool to see "actual" monsters eating up "actual" people. But we have some ways to go before that sensation occurs. I think Beuwolf looked like shit, and I'm sure this one does too. Skipping it for sure.

Posted by Ben at 14:58 on 17/11/09

I don't get the point of realistic looking animation.

If you want it to look realistic, use real people.

Posted by Ali at 14:20 on 17/11/09

Back To The Future is story first, effects second. In fact, were there even any groundbreaking effects in it? Apart from hoverboards and tracks of fire?

Such a shame when talented people get waylaid by such pointless horseshit. You could work on an animated film for 10 years and still tell it's not real. Uncanny valley in action.

Posted by Goatboy at 14:15 on 17/11/09

Meh, Zemeckis has always made films as an exercise to play with technology more than tell a story so this doesn't surprise me at all. Another in the "never see" pile.

Posted by Luke at 00:11 on 17/11/09

Muppets and Scrooged or it isn't Christmas.

Posted by Ali at 23:41 on 16/11/09

This looks awful. Animation looks like a shitty videogame cut-scene. Ever heard of the Uncanny Valley? This lives in there. Why bother to motion capture the smallest human animations and then flesh them out with ugly, caricatured characters? It's plain freaky.

People might have freaked at this sort of animation 20 years ago. Today it looks dated already.