There have been 10 versions, with Captain Picard (no less) being the recent one to be overtaken. So why another? Oh yeah - we needed a 3d one. *cough*
In the world of bad remakes that didn't need to be made, this one joins the list - but perhaps near the bottom. The top (dis)honors go to The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Longest Yard, and The Omen - but that's another rant.
I just saw the new 3D Christmas Carol in the theater and as we were walking out I commented that it reminded me of a scary Disney ride on steroids. Don't get me wrong, I loved the original Haunted House at Disneyland - BEFORE all the makeovers to dumb it down because some people were supposedly fainting. (wimps!) And don't even get me started on the Nightmare Before Christmas theme. "Yeah let's just make the Haunted House ride fun and happy rather than scary!" Sheesh.
Anyway back to the review. I thought the animation was so-so. As in so so bad. Were people really that ugly back in those days? They all looked like creepy cabbage patch dolls. I wanted to reach out and poke them to see if they had any feeling. And what's with Gary Oldman's huge head? He looked the worst of them all.
Being my first "new 3d without the blue/red cardboard glasses", I thought the 3d effects were pretty cool - especially the flying scene with Scrooge and the candle head ghost.
Jim Carrey and Johnny Dep appear to be in a race for who can play the most characters out of our childhood stories. Carrey is a bitterly sour - yet effective - Scrooge. So much that when he turns nice at the end I'm really not 100% convinced. Couldn't he still just snap at any moment and start choking a caroler? Carrey's annoying "fake laugh" was incorporated into the ghost of Christmas Present, and after the third round of "HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO" I was already sick of hearing it. Alas, more rounds followed.
I gave this a generous 5 out of 10 stars because despite the average production I thought the 3d was pretty cool and that Jacob Marley's ghost was portrayed frighteningly well.
This film will scare young kids, which again brings me to the question of why they toned down the theme park Haunted House so much and then presented this Marley ghost in all his howling jawbone-dropping glory.
I don't think I'd see this again because it really didn't get me in a happy mood, but more of a creeped out feeling. I expected that from the ghosts - but not from those hideous animatronic vacant eyed cabbage patch townsfolk. I kept waiting for this to end so I could get back into the world of real people.
In the world of bad remakes that didn't need to be made, this one joins the list - but perhaps near the bottom. The top (dis)honors go to The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Longest Yard, and The Omen - but that's another rant.
I just saw the new 3D Christmas Carol in the theater and as we were walking out I commented that it reminded me of a scary Disney ride on steroids. Don't get me wrong, I loved the original Haunted House at Disneyland - BEFORE all the makeovers to dumb it down because some people were supposedly fainting. (wimps!) And don't even get me started on the Nightmare Before Christmas theme. "Yeah let's just make the Haunted House ride fun and happy rather than scary!" Sheesh.
Anyway back to the review. I thought the animation was so-so. As in so so bad. Were people really that ugly back in those days? They all looked like creepy cabbage patch dolls. I wanted to reach out and poke them to see if they had any feeling. And what's with Gary Oldman's huge head? He looked the worst of them all.
Being my first "new 3d without the blue/red cardboard glasses", I thought the 3d effects were pretty cool - especially the flying scene with Scrooge and the candle head ghost.
Jim Carrey and Johnny Dep appear to be in a race for who can play the most characters out of our childhood stories. Carrey is a bitterly sour - yet effective - Scrooge. So much that when he turns nice at the end I'm really not 100% convinced. Couldn't he still just snap at any moment and start choking a caroler? Carrey's annoying "fake laugh" was incorporated into the ghost of Christmas Present, and after the third round of "HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO" I was already sick of hearing it. Alas, more rounds followed.
I gave this a generous 5 out of 10 stars because despite the average production I thought the 3d was pretty cool and that Jacob Marley's ghost was portrayed frighteningly well.
This film will scare young kids, which again brings me to the question of why they toned down the theme park Haunted House so much and then presented this Marley ghost in all his howling jawbone-dropping glory.
I don't think I'd see this again because it really didn't get me in a happy mood, but more of a creeped out feeling. I expected that from the ghosts - but not from those hideous animatronic vacant eyed cabbage patch townsfolk. I kept waiting for this to end so I could get back into the world of real people.