Christmas Carol, A (2009) (Blu-ray)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Family	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Making Of-Picture-in-picture with audio commentary Featurette-Capturing Dickens Featurette-On Set With Sammi DVD-ROM Extras-Advent Calendar Deleted Scenes
Rating
Year Of Production	2009
Running Time	95:48
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Robert Zemeckis
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Jim Carrey Steve Valentine Daryl Sabara Sage Ryan Amber Gainey Meade Ryan Ochoa Bobbi Page
Case	Amaray Variant
RPI	$49.95	Music	Alan Silvestri

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 Spanish DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s) Icelandic Dolby Digital 5.1 (640Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	Yes
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired Spanish Icelandic Portuguese Dutch Norwegian Danish Finnish Swedish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol is a story familiar enough that it needs little introduction. In Victorian London, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge (voiced and motion captured here by Jim Carrey) falls asleep on Christmas Eve to be visited by three spirits who guilt trip the old geezer into getting into the vibe of Christmas. Story-wise this film sticks very closely to the source, which ends up being a blessing and a curse. It is undeniably a good retelling, but there's little about the film to recommend it over the dozens of other takes on the same material let alone watch it if you are already familiar with the material.

     Stylistically the film might as well be called The Polar Express II, as the film bears more than a little similarity to director Robert Zemeckis’ previous Christmas flick. The film uses the same kind of slightly awkward motion-captured CGI as Robert Zemeckis’ The Polar Express and Beowulf, albeit a few more years refined, and it mines the same thematic pit as the former. Like The Polar Express and Beowulf the animation will polarize viewers. Although the animation is on the whole pretty decent, viewers will either love or hate the creepy, all-too-human look of the characters (personally I have a foot in both camps).

     A Christmas Carol makes for entertaining Christmas viewing, but there is little reason to recommend it over at least half a dozen of the 90-odd takes on the tale listed on IMDB.

Video

     The film is presented in its original 2.40:1 aspect ratio in 1080p.

     The video looks excellent. There is plenty of fine detail visible in the image and no sign of any kind of grain. The colours are bright and eye-catching, with plenty of depth. There is no sign of video artefacts in the image at any point.

     English subtitles for the hearing impaired are available. Based on the portion sampled they look accurate and well timed.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The film features a choice of 5.1 English or Spanish DTS HD MA, 5.1 Icelandic or Portuguese Dolby Digital or 2.0 Dolby Digital English Descriptive Audio.

     The audio is of a high standard. The dialogue is reasonably well timed to the animation and presented at a good level in the mix. The score is a fitting, though by-the-numbers, orchestral affair from Alan Silvestri. The surrounds and subwoofer are quite effectively used throughout, though most notably through the actiony scenes that typically introduces each spirit of Christmas.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Behind the Carol: The Full Motion-Capture Experience Picture in Picture Feature

     The film can be played with quite in-depth a picture-in-picture making-of featurette that also includes audio commentary throughout the film. This is quite an entertaining way to tie the material to the film and makes for a more interesting watch than a separate "Making Of" and commentary.

Capturing Dickens: A Novel Retelling Featurette (14:43)

     A decent press-kit style production featurette that tries to convince viewers how special this particular re-telling of Dickens is. Pass.

On Set with Sammi Featurette (1:52)

     An irritating small child demonstrates the laborious motion capture effort that went into he film.

Countdown to Christmas Interactive Calendar

     An interactive, slow moving advent calendar. Not worth the effort.

Deleted Scenes (8:39)

     Half a dozen forgettable deleted scenes in various states of production, preceded by an introduction by the director.

Discover Blu-ray 3D with Timon & Pumbaa Featurette (4:23)

     An ad for 3D Blu-ray, as pimped by two characters from The Lion King.

DVD Copy

     What appears to be the retail single-disc DVD edition of the film is included in the package.

     The local release is identical to the US Region A edition save for regionalised trailers. The Blu-ray edition includes a picture-in-picture commentary, interactive advent calendar and advert for 3D Blu-ray over and above the content of the DVD.

     A decent retelling of A Christmas Carol, although there is little reason to recommend this one to anyone who has already seen a dozen others.

     Video and audio are excellent. The extras are reasonable in number and though variable in quality there is enough worthwhile to recommend.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall