A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol, also known as Disney's A Christmas Carol is an 2009 animated 3-D movie adaptation of the Charles Dickens story of the same title. The movie was released by Walt Disney Pictures on November 6, 2009. It recieved it's world premiere in London Leister Square, which had a Dickensian theme.

Plot
The film opens with Ebenezer Scrooge signing for the burial of his partner Jacob Marley on Christmas Eve. Seven years later, in 1836, in London, Scrooge, a bitter and miserly old moneylender at a counting house simply called Scrooge & Marley, holds everything that embodies the joys and spirit of Christmas in contempt, scaring off any nearby carol singers, refusing to visit his cheerful nephew Fred's Christmas dinner party with his family, refusing to donate to charity, and forcing his underpaid employee Bob Cratchit to beg to take the day off for his own family. That night, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, who is now forced to spend his afterlife carrying heavy chains forged from his own greedy ways. Marley warns Scrooge that he will suffer an even worse fate if he doesn't repent, and foretells that he will be haunted by three spirits that will help guide him. As Marley disapears, one of his chains gets caught on Scrooge's chair and drags the chair, as well as Scrooge himself towards, the window. Scrooge is then horrified to see thousands of Spirits out side who, like Marley, were all green misty ghosts bound in chains. Startled, Scrooge scurries off to bed.

The first spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Past, shows Scrooge visions of his own past that take place on or around the Christmas season, reminding him of how he ended up the avaricious man he is now. He had spent much of his childhood neglected by his father over the holidays at boarding school until he was finally brought home by his loving sister Fan, who died prematurely after giving birth to his nephew, Fred. Scrooge later worked at Fezziwig's warehouse, where he began a successful career in business and moneylending and became engaged to a woman named Belle, whom he met during one of Fezziwig's christmas parties, though she later called off the engagement when he began to grow obsessed with accumulating his own wealth. Unable to bear having to witness these events again, Scrooge extinguishes the spirit.

The second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, shows Scrooge the happiness of his fellow men on Christmas Day while Hark the Herald Angels Sing is playing in the background. Among them are his nephew, Fred, who playfully makes jokes with his family at Scrooge's expense, and Bob Cratchit and his family, who are just barely able to make do with what little pay Scrooge gives Cratchit. The Cratchits also tend to a sickly young son, Tiny Tim, whose commitment to the spirit of Christmas touches Scrooge, who is dismayed to learn from the spirit that he may not have much longer to live. The spirit warns Scrooge about the evils of Ignorance and Want, which manifest themselves before Scrooge as snarling, wretched, beastly children. The ghost laughs heartily and disintegrates into a skeleton as it vanishes.

The third and final spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, shows Scrooge the final consequences of his greed and even toys with him a few times. Scrooge sees in this future that he has recently died, though there is more comfort than grief in the wake of his death, the men attending his funeral are only going for a free lunch. In addition, Fred is glad to be inheriting his wealth, and Scrooge is even robbed by his former maid Mrs Dibler, even stripping the clothes he was buried in. Tiny Tim is also shown to have died, leaving Bob Cratchit and his family to mourn him on Christmas. Unwilling to let this grim future come to pass, Scrooge begs to be given a second chance as the spirit forces him into his deep and empty grave to fall into his coffin, which sits atop the fires of Hell.

Scrooge awakens to find himself in his bed on Christmas morning, the three spirits having guided him over the course of one night, and immediately sets out to atone for his sins, making donations to the poor, joining in with the carol singers singing Joy to the World, attending Fred's dinner party, and giving Cratchit a raise to care for his family, allowing Tiny Tim to live. Scrooge spends the remainder of his life a new man embodying the spirit of Christmas itself.

Production
In July 2007, it was announced that director Robert Zemeckis had written a screen adaptation of Dickens' 1843 story. The film utilizes the same kinds of motion capture techniques used previously by Zemeckis in his films "The Polar Express" and "Beowulf".

Zemeckis wrote the screenplay with Jim Carrey in mind, and Carrey signed on to the project. Similar to Tom Hanks in "The Polar Express", Carrey plays a multitude of roles in the film, including Ebenezer Scrooge as a young, middle-aged, and old man, along with the all three of the Christmas spirits that haunt him.

Also in the cast are Bob Hoskins, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Darryl Sabara (from the "Spy Kids" films), Carey Elwes and Robin Wright Penn. Oldman, Elwes, Hoskins and Wright Penn, like Carrey, all play multitudes of roles. Zemeckis, director of the "Back to the Future" trilogy, has previously stated that "A Christmas Carol" is one of his favorite stories dealing with time travel. The music was scored by Alan Silvestri, who has collaborated with Robert Zemeckis a lot. Silvestri also wrote the song God Bless Us Everyone, the title refers to the novel's ending

This is the third film adaptation of A Christmas Carol released by Disney, the previous two being the 1983 animated featurette Mickey's Christmas Carol and the 1992 film The Muppet Christmas Carol (released under the Disney banner, almost a decade before Disney bought the Muppets). Other adaptations by Disney included the 1974 record album A Disney Christmas Carol (which became the basis for Mickey's Christmas Carol), the 101 Dalmatians TV series episode "A Christmas Cruella", and the "Ebenezer Daring" sketch in The Replacements holiday special "Dick Daring's All-Star Holiday Stunt Spectacular V".

This is also the second Disney film directed by Zemeckis, the first being Who Framed Roger Rabbit (both movies had Bob Hoskins in a key role). A DVD and BluRay of this film will be released in the North America region on November 16, 2010.

Differences from the Book
This is one of the most faithful adaptions of A Christmas Carol brought to the screen but it includes several differences.


 * In the book, the "Ghost of Christmas Present" dies but he just disappears. In the movie, they show him dying at length.
 * Unlike in the book, Scrooge falls into his own grave (similar to Mickey's Christmas Carol).
 * The whole "future" scene with the horse chase and Scrooge becoming smaller is not in the novel. In fact, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in the novel is nearly immobile except for the pointing finger.
 * Old Joe does appear in the novel. However in the movie, he chases a shrunken Ebenezer Scrooge, as well as a nearby rat, with a fire poker.
 * At the end of the Ghost of Christmas Past sequence; as in the book, an emotional Scrooge snuffs out the spirit with his own cap but then unlike the text the old miser is jetted skyward.
 * Unlike the book, the movie doesn't show Belle with her family.
 * In the book, Scrooge encounters a seperate ghost riding a phantom hearse before his visit with Jacob Marley. In the movie the phantom hearse is moved up to The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come segment.

Reception
The film received mixed to positive reviews from US film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 55% of 169 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5.9 out of 10. The site's general consensus is that "Robert Zemeckis' 3-D animated take on the Dickens classic tries hard, but its dazzling special effects distract from an array of fine performances from Jim Carrey and Gary Oldman."

The film opened at number one in 3,683 theaters, grossing $30,051,075 its opening weekend, with an average of $8,159 per theater. The film has come to gross an estimated $137,481,366 in the United States and Canada and $181,000,000 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $318,481,366.