Trailer Tuesday: A Christmas Carol

-


If you're one of those people who can't stand the sight of Christmas decorations appearing in malls around mid October, then I suggest you stop reading now. You see, I'm NOT one of those people (I've already bought 2 presents, ha!) and this week's featured trailer is about as Christmas-y as you can get.

A Christmas Carol, from Disney, is the upteenth film adaptation (the 3rd from Disney alone) of Charles Dickens' beloved story. A Christmas Carol centres on Ebenezer Scrooge, a mean-spirited miser in Victorian London, who is forced to reevaluate his "humbug" attitude and actions when he is visited on Christmas Eve by the miserable spirit of his long dead business partner, and 3 other ghosts.


This time the Scrooge story takes the form of a CGI-animated family film that utilises performance capture technology. This approach isn't surprising given that Robert Zemeckis is in the director's chair, and is responsible for screenwriting duties as well. Of late, Zemeckis has had something of an obsession with performance capture animation, having already made The Polar Express and Beowulf in the same style.

Both The Polar Express and Beowulf were released to mixed results, critically and commercially. A lot of people were put off by the artificially smooth movements of the characters and the deadness in their computer generated eyes. However, every Zemeckis project the animation improves dramatically, and I'm personally confident that A Christmas Carol will be the best looking of this type of film yet.

This said, I have reservations about the liberties clearly taken with the Scrooge story. I can understand the filmmakers' desire to add some new flavour to an old story that everyone and their aunt's dog knows. However, the English Lit graduate in me is grated by the transformation of a thoughtful morality tale into some kind of madcap adventure filled with goofy action sequences - no doubt there for their gimmicky 3D potential. This trailer makes things look even worse.


Also, I am a bit concerned by the degree to which Jim Carrey dominates the film. You better have a high tolerance for the Canadian-American funnyman because he plays 4, yes, 4, roles in A Christmas Carol - Ebenezer Scrooge, of course, but also the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. This said, I was dreading his work as the title character in Horton Hears a Who! and he actually did an OK job in that animated film... for the most part (i.e. he wasn't too out of control).

For the record, several other stars also provide their voices and performances in A Christmas Carol. These include Gary Oldman as Jacob Marley and Bob Cratchit, Cary Elwes as Scrooge's old roomate and a mad fiddler, Colin Firth as Scrooge's jolly nephew, Robin Wright Penn as Belle, Scrooge's neglected fiancée, and Bob Hoskins as Mr. Fezziwig and Old Joe, the fence.

A Christmas Carol releases in the United States, South Africa and many other countries in just a few weeks, on a surprisingly early 6 November. Overseas, the film will be screening in 3D and IMAX 3D (presumably not forgetting traditional 2D as well), while locally I expect we'll be able to see it in 2D, 3D and in the normal IMAX format as well.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is the rebooted Lara Croft gay? Evidence for and against...

-
Image
As some of you know, I’ve been fangirling hard over the new Tomb Raider , the first entry in the video game series since 2008, and ostensibly a reboot for the entire franchise . Taking the form of an origin story, Tomb Raider 2013 depicts the events that transformed a beautiful, if bookish, archaeology graduate into a pistol-packing adventurer with a devil-may-care attitude. We meet Lara Croft as a pretty, fairly ordinary 21 year old, brooding over her work notes, listening to her mp3 player and very much confined to the shadow of her male mentors. By the end of the game, however, she’s taken charge – she’s had to! – and, battered, bruised and bloody, she’s both a survivor and hero, right down to rescuing the princess and carrying her away in her arms. Yeah, this is probably the best point to mention that there will be some Tomb Raider 2013 spoilers in this post, so read ahead with caution. Anyway, I loved the game. Technically it’s near faultless, it looks beautiful, the ov...
Read more

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Queer Icon (Part 4)

-
Image
Part 4: The mystery of Lara Croft’s sexuality “Now what’s a man gotta do to get that kind of attention from ya?” – Larson Conway (Tomb Raider, 1996) Despite being an icon for many queer pop culture consumers, Lara Croft’s own sexual orientation remains ambiguous. Outside of the Top Cow comics and live-action films – where Lara is blatantly heterosexual, with a fondness for slightly scruffy bad boys (who keep betraying and hurting her) – the character comes across as primarily asexual. Kurtis Trent is the only male figure who even comes close to being a love interest in the game series. Lara's apparent sexual disinterest is despite the adventurer appearing very sexually attractive herself; a figure of desire with bee-stung lips, voluptuous breasts, toned stomach and impossibly long, athlete’s legs. Yet Lara is never dominated by sexual yearnings or romantic affections. She is very much in control of herself at all times. It’s worth noting, however, that over time th...
Read more

Ladies I Love: Part 2 - Rhona Mitra

-
Image
Following on from the first post in this series , you may realise that I have a very definite type. Anyway, today we profile model-turned-actress Rhona Mitra . This 36 year old Briton is of English, Irish and Indian descent. You'll have seen her pop up on the big and small screen multiple over the past decade and a half, although Mitra's claim to fame is that she was the second ever model (some say first if you rule out "unofficial"  Nathalie Cook ) to play iconic video game character Lara Croft . From 1997-1998, Mitra could be found in PR material, as well as at trade shows, events and conventions as a flesh-and-blood embodiment of Tomb Raider 's kick-ass archeologist lead. There have been many official Lara Croft models over the years , but as far as I'm concerned Mitra remains the best. In my mind, of all of them, she most closely resembles the video game character in terms of facial features. Plus she comes from money and had a rebellious boarding...
Read more