That's right, its that time of year again. Its time to produce new versions of the classic Christmas tale of redemption, and this time Disney have decided to set aside their Muppets and Mickey Mouse and go for a chilling 3D animation.

Just in case you don't already know, Marley was dead to begin with and Scrooge, his business partner is a bit of a miser. He stores up his treasures and wont even spend out for extra coal during the harshest of cold winters.

He gives not to charity and pays his own staff a pittence. That is, until one Christmas Eve he gets visite, first by the chained ghost of his ex-partner Marley and then by the three ghosts of Christmas: past, present and future.

Unlike the ghosts in past versions I have seen, these ghosts are actually quite creepy and for some reason, the ghost of Christmas past I actually found the most creepy of them all. Jim Carey (The Truman Show) plays both Scrooge and all the ghosts and I think its his face on the ghost of Christmas past (effectively a giant candle) which was the scariest thing in the film.

The film swings wildly from intensely creepy to extended periods of comedic action, inserted presumably to keep the film lighthearted and child friendly. However, the darkness of the film would mean that I wouldn't take anyone under the age of 12 to see this for fear of nightmares. After all, if my 28 year old friend was scared by this, then I wouldn't be surprised for an 8 year old to be.

All in all, its a good and accurate retelling of the classic tale, though there are a few sequences which make me wonder whether they were filling for time. Worth seeing, yes, probably, but if your going to get one on DVD, there are better more child friendly versions available.

see also:
Arthur Christmas, Up, Flushed Away, Cloudy with a chance of meatballs

[rate this movie] [official site]
photo © Disney.