Most audiences remember at least one version of Charles Dickens’ holiday ghost story A Christmas Carol. From Muppet to Barbie-themed adaptations there is without a doubt a version of the story for every age. With the countless versions of the three ghosts who visit Ebenezer Scrooge on that fateful Christmas Eve, many forget about the one time Disney and ImageMovers Digital made one of the most divisive versions of the tale to date. Fifteen years later, the film takes on a very different meaning, especially with its truthfulness to the source material.

2009’s Disney’s A Christmas Carol is a film that maintains a high ranking on my list of top five childhood nightmare fuel. Director and writer Robert Zemeckis utilized motion-capture animation (just as he did in his other Christmas film The Polar Express (2004)) to present what he believed to be the way Dickens originally wrote the novel in cinematic form. This allows the film to lean incredibly heavily into the uncanny valley, particularly in Scrooge’s (Jim Carrey) appearance and demeanor. 

Carrey is one of the most impressive performances in the film, taking on Scrooge as well as the three spirits that visit him. Many actors doubled or tripled up on roles allowing for a bigger exploration of range among the cast but Carrey’s work here is a major standout. This is solidified with the rest of the cast’s performances as the world around him recoils in fear at Scrooge’s mere presence, especially during the Holiday season.

The film takes no new thematic liberties with the source material coming to no surprise as there is nothing that needs to be changed about Dickens’ original work. What this film does that separates it from other adaptations is craft some of the most frightening computer-generated imagery in the past 15 years. A core memory of mine is hiding from the TV at a family Christmas party in 2009 as a trailer for the film played. 

I am nostalgic despite my previous fear, as nowadays children’s films often play it far safer in terms of any remotely unsettling imagery. This film engages heavily with the source material’s frightening visuals, opening with a smash cut from the title to Jacob Marley’s corpse in a coffin. This is truly a terrifying film, but its frightening nature allows audiences to understand Scrooge’s significant transformation from a heartless miser to a warm embodiment of Christmas spirit, which justifies the first act’s unsettling nature.

Zemeckis’s film (as all versions of A Christmas Carol often do) allows for a poignant discussion about the theft of the poor from the rich. Naturally, the film highlights those in poverty and how important it is to give back in any way we can, especially during the holiday season. While everyone should do their part to help those in poverty, it especially falls upon the wealthy (the Scrooges of the modern world) to put in the work as well. 

The first time I read the line, “They had better do it, and decrease the surplus population” in a middle school English class, it occurred to me how important it is that this book continues to be taught and analyzed as many labor unions in recent years are fighting for higher wages to support their families.

The reception at the time of the film’s release is both understandable as well as unjustified. Roger Ebert gave the film an elusive 4 out of 4 stars, highlighting the cast as well as the freedom the film has with its animated medium. On another hand, Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News argues the motion-capture animation makes the characters appear “wiggly-limbed.” 

The film does have aspects of technical prowess – the motion capture is smooth and would no doubt be something seen later on had Zemeckis not beat everyone to the punch. Despite how good it looks for the time, it does fall into overly smooth territory reminiscent of plastic and breaks the immersion of Victorian London for the audience. It has the same problems with visuals as The Polar Express which inextricably weaves the films together in my memory. The visual style is a consistent point of contention with this adaptation, but its uncanny nature seems to work in its favor, especially in the realm of character design.

After 15 years, this version of A Christmas Carol seems to be definitive for Gen Z in ways that Gen Z themselves (or Robert Zemeckis for that matter) did not quite expect. While many would expect an adaptation including iPhones and social media to be the most powerful version of Dickens’ classic, a version with frightening imagery and innovative (albeit uncanny) technology is the one that maintains our attention every holiday season. It doesn’t quite stand the test of time but shuffles into our minds every now and then. 

Regardless of the general consensus of this film, the children yearn for ImageMovers Digital to come back from the grave and warn us of the visit of Zemeckis’s canceled Yellow Submarine remake.

Retrospective Courtesy of Nadia Arain

Feature Image Credit to Walt Disney Pictures via IMDb