It is nearly impossible to keep up with all the different versions of ' A Christmas Carol' that have been produced. Not only have there been countless live action versions and numerous animated adaptations, there are probably more different musical versions of this than any other book. And we're not even counting sitcom adaptations, modern day versions or parodies here. The one that is featured in this making off, "A Christmas Carol, The Movie" got completely snowed under on it's release around Christmas 2001 by the first Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings movies and didn't even get a wide release in most countries. And though this version is not a musical, it does feature a song by Kate Winslet that got more airplay across most of Europe than the film itself. Of course it helped that the song wasn't very Christmassy to begin with (but rather a Titanic style love ballad) offering up more staying power than the film. Not surprisingly, this 12 minute supplement is just as much about making the video for the song as it is about the film.
To be fair, actors Simon Callow (Charles Dickens/Scrooge) and Juliet Stevenson (Mrs. Cratchit) talk about turning Dicken's ghost story into animation, as do producer Iain Harvey and several of the animation staff. But most of the attention is focused on Kate, who's character 'Belle' was greatly expanded in this version (though at least they didn't go so far as to imply she and Scrooge got together again in the end). Winslet then goes on to explain that the decision to add a love ballad was made about a year and a half after the main recording sessions and that she only did it as a lark, not to jump start a singing career. This last part should be informative to all those ill-informed DJ's who continuously wonder why Kate never recorded a follow up song to 'What If I' each time they play it on the radio.
Interestingly, Kate also mentions she used to a lot of voice dubbing for foreign films when she was younger. I wonder what kind of productions that might have been?
7 out of 10
