IMDb RATING
5.3/10
2.3K
YOUR RATING
Old bitter miser Ebenezer Scrooge (Simon Callow) who makes excuses for his uncaring nature learns real compassion when three ghosts visit him on Christmas Eve.Old bitter miser Ebenezer Scrooge (Simon Callow) who makes excuses for his uncaring nature learns real compassion when three ghosts visit him on Christmas Eve.Old bitter miser Ebenezer Scrooge (Simon Callow) who makes excuses for his uncaring nature learns real compassion when three ghosts visit him on Christmas Eve.
- Director
- Writers
- Stars
- Awards
- 1 nomination total
Simon Callow
- Scrooge
- (voice)
- …
Kate Winslet
- Belle
- (voice)
Nicolas Cage
- Marley
- (voice)
Rhys Ifans
- Bob Cratchit
- (voice)
Juliet Stevenson
- Mrs. Cratchit
- (voice)
- …
Robert Llewellyn
- Old Joe
- (voice)
Iain Jones
- Fred
- (voice)
Colin McFarlane
- Fezziwig
- (voice)
Beth Winslet
- Fan
- (voice)
Arthur Cox
- Dr. Lambert
- (voice)
Keith Wickham
- Mr. Leach
- (voice)
- …
Joss Sanglier
- Choir Master
- (voice)
Sarah Kayte Foster
- Mouse
- (voice)
- (as Sarah Annison)
Rosalie MacCraig
- Mouse
- (voice)
Aaron Basacombe
- Child
- (voice)
Bradley Kelly
- Child
- (voice)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
There is nothing wrong with changing a story so long as you admit to it. So unlike many children's films where a classic is ruined and the child grows up in ignorance and never knows the difference, this film has the charming idea of having live action Charles Dickens go to America and tell the story to an audience explaining it isn't quite the same as how he wrote it in the book, thus growing curiosity and encouraging children to read the true classics of this world. The only real fault with this film is its ghastly title (and possible when the child of ignorance disintegrates, being too scary for children). I admit as a film student I had very low expectations of ANOTHER adaption of A Christmas Carol but was for once very pleasantly surprised and refreshingly, no one bursts into song and no animals talk in this film. The acting is very good and the voice talents obviously cared about this job. How Scrooge acts after the ghost of Christmas Future and how he makes the Christmas miracles are more realistic than I've seen in any adaption for a long time. Things don't happen with a snap of the fingers and this children's film truly does give hope to the most desperate of souls.
This starts off with a live action sequence where Charles Dickens played by Simon Callow attends a venue in Boston where he relates the story of A Christmas CAROL . I wonder if Callow could have believed that a few years later he'd be reprising his role as Dickens where he attends a similar type of speaking tour in Cardiff in 1869 where one of the audience is a corpse taken over by a gaseous alien race called The Gelth ? Check out The DOCTOR WHO story The Unquiet Dead to see what I'm blabbering on about . It's certainly very interesting to see how the scenes from the two are very similar in atmosphere
As you might expect this a straight forward retelling of A Christmas CAROL in animated form so if you're expecting lines like " Pity The Gelth - We want your flesh " you're going to be bitterly disappointed . Some people may complain that the story concentrates far too much on a social political subtext but Dickens didn't write A Christmas CAROL as a ghost story , he wrote it as a story of redemption and this shines through , though perhaps a little too obviously to be truly successful . My only real complaint is that the mice are a serious distraction to the story telling
As you might expect this a straight forward retelling of A Christmas CAROL in animated form so if you're expecting lines like " Pity The Gelth - We want your flesh " you're going to be bitterly disappointed . Some people may complain that the story concentrates far too much on a social political subtext but Dickens didn't write A Christmas CAROL as a ghost story , he wrote it as a story of redemption and this shines through , though perhaps a little too obviously to be truly successful . My only real complaint is that the mice are a serious distraction to the story telling
Out of all the adaptations of this classic Christmas story by Charles Dickens, this is probably a really good one in my opinion! the story is really good though compared to the original novel; but of course in the novel Ebenezer Scrooge encounters Jacob Marley's ghost in his bedroom, but in this version it's in his office. plus the animation looks really decent and okay in my book though especially the backgrounds that look like something you see in a Christmas card or from Dicken's original illustrations to the novel that's based on the original novel, plus Simon Callow does a really good job voicing Scrooge and playing Charles Dickens in the live action segments as well as Nicolas Cage as Jacob Marley and kudos to Kate Winslet from Titanic (1997) voicing Scrooge's fiancé Belle. yet this movie has some dark moments along with some sad moments and I wouldn't call this a boring adaption, if your a fan to any adaptation to a Christmas Carol along with the Muppets version, check this one out if you have kids in your family!
I've probably seen every version of "A Christmas Carol" ever done. It's probably my favorite story. It's about pain and suffering and redemption. It's a wonderful ghost story. It has great characters and a great deal of sentimentality. It take a really good actor to pull off the character of Scrooge. Alaister Sim and George C. Scott are my favorites. The character has to have a link to an unhappy past. Cruelty is one thing, but we need some humanity as well. If he is not complex, he is nothing. This had potential. It has very nice animation. The problem, for me, is that Scrooge is too young. He has the angular face of a forty year old. His lines are delivered without any underlying emotion. I don't think the people doing the voices did much homework. Also, what's wrong with the original plot. Do people change it so they can put their own signature on it. This one isn't too bad, but it's so wooden. Those mice are also really annoying. If one wanted to take this to its logical end, London at that time, was overrun with disease ridden vermin, which did decrease the surplus population. Now, I know that's really harsh to these two little guys, but I would imagine that Scrooge would have as soon flattened them with a boot as look at them. You either make a commitment to tell the story, or you throw the whole thing out an ignore the elements. The mice should go. There's also a group of social issues that are just dropped in. All in all, however, it seems so lacking in pizazz. There is supposed to be elation at the end; even giddiness. There is nothing giddy about this film.
I quite much liked this version. I know that the story of Ebenezer Scrooge has been filmed many times but I don't care about that because of the moral point of this story. And hey, how many Dracula movies are out there?
The old-time animation was excellent and invigorating as I am quite bored with many modern day dull computer animations.
Mice were an excellent spice in the story. It looks like that many hate those mice and that they're not part of the story but hopefully everybody remembers Charles Dickens' lines in the start of the movie that this is not a straight adaptation from the book. Perhaps he just added those mice while telling the story? To me, mice didn't steal the story to themselves. The moral story of the original book is still there. And there aren't a director who didn't add something to the movie nevertheless what book says.
The ghost parts of the movie were marvelously made (especially the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come -part).
All in all, a well-made animated movie.
The old-time animation was excellent and invigorating as I am quite bored with many modern day dull computer animations.
Mice were an excellent spice in the story. It looks like that many hate those mice and that they're not part of the story but hopefully everybody remembers Charles Dickens' lines in the start of the movie that this is not a straight adaptation from the book. Perhaps he just added those mice while telling the story? To me, mice didn't steal the story to themselves. The moral story of the original book is still there. And there aren't a director who didn't add something to the movie nevertheless what book says.
The ghost parts of the movie were marvelously made (especially the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come -part).
All in all, a well-made animated movie.
Did you know
- TriviaThis movie along with Noël chez les Muppets (1992) are the only versions where the Christmas present scenes of the Cratchit family and Scrooge's nephew Fred's party swap places. In the original story and in other film versions, the Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to the Cratchits' Christmas dinner before Fred's party.
- GoofsScrooge collects a sheaf of papers regarding debts that he's taken over but when he meets up with Joe, his debt collector, instead of giving him the papers he gives him a book.
- Quotes
Ebenezer Scrooge: Cratchit, that slovenly, good for nothing... Even a tiny mouse is more tidy!
- Alternate versionsSome DVD versions omit the live action theatrical opening and ending featuring Simon Callow as Charles Dickens. The Region 1 DVD from MGM has both scenes as a supplement in the special features section.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Making 'Christmas Carol: The Movie' (2003)
- SoundtracksWhat If I
Performed by Kate Winslet
Produced by Steve Mac
Engineered by Chris Laws and Matt Howe at Rokstone Studios, London
Assistant Daniel Pursey
Written by Steve Mac and Wayne Hector
Published by Rokstone Music/Universal Music/Universal Music
Except USA: Rokstone Music/Songs of Windswept/Universal Music
Used by kind permission of Universal Music Publishing Ltd
Rokstone Musice LTD/Universal Music Publishing Ltd 2001
2001 Illuminated Films (Christmas Carol) Ltd
- How long is Christmas Carol: The Movie?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Christmas Carol: The Movie
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $12,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross worldwide
- $266,475
- Runtime1 hour 21 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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