Released back in 1997, this is a more obscure version of the Charles Dickens classic and happens to be a musical obviously to emulate a much more financially and culturally successful company at the time. So starring the likes of Tim Curry, Whoopi Goldberg, Michael York, Jodi Benson & Ed Asner, will this manage to be as fun as the Muppet Christmas Carol, or should Tim Curry stick to being a hammy and over the top villain? Let's take a look.
Story: Yeah, I think EVERYBODY knows the story of A Christmas Carol by now & this movie follows it like a Tetris game, keeping the structure, characters & message intact! Sure, it may keep the overall message & plot unlike other people trying to tamper with it up to the point that it's unrecognisable, but the changes that come with it are painful! Because this was made around the time of the Disney Renaissance, the changes made reflect that, including lightening the tone for the kiddies, changing some of the characters, adding in annoying comedy & pointless musical numbers! All of this negate the message remaining intact & the attempts at darkness or tragedy really fail because of how artificial the whole project is. And the attempts to add in references to Robinson Crusoe feel mind boggling because it actually has nothing to do with the narrative other than an attempt to give Scrooge 'development' while in fact giving the opposite effect. But the worst part of it all is that Scrooge already begins to learn his lesson right from the start! It makes the build up to his redemption feel less powerful or heartwarming! Yes, it may be harmless for the most part & it mostly follows the story, but it's clear from the lack of effort & Disneyfication that this is just a soulless cash-grabber!
Animation: Given that this was a direct to video movie, I think it's safe to say that the animation isn't the best! The character designs look generic & really off model with no attention to detail put into them, including derpy eyes & the character animation feels really limited & stiff in its attempts at using squash & stretch on the ghosts or the animation on the comic relief dog. And speaking of the ghosts, the designs for them range from very generic to downright ridiculous, ESPECIALLY with the Ghost of Christmas Past as a child. The backgrounds also somehow manage to look incredibly generic & rough despite the time setting & even rip off Disney's Mickey's Christmas Carol with the setting of Scrooge's house and the bank he works in. Not once do they try to make it look original with the Victorian setting and just immediately assume kids know the story and the setting. It doesn't really help that there's no real lighting put in, leaving the characters looking completely flat with no sense of dimension. I know I may be a bit harsh towards the animation, but I'm not saying that the animators didn't work with what they had. In fact, they've done an OK job.
Characters: The characters in this can easily be qualified as cardboard cutouts of their literary counterparts. While Scrooge is the same curmudgeonly money obsessed grump, the build up to his redemption feels less powerful as he already begins to feel sorry for Tiny Tim & the rest of the poor before his journey with the 3 ghosts! And despite Tim Curry's efforts, I couldn't take him seriously because he goes so over the top, you'd think he was trying to make Scrooge a comedic character! And it REALLY doesn't help when he also voices Scrooge as a young man because it's so blatantly obvious that he doesn't sound like he's in his twenties or thirties! I know it kinda worked for Jim Carey in the 2009 version, but that was because he knew what stage of Scrooge's life he was in & his voice reflected that! And if anything, Ed Asner would've been a better fit for the character! And speaking of Ed Asner, despite his efforts as Jacob Marley, not even he can stop the fact Marley is not scary or threatening at all nor does he that much of an impact. Bob Cratchit (Michael York) is pretty bland besides being happy & kind towards Scrooge & his family, which doesn't really help the tone. The depiction of the 3 ghosts is absolutely ridiculous as the Ghost of Christmas Past (Kath Soucie) is a little boy who's absolutely infuriating with an obviously fake Cockney accent, the Ghost of Christmas Present (Whoopi Goldberg doing a stereotypical British accent) does nothing but laugh all the time & the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (Jim Cummings) looks more like a Scooby Doo villain rather than the Grim Reaper & isn't scary! Fred is just the same happy go lucky nephew with an even blander personality than Cratchit. Belle (Jodi Benson) only appears for one scene when she dumps Scrooge via an unnecessary song because it's Jodi Benson & everyone tries to take advantage of her beautiful singing voice because she's the voice of Ariel. And if all of this wasn't bad enough, Scrooge has a dumb bulldog sidekick because as everyone knows, all animated films in the 90s needed to have an obligatory animal sidekick to copy the Disney Renaissance formula! Yes, the characters are sort of the same & the voice actors do their best with the material given, but their lack of complexity or dimension really diminish this.
Songs: Yes, this is a musical and yes, the songs are all awful! I know this is definitely not the first Christmas Carol adaptation to be a musical, but the way they're crowbarred into this is just ridiculous & they feel like they were made up on the spot! The opening number is just a generic Christmas song which is surprisingly short because they realized they need to get the plot going! Random Acts of Kindness (yep, that's actually the title) is just about the townspeople doing that to further contrast that they're saintly goody two-shoes compared to the grumpy Scrooge (although the scene makes no sense given his curmudgeonly nature). Oh yeah, and it includes Tim Curry rapping! The song Young Scrooge sings feels like a generic 'I Want' ballad with a pop guitar motif which is entirely pointless. Belle & Scrooge's duet can pretty much be an 'F- You' song for the former as she dumps Scrooge & sounds like another generic pop 'love' ballad yet the actors have no chemistry whatsoever! There's also a reprise of Random Acts of Kindness which the Cratchits sing & is equally as, if not more annoying than the first time. Santa's Sooty Soot is annoying despite the context & trying way too hard to be a funny showtune despite the lack of effort put into it! Song of Love is OK partly thanks to Tim Curry's singing, but the lyrics are pretty generic as they say what we already know & is pretty short. It all feels like the writers were trying to be Disney while never actually having seen Disney!
This movie can easily be described as a Disney rip-off without actually being a Disney rip-off! With a by the book yet butchered story, lazy animation, generic characters & awful songs, what else did you expect from this? And with whether this one is worse than the 2002 version with Kate Winslet... I find they're both equally as bad for different reasons. The 2002 version because it's incompetent direction, the animation is some of the worst I've seen & completely misses the point of the story & the 1997 one because of the hackneyed songs, annoying characters & stupid changes to copy the Disney formula.
And by the way, I'll be experimenting with a new rating system involving emojis. This will be a 5 point rating system now with one saying it's amazing, one saying good, one saying it's OK, one saying it's bad & the last saying it's atrocious.
- 😁
- 😊
- 😕
- 😠
- 😡
Story: 😠
Animation: 😠
Characters: 😕
Songs: 😡
Overall: 😠
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