It's hard to believe that this one aired a full ten years ago. This is the animated Jim Carrey 'Christmas Carol' that divided audience in such a big way. It's very 50/50 in the way its reviewed. Some just settle for different versions of the story, some think this is far too dark, and some just claim the animation is far too stylized to appreciate other things about it. Me? I'll just come right out and say it. This is one of my favorite versions of the story. Of course, unless you've been under a rock for the last century-plus, you know the story of 'A Christmas Carol'. Scrooge (Jim Carrey) is a greedy old miser who frowns on Christmas, seeing it as a "poor excuse to pick a man's pocket every 25th of December"). He is warned on Christmas Eve by his former partner Jacob Marley (Gary Oldman, who also plays Bob Cratchet here), in ghost form, that if he doesn't improve his ways, he's doomed to an eternity of bearing long lengths of heavy chains upon his death. That night, Scrooge is visited by three spirits representing his past, present and future (all also played by Jim Carrey) to help set him on the right path. The biggest differences here that I can appreciate on a big scale are between a few things. For starters, the animation is absolutely gorgeous, following the more realistic feel of movies like 'Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within' and to a bigger extent, 'The Polar Express'. I have noticed that this style can creep some out by how real it looks while still being a cartoon, but I've always been a huge fan. If you have any chance to see it in 3D, I still remember it adding a lot to things, and would highly recommend it. Though, it's not like 'Avatar' where the 3D is what makes the movie good. Beyond great animation, I can't help but give great praise to both Jim Carrey and Gary Oldman for their multiple performances in this. They both flex their acting muscles so well here, and I love that Carrey brings a sense of humor to the Scrooge role that is so rarely seen. The only competition he really has, in my opinion, is my all time favorute Scrooge, Alistair Sim. Personally speaking, I'm glad they didn't make him so one-sided. There are multiple versions of this story that make him a bit too serious for my taste, even if it is the same story. For some, it should be closer to the book, and I completely understand that. But personally speaking, I need to be able to laugh at Scrooge just as much as I need to be able to dislike him. Carrey does a great job of it, and I can't fathom why he was so overlooked here. Another thing I love about this one, though many would disagree based on taste, was just how dark things got here. Between Marley, and the transition to meet the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (or Future, if you like), I don't mind saying that things actually do get genuinely creepy. Not only that, but they do these ghosts in ways that I've never seen before, making them the film's own thing, and not simply copying and pasting. This is probably one of those things that's criticized for not keeping it classic, but there are about a million different versions of this story out there. I love that this one got creative and did things a little differently, but still manages to tell the story as it needs to be told. Much like any other book adaptation, I like to say the important aspects of the story are still there. Again, I find this movie to be split right down the middle as far as opinion goes. I actually love it, and I've watched it through a few times. However is still can't hold a candle to the 1951 classic I grew up with. Maybe it's just me, but I really enjoy how dark this got, how funny i managed to be at the same time, and I enjoyed the new ideas they played with. I'm not sure what's so bad about this movie that causes people to veer away from it, but I think it's worth a few watch-throughs to try to warm up to it. Just be willing to accept it as a ghost story a bit more than a Christmas story. 4/5
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Bringing things back to Christmas, let's delve into the true meaning of the holiday with a retelling of the Nativity Story through the eyes of the animals, namely a young donkey named Bo (Steven Yeun). We are introduced to Bo as he breaks free from a village mill, only to run into the virgin Mary (Gina Rodriguez) who has recently been told by God that she will give birth to his son. While they hit it off very well, Joseph (Zachary Levi) is looking for answers on how to support Mary through her pregnancy. We learn that King Herod (Christopher Plummer) hires an assassin to get rid of Jesus, who he sees as a threat to his throne. When Bo learns of this, he teams up with a sheep named Ruth (Aidy Bryant) who has lost her flock, and an optimistic dove named Dave (Keegan-Michael Key) to stop him. They are further aided by the three camels, Deborah, Cyrus and Felix (Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry and Tracey Morgan, respectively) of the three wise men, Balthazar, Caspar and Melchior (Phil Morris, Joel Osteen, and Fred Tatasciore, respectively) Despite an all-star cast (some of whom I still haven't mentioned), and being a wide release, this one just didn't make it very far in the grand scheme of things. Even I completely overlooked it for my 2017 Christmas special, as it just looked a bit too childish. I love animation, but there was a certain aura of innocence around this that lead me to believe I wouldn't like it much. Truth be told, I was right, but that doesn't make the movie all that bad. While it's absolutely not for me, and I was often rolling my eyes at the intensity of the lameness of some of these jokes, I had to kinda go back in time in my head. I ended up asking myself if I'd like this as a kid, and I think I would have, but it still wouldn't have been something I'd keep going back to. Even then, it's a movie for kids pretty much 7 or under. It's perfectly innocent, and fun for little kids, but I'd have to forewarn parent that this is THAT kind of movie. What I mean by that is that it's the kind of movie your little kid might wanna watch and rewach, but it'll become a pain in your ass as a parent because you know there's far better stuff out there. It's certainly not something I'm gonna be going back to anytime soon, as it has the quality of a straight-to-TV movie. But with that said, if you're an elementary school parent, it might be a good one to sit your young one down in front of for an hour and a half of entertainment. It's lame, but perfectly passable for what it''s trying to do. Perhaps a good way to do it after the crazy hustle-bustle of the holiday season would be to find it on Netflix, turn it on, and let your kid be entertained while you take a nice nap. 'Cause trust me, this one is kinda sleep-inducing for us grown-ups. It's about as edgy as a movie Ned Flanders would make. 3/5 Stumbling on this one in my search, I decided to check it out so that maybe I could take a peak at what a Japanese anime film's take on a Christmas story might be like. After last year's Ghibli marathon, I've gained a bit of an interest in the culture's way of expressing themselves through film. What's so interesting to me, however, is that even for a Christmas film, this is a culture that is not afraid to get dark. 'Tokyo Godfathers' takes place around the Christmas - New Year holiday, and the season is used as much more of a backdrop than anything. I wouldn't fully consider this a "Christmas movie" in the traditional sense, so much as a story about homelessness and abandonment. That's not to say it's bad, it's actually a great story, But so help me, I just don't get "Christmas" from this one, despite covering themes about acts of kindness, humanity, and valuable lessons learned along the way. We meet three very different homeless people, who have made themselves a sort of family. Gin (Tôru Emori) is your average, middle-aged homeless man with a bit of a drinking/anger problem; Hana (Yoshiaki Umegaki) is a former drag queen who dreams of one day being a mother; and Miyuki (Aya Okamoto) is a young runaway girl, having no place to turn to after wounding her father. We pretty much immediately click with this group, Gin being the glass half empty, Hana being the glass half full, and Miyuki is caught in the middle. One day, while rummaging through some trash, they find an abandoned baby. Hana, with her motherly desires, wants to try to take care of the baby and have her dreams come true. But being the realist, Gin insists that they just drop it off at the police station and let them take care of the situation. They sleep on it, and then decide the thing to do is to find this child's real parents, and set out to do just that. Along the way, they each end up revealing a lot about their pasts and how they became homeless, each of them a pretty sad story. That's more or less where the movie gets dark in its atmosphere (I mean, other than finding a baby among a heap of garbage), with this trio wanting whats best for this baby, and not to be in the same situation as them. And speaking of dark, it gets even darker when it gets to the climax, and you really end up feeling the utmost empathy for this poor baby through the whole movie. You want nothing more than for this kid to be safe. So as far as recommending it, it's a tough one. As far as it falling into my traditional Christmas movie list, it really doesn't stand a chance. However, as a dark anime about tough but important themes that carries a mild sense of humor with it, it's actually great. Somehow this movie balances the dark and cold of the winter with a bunch heartwarming moments. Atmospherically, I'd almost compare it to 'A Christmas Carol', but certainly not by theme. If you're an anime fan who likes a good story, if you can find it, check it out. Just be forewarned, an English dub of the film is damn near impossible to find. 3/5 |