Watch and Read: Spotlight on Media Tie-ins
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Joy Fleishhacker -- School Library Journal, 10/19/2009
“Bah, Humbug!” A Holiday Classic Re-envisioned
On November 6, 2009, Walt Disney Pictures and ImageMovers Digital will release an adaptation of Charles Dickens’s classic 1843 novella. Written and directed by Robert Zemeckis, A Christmas Carol (PG) will be presented in Disney Digital 3-D and IMAX 3-D. The movie was produced using performance capture, a process of recording and digitizing the actions of human actors, which the director previously employed in The Polar Express (2004) and Beowulf (2007). The result is an ensemble of animated digital characters whose appearances, movements, and expressions look amazingly lifelike.
This approach also allows several of the cast members to take on more than one role. In addition to portraying Ebenezer Scrooge at varying ages, the versatile Jim Carrey also stars as the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Gary Oldman plays Scrooge’s overworked and underpaid employee, Bob Cratchit; the clerk’s irresistible young son Tiny Tim; and the ghost of Scrooge’s deceased business partner, Jacob Marley. Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, and Robin Wright Penn round out the cast. Depicted with the depth and detail of a Victorian painting, the captivating 19th-century London setting also blends realism with luminous touches of fantasy. And unlike Mickey’s Christmas Carol, released by Disney in 1983, this is not a gentled-down version of the tale: the visual effects look to be thrilling and the specters truly frightening.
Kids can visit the Web site to get a preview of the movie’s visual design, a combination of photorealism and fancy that seems just right for a story that blends eerie ghostly visits with powerfully conveyed emotions, magical transformations, and an uplifting sense of redemption. The site also provides info on cast and crew, access to trailers and photos, and two video games starring Scrooge himself. Refer youngsters interested in finding out more about the man responsible for this timeless tale to David Perdue’s Charles Dickens Page, an accessible and fun-to-explore site “dedicated to bringing the genius of Dickens to a new generation of readers.”
Movie Tie-ins
Disney Press has released a line-up of related books based on Zemeckis’s screenplay and atmospherically illustrated with film images. The Movie Storybook, published in hardcover, provides a well-written retelling of the plot that smoothly incorporates vivid descriptions and lively dialogue. The text is supported by well-chosen full-page and smaller-size illustrations. Featuring a delightfully foreboding picture of Scrooge in his shadowy mansion, the cover suggests the appearance of an old leather-bound volume, while the interior pages have the look of aged parchment. This picture book, which could be shared aloud with younger kids or enjoyed independently by older readers, makes an inviting entrée to the movie or to the classic tale itself (K–Gr 5).
Two staple-bound storybooks are also illustrated with cleanly reproduced movie artwork in a variety of sizes. Season's Greedings! provides a streamlined version of the plot and contains portrait-style images of the characters mixed with action shots. In Bah, Humbug!, Scrooge himself relates his life’s story in a tetchy first-person narrative and makes his attitudes about “the dreaded holiday” crystal clear. The book ends with the protagonist as yet unreformed (“Now and forever I say, bah! Bah, humbug!”), though the Ghost of Christmas Past hovers meaningfully about on the last page. Kids will enjoy putting themselves in the shoes of this famous curmudgeon (K–Gr 3).
Two more offerings are presented in beginning chapter-book format. O, Ghostly Night combines straightforward text with movie images to focus more tightly on Scrooge’s encounters with his supernatural visitors. Each ghost is clearly portrayed in both the text and artwork, as is Scrooge’s ultimate change of heart. Beginning with a paragraph about Dickens’s “amazing” tale and its latest adaptation (this “newest version…is a revolutionary combination of imagination, talent, and visual effects”), Inside Disney’s A Christmas Carol recounts the plot with an emphasis on character motivation. The text, which at times reads like a screenplay summation (“…we are introduced to Ebenezer Scrooge, a bent and bitter old man”), seems a bit removed. Very little info about the making of the movie is included, and the narrative never really draws youngsters into the story’s action (Gr 2–4).
Recommend The Junior Novel to confident readers who can’t get enough of this heartwarming holiday tale. Told in greater detail, the narrative has a slightly formal tone that fits well with the movie dialogue. The text reveals how Scrooge’s emotions evolve steadily during his interaction with the ghosts, making his transformation all the more believable. Gentle touches of humor and unexpected moments of action appear throughout. Eight pages of full-color movie illustrations—each bordered by an ornate gold frame and supplemented with a caption—provide a gallery-style look at the characters and setting (Gr 3–6).
Pub Info
SUTHERLAND, T. T., adapt. Disney’s A Christmas Carol: The Movie Storybook. Tr $8.99. ISBN 978-1-4231-2240-1.
SCROOGE, Ebenezer. Disney’s A Christmas Carol: Bah, Humbug! pap. $3.99. ISBN 978-1-4231-2211-1.
REDBANK, Tennant, adapt. Disney’s A Christmas Carol: Season's Greedings! pap. $3.99. ISBN 978-1-4231-1793-3.
Disney’s A Christmas Carol: O, Ghostly Night. pap. $3.99. ISBN 978-1-4231-1794-0.
Inside Disney’s A Christmas Carol. pap. $3.99. ISBN 978-1-4231-2212-8.
PONTI, James, adapt. Disney’s A Christmas Carol: The Junior Novel. pap. $4.99. ISBN 978-1-4231-1790-2.
ea vol: Disney Press. 2009.
