Victim of Culture

Jim Carrey plays a cast of characters in A Christmas Carol

There’s something a little surreal about putting Jim Carrey into an animated film.  Part of his original charm in films such as Ace Venture Pet Detective and The Mask was how animated he was in real life.  But Robert Zemeckis has found a solution—motion capture animation.

In recent years Zemeckis has worked exclusively in motion capture animation.  From The Polar Express to Beowulf, and now to this.  This work has put him somewhat at odds with his fans who’d love to see the Zemeckis of old who did films such as the Back to the Future trilogy, Contact, Forest Gump, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.  But Zemeckis is in love with the motion capture technology and it seems to be his format of choice for the moment.

Zemeckis has said that his two favorite time travel stories are The Time Machine and A Christmas Carol, so it makes sense for him to take this story on.  And even though it doesn’t often get mentioned as a time travel story, that’s exactly what Dickens’ classic is.  In this new version Carrey takes over the role of not only Scrooge at four different ages, but also the three ghosts who visit him on Christmas Eve.  So if you’re one of those people for whom a little Carrey goes a long way, you should probably stay away.

The Polar Express was a stiff, but dreamlike film.  It didn’t sit well with many, but I personally found it to be quite a bit of fun.  I felt the surreal look fit the story well.  Beowulf was a Hollywood action film version of the classic poem, but then again, Beowulf basically reads like a big-budget testosterone infused film.  Go kill monsters, come back, get drunk, and repeat.  It was spectacular to view in Imax-3D.  If Carrey and Zemeckis can combine the dreamlike state of The Polar Express with the improved animation of Beowulf they’re likely to have a huge hit on their hands.  And maybe fans won’t mind then if Zemeckis tries his hand at motion-capture again.

Watch a promo clip below and see an interview here.

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