2001’s A Christmas Carol: The Movie is incredibly misnamed.  The ambitious self-proclamation of its title doesn’t come close.

The creators released it theatrically in Britain with only a DVD release in the U.S.  It is animated and runs a bit more than an hour.  The DVD has an edited beginning and ending, but offers the theatrical beginning and ending as a special feature.  The theatrical beginning and ending is live-action, with Simon Callow appearing as Dickens in one his public performances of the story.  I was originally surprised first learning Jimmy Murakami, is the director. He was also the director of the incredible classics The Snowman and When the Wind Blows.  This is the disappointing, low-end of the spectrum of his work!

The Cast Cannot Rescue

This feature attempts to utilize the voice talents of many well-known performers, creating on paper a good cast. Unfortunately, this doesn’t save the production.  Even two of the actors I’ve always greatly liked and very much enjoyed, Simon Callow (Scrooge) and Jane Horrocks (Ghost of Christmas Past), do not shine with this weak adaptation.  Some of the other talents among many include Kate Winslet (Belle), Nicholas Cage (Marley), and Robert Llewllyn (Old Joe) whom I’ve always loved from the Red Dwarf series.  Llewllyn is unfortunately also half responsible for the script.

The animation is decent but unmemorable. The story opens right way into innovative adaptation madness with a large expansion of Belle’s role. The adaptation has her working as a devoted nurse in a hospital for children.  This is the beginning of the movie. Coincidently, Scrooge forecloses on the hospital during Christmas Eve and has its resident doctor sent to jail. Old Joe enforces the arrest. He is another character in an expanded role, acting as a henchman for Scrooge.  The expansion of Belle’s role and what she does in her present life is alarmingly similar to the equivalent character played by Karen Allen in 1988’s ACC based Scrooged. In other words, it’s not very original by the time this was produced.

Strange Adaptation

Wait, it gets worse!  Scrooge has dormice friends. You read that right, there are dormice that are friends of Scrooge. They go most everywhere with him, including his ghostly visitations!  This is a strange and inconsistent characterization for Scrooge.  He first befriends the dormice right after his mean exchange of words to his nephew and Bob Cratchit in his business.  He quietly helps one of the dormice on the sly and even gives it affectionate glances between his nasty exchanges to people.  Before Marley’s visit, he is having a sentimental exchange with the dormice, calling them his friends and feeding them some of his gruel. (This may even be worse than the 1997 animated version where Scrooge has a dog.)  I cannot help but think of 1988’s Scrooged when they want to staple antlers onto a dormouse.

This attempts to be traditional but continually goes off the rails:

• Instead of chasing carolers away from his business, Scrooge throws a bucket of water on them.  Tiny Tim is one of the carolers and is doused with water.  It contributes to his death to which Scrooge has now contributed and is responsible.
• Marley’s ghost (voiced by Nicholas Cage) visits Scrooge at his counting house before he even leaves for home.  Marley’s ghost is unusual and very large sized.  This version has the wandering spirits, but they’re more like an extension of Marley’s chains, with Marley tethered, and drag him along on his own forced wandering.
• The two charity solicitors visit Scrooge at his counting house after Marley’s visit.

Continued Confusion

Want more? It does get even worse. Because Belle never married and devotes herself to the children’s hospital, she and Scrooge are given a second chance together by the end of the “movie.”  This brings tears to my eyes but not in the way I’m sure it was intended.

The three spirits are not too bad.  A good thing I can say about this version is its attempt to render the Past ghost similar to Dickens’ description.  In one scene the ghost appears to have young features. i\In the next they could be old, and then young again as the scenes move on.  Very peculiar here is the reappearance of Marley near the end of Scrooge’s time with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.  He and the other wandering spirits appear to begin to drag Scrooge along with them before the scene ends.  It’s reminiscent of, but not like, the comedic scene when Marley visits Scrooge in Hell in the 1970 musical version with Albert Finney.

This version is adapted to specifically concentrate more on the love story between Scrooge and Belle.  Some other little tidbits: Belle is a poor girl who is a childhood friend of Scrooge’s sister, Fan; Scrooge isn’t actually old, he appears to be about middle-aged. The reformed Scrooge spends most of Christmas Day wandering around the streets of London regretting shutting down the Children’s hospital; It’s too late to change the situation. Scrooge and Belle appear to enter the beginning of rekindling their relationship by the end. The theatrical beginning of the “movie” is this version’s offering of an opening by Charles Dickens.

It’s perplexing why the major changes and additions were done for this presentation. The changes do not add anything. Without them, it is still a barely mediocre viewing.  I understand wanting to make stories and adaptations kid-friendly. But as a few prior animated A Christmas Carol versions already proved, you don’t have to sacrifice Dickens’ work to such a bad level in order to accomplish it.

I watched my personal DVD copy.  I have not seen this available for (legal) free viewing on any of the streaming services I frequent.

Included	Missing
Wandering Spirits Miners, ship, and lighthouse visits Mrs. Fred (nephew’s wife) Topper Old Joe (different context)	Phantom Hearse Ali Baba Torch sprinklings Ignorance & Want The charwoman, laundress, and undertaker