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Critic Reviews

The motion capture animation is top-notch and it's hard not to be impressed with what Robert Zemeckis has wrought, even if there's the occasional sense he's pandering to an audience that can't get through a 90 minute story without a few yuks and a chase.

-James BerardinelliFull Review

How they made it into this Disney adaptation unprettified is a Christmas miracle in itself.

-Dana StevensFull Review

Zemeckis' film preserves much of Dickens' original dialogue and detail while amplifying the utter ethereal strangeness of the ghosts.

-Amy BiancolliFull Review

There's a lot of dark magic in this Dickensian Yuletide.

-Rick GroenFull Review

Want the creeps for Christmas? Then check out the latest version of A Christmas Carol.

-Tom LongFull Review

Does this entertainment achieve a timelessness beyond its exquisite source material? Not even. Yet there's pleasure to be had and relief in feeling the filmmakers didn't Scrooge it up either.

-Lisa KennedyFull Review

The movie may be yet another retelling of an iconic story, but visually it is often quite breathtaking.

-Mary F. PolsFull Review

Zemeckis captures all the story's terror, but its pathos has always been the real challenge, and it mostly eludes him.

-J. R. JonesFull Review

You don't identify with Scrooge at any point, nor is blatant fakery scary. Picture The Seventh Seal with sock puppets.

-Kyle SmithFull Review

A branded piece of shiny seasonal entertainment.

-A.O. Scott

It's a heartwarmer that doesn't have much of a heart itself.

-Michael O'SullivanFull Review

Disney's excessively hyped A Christmas Carol revels so richly in bringing the Dickensian details to sumptuous life that you wind up forgiving it for possessing a stop-motion soul.

-Randy MyersFull Review

It's like taking a Christmas wreath and dipping it in wax or laminating a Christmas card in plastic. Zemeckis risks creating another Yule ghoul: the Ghost of Christmas Without Soul.

-Peter HowellFull Review

As the lead character, Carrey's CG-created body is spindly and bent, and he has fun with his vocal performance, turning every word into a strangled hiss.

-Joe NeumaierFull Review

A Christmas Carol is a worthy stab at mixing old and new, a vintage tale done with some fresh dazzle and a reminder that the movies can still bring the wow.

-Chris Vognar

Just when you give up on it, usually in the middle of its latest, extraneous, gyroscoping thrill-ride sequence, Zemeckis reminds you that he's capable of true visual dynamism, enhanced but not wholly dictated by the digital landscape he so clearly adores.

-Michael PhillipsFull Review

Have we learned nothing from The Klumps?

-Mary Elizabeth WilliamsFull Review

To put it bluntly, if Scroogely, Disney's 3-D animated version of A Christmas Carol is a calamity.

-Joe MorgensternFull Review

By the time A Christmas Carol finishes piling its many shiny presents with their many bells and whistles under the tree, there's no room left for tears for Tiny Tim. Bah humbug indeed.

-Betsy SharkeyFull Review

Favors thrill-ride effects that are more often the star than the servant of the story. It's like "Silent Night" played by Led Zeppelin.

-Colin CovertFull Review

Zemeckis' movie may lack the emotional impact of the 1951 British version of A Christmas Carol, starring Alastair Sim as a truly transformed and happy Scrooge. Nevertheless, it's a visual treat that respects and artfully enhances its source.

-John HartlFull Review

A re-telling should either present a resonant or fresh thematic take. This Christmas Carol seems like a pale ghost of Dickens' magical Christmas classic.

-Claudia PuigFull Review

Carrey's performance as the miserly misanthrope is lost amid effects more typically encountered in theme-park and video-game adventures. (P.S.: Is it just me, or does it also peeve you that the Mouse House claims proprietary rights on Dickens' title?)

-Carrie RickeyFull Review

It's nice of Hollywood to go to all the trouble but, honestly, Dickens doesn't need the help.

-Stephen WhittyFull Review

Shockingly, the new film turns out to be very good, at times close to brilliant: a darkly detailed marvel of creative visualization that does well by Dickens and right by audiences -- when it's not trying to sell them a theme park ride.

-Ty BurrFull Review

Too much of the film is geared around 3-D wizardry. Unneeded sequences pop up for purely "wow" baiting.

-Jake Coyle

Robert Zemeckis finds eye-popping, high-tech new life in Dickens' hoary chestnut.

-Rene RodriguezFull Review

The story that Dickens wrote in 1838 remains timeless, and if it's supercharged here with Scrooge swooping the London streets as freely as Superman, well, once you let ghosts into a movie, there's room for anything.

-Roger EbertFull Review

By Fezziwig, that story still works and tugs at the heart. It would even if each ghost's visit weren't scored with overly-suitable Christmas carols.

-Roger MooreFull Review


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