A Dickens of a MESS?!?

I'm curious about The Fantastic Mr. Fox... Wes Anderson has been really hit or miss lately, but it seems like it should be good. Of course, Transylmania is going to win the Best Picture Oscar, as anyone with a brain should know.

This year, for the first time in quite awhile, there are actually a lot of quality films in the running for Best Picture. I admired Up, but I don't think that outside of the animated category, it is even in the top 10.

I hope to see Coraline, 9, Ponyo and Up among the 5 Little Gold Naked Men nominees for Best Animated Feature.

And I hope to see Alvin & the Upchucks 2 among the Big Gold Naked RAZZberry nominees. . . .   

 

I'm reading Dickens words right now. . . .

It's interesting to find that different scenes from the book have been depicted in different movies.  For example, the men shoveling snow off their roofs throwing snowballs at each other is unique to this film.  It's also interesting to find other scenes which have never yet been filmed as far as I recall.  For example, in the book, the Ghost of Christmas Past grows noticeably older before Scrooge's eyes as the day goes by, and the hand of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is a spectral hand, not a skeletal hand.

And there is no horse-driven hearse chasing Scrooge through the streets of London.  Apparently, Zemeckis took the hearse that went up Scrooge's staircase at the beginning of the book and converted it into a chase scene later in the movie.  Now, I wouldn't nominate the movie for any of the usual Razzies, but if I could nominate a single scene from a movie, this particular scene is bad.  It has nothing to do with the story, it kicks up my disbelief (rather than suspending it) it borrows from Lewis Carroll to shrink Scrooge (for some odd reason) and it is ridiculous.  It is as preposterous as the scene of stampeding brontosauruses in Peter Jackson's King Kong.  I know I'm in rare company around here for liking that movie, but the brontosaurus stampede was ridiculous and should have been re-thought and re-done if not completely cut out.  The same goes for the hearse scene in this movie. 

So, I propose this year's "Nuke The Fridge" award, in honor of Spielberg and Lucas giving us such a ridiculous movie scene, goes to Robert Zemeckis for the hearse chase scene in A Christmas Carol.

 

Ok. You're right. I'll respect his/her opinion until Michaels respects mine.

But anyway, which is the best movie version of the Christmas Carol story? I heard the 1951 version is the best. 

RESPONSE from Head RAZZberry: Since it is the most faithful to Dickens' original text -- And Alistair Sim perfectly captures the before-and-after versions of Scrooge -- I would concur that the 1951 British remake of A CHRISTMAS CAROL is the best done so far. The worst would have to be one of the Hanna Barberra animated ones -- Either A JETSONS' CHRISTMAS CAROL or A FLINTSTONES CHRISTMAS CAROL, both of which were done as holiday TV specials decades after the original shows left the air...

 

I saw the film today...

It's not bad...

I have to eat my words and say...

"This. isn't. Razzie worthy"

With that confession out of my system, it actually wasn't
bad. It's not the best movie ever, though. Decent at
best, with some fun moments and great visuals. Carrey is
actually very good in the film, in all of the roles...
but it was pointless to have Gary Oldman do the part of
Tiny Tim. His "motion-capture" in that role was so edited
that they should have saved the money and got a real kid
to play the part

Until today, Shakes the Clown was the last movie I walked out of. This
bastardization of Dickens book is so dreadful it deserves as many RAZZIE
nominations as it can gather. Worst Actor, Worst Supporting Actor, Worst
Screen Couple are absolute locks. with Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst
Remake and Worst Screenplay deservedly bringing up the REAR!

A new category should be established for Worst Effects, because that
deserves a nod too! There are just so many CGI effects one can take before
ODing with retinal hemorrhages!

My words, it's all there!  Mind you, I've only read the first part of the book, and Zemeckis did add things, but not nearly as much as other directors have added to past versions of A Christmas Carol.  But most of what Zemeckis did add, or subtract as the case may be, came from the original text itself.  Scrooge signing Marley's will?  In the book.  The guide dog dragging its blind master out of Scrooge's way?  In the book.  Bob Cratchett sliding down an ice hill where a bunch of boys were playing?  All in the book!  And what about the rebuke of Cratchett for using coal, or his going over to the exchange where he had the conversation with the charity raisers?  Not in the book, because, as Zemeckis showed it, the coal bin was in Scrooge's office under his sight (although Zemeckis locked it up), and the charity fundraisers came to Scrooge's office to have that famous and portentous discourse about the surplus population. 

The Internet is amazing, by the way.  All the books that are public domain, instead of buying a cheap copy at the bookstore like we used to, or buy a copy to read on your Kindle like they do now, you can instead read them online for free.  Here's A Christmas Carol, courtesy of Stormfax.

By the way, Cratchett is unnamed in this first section, and apparently a lot younger than even in Zemeckis' version, judging by him sliding down an ice slide 20 times and then running home to play Blindman's Bluff.  He's not a boy though, because it says he did it only in honor of Christmas Eve.

And, with all the other scary things Zemeckis added, why didn't he add Scrooge seeing a "locomotive hearse" going up the grand stairway before him as he was going to bed?  That would explain why Scrooge searched every room to make sure everything was safe and double-bolted his own bedroom door.  Oh, well, you only have so much time and so much money to do things.