Charles Dickens' classic story A Christmas Carol is probably one of the most familiar Christmas stories next to A Charlie Brown Christmas. It's been told and retold by everyone from the Muppets to Captain Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) to my own dad (who appeared as Scrooge in a musical for the Air Force base we were stationed at in the Philippines). I read there's something like twenty different film version of A Christmas Carol, which makes it hard for any new film version of this tale to stand out. Well, Robert Zemeckis' version stands out as not only the first motion-captured version of the story, but also as the most action-packed. That's all fine and good, but regardless of whether or not it stands out, the real question is whether or not it's any good.

This latest interpretation of Dickens' story gets a lot right. For instance, it absolutely understands that this is primarily a ghost story. Many versions ofA Christmas Carol overlook that part and make the ghosts far too cute and friendly. This version captures just how spooky and otherworldly it would be to have three ghosts visit you throughout the night, or just how creepy it would be to see your long-dead partner clunking around with a bunch of chains tied to him. It's because of the slightly more creepy take on this story I wouldn't take my younger kids to go see this version as it would be a bit too spooky for them. However, older kids (say ten or older) shouldn't have any trouble with it.

Another reason I probably wouldn't take my kids is because they would most likely be bored. Charles Dickens didn't write a children's story, although it's often related as such, and due to its faithfulness to the Dickens text, this version really isn't a kids' story either. Much of the dialogue is taken right from the text, thereby making it (I would imagine) fairly uninteresting for little kids. Yet what might make the movie boring for little ones made it far more interesting for me. I really enjoyed the fact that so much of the dialogue was directly taken from the original work. Having Jim Carrey (who does a great job) deliver those lines highlights just how funny many of them were. In fact, I wonder if Charles Dickens might have had someone like Carrey in mind when he wrote the dialogue for Scrooge as having the right actor put a voice to these lines highlight just how sardonically witty and funny they really are. Nevertheless, the olde English style of the dialogue will most likely bore younger kids, but again,this isn't really a kids' story to begin with.

Now all of that is not to say that this version of A Christmas Carol is a bore, because as I mentioned, it's probably one of the most action-packed versions I've seen; which is both a strength and a weakness. It's a strength because a lot of it is pretty fun, especially in 3D. You fly around London and through snow covered forests, you rocket into the sky and slide down roofs, you travel through the city in a flying house and so much more. In fact, it's all so action-packed and Scrooge spends so much time running and falling and flying through the air that I found myself hoping I'm in as good of shape as he is when I'm that old. Heck, I'd like to be in that kind of shape now. With the exception of a chase scene that goes on far too long, most of these moments give the story a kinetic energy and a manic pace in short spurts that keep things exciting.

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