Archive for November 6th, 2009

Short Take: The animation will leave you breathless, and the story is satisfyingly loyal

Director: Robert Zemeckis (Beowulf, Forest Gump)

Screenwriter: Robert Zemeckis, Charles Dickens (story)

Cast: Jim Carrey (Yes Man), Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight), Robin Wright Penn (State of Play), Bob Hoskins (Hollywoodland), Colin Firth (Love Actually)

Length: 1h 36m

Synopsis: A retelling of the Charles Dickens classic where when an old, greedy curmudgeon named Ebenezer Scrooge (Carrey) is visited by various spirits on Christmas eve who try to teach him the error of his ways in order to save his soul.

Analysis: Before anything else, I must make something perfectly clear: this film has the absolute best animation of any CG movie yet made. The artists at Imagemovers Digital have achieved a level of detail and realism that, thanks in no small part to new motion-capture technology, outdoes even the incredible animation of Pixar’s Wall-E. With the help of 3D technology the environments in and around Victorian London look real and genuine to the point where you’d swear you could walk around and interact with  them as if they truly existed. The same studio that brought us 2007’s Beowulf, Monster House, and The Polar Express, outdoes itself yet again, leaving us wonder how they can possibly improve their efforts for their next film. Read the rest of this entry »