November 17, 2010 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • Page 25 Disney update of Dickens tale comes to small screen by Dennis Seuling “A Christmas Carol” (Disney) is an animated version of the Charles Dickens’ tale of Ebeneezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey), a businessman who has devoted his life to amassing money at the cost of love and family. He is the antithesis of joy and happiness as he toils away in his chilly office with clerk Bob Cratchit (Gary Oldman). As Scrooge retires to bed one Christmas Eve, he is visited by the ghost of his dead partner, Marley (Oldman again), who warns that Scrooge will be visited by three ghosts who will unfold an overview of Scrooge’s life: past, present, and future. The opening scenes are pure magic as low-flying views of 19th-century London sweep viewers through streets, above buildings, down alleys, and around corners, providing an aerial tour of the entire city. Scrooge is also shown unemotionally removing the two pennies the undertaker placed on dead Marley’s eyes. The visit of Marley’s ghost is one of the best scenes, conjuring up a gruesome, bluish specter laden by chains and weights -- the burdens of mankind, Marley explains. This wonderful opening soon gives way to a showcase of overly busy scenes designed more to display special effects than to serve the plot. There are scenes of Scrooge flying, Superman-like, over buildings, spirited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, and more aerial images shown through the floor of Scrooge’s flying bedroom courtesy of the Ghost of Christmas Present. Transported by the Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come, a shrunken Scrooge scampers among cobblestones and slaloms through pipes, turning the film into a Tom & Jerry cartoon. These excesses are distracting and take viewers out of the period. It’s disappointing that the reformed Scrooge gets little screen time. These scenes, in contrast to those of the miserable misanthrope he was, should be joyful and exhilarating. There should be more attention here and less time showing off a flying Scrooge. “A Christmas Carol” is available in a deluxe four-disc set containing Blu-ray 3-D, Blu-ray, DVD, and digital copy, the animated short “Mr. Scrooge’s Wild Ride,” several featurettes, and deleted scenes. “A Christmas Carol” is also available in standard Blu-ray and DVD versions. “Mutiny on the Bounty” (Warner Home Video) is celebrating its 75th anniversary. The film tells the true story of the HMS Bounty, a British ship en route to Tahiti by way of Cape Horn. Charles Laughton stars The Ghost of Christmas Present and Ebeneezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey). as Captain Bligh, who commands with the law of fear. Clark Gable is first officer Fletcher Christian, whose will to obey erodes under Bligh’s tyranny. 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