User reviews

Did we need another A Christmas Carol film? No, probably not.

Was this worth it? Just for Luke Evans vocals alone I'd 100% say yes. Some of the songs were spectacular.

The animation was great, with exciting new imaginations of scenes. I think it was a successful modernisation of an over saturated film and will definitely get younger kids enjoying it, but maybe not enough to stand out alone if it wasn't a musical. There wasn't enough emphasis on some of the other characters stories, so you don't build much of an emotional connection with them. Some of the accents were pretty bad, and parts of the original script and wording is lost, which is important to its essence.

Despite that, it's enjoyable, and after all it's a children's film. I will be going back to replay Luke Evan's singing solos on repeat.

If you're going to make a remake at least try and improve something. The 1970 musical is the favorite version of this story at our house so we're a bit biased. It started out more original by incorporating Dickens childhood for Scrooges but then started semi-copying the musical numbers (rushed tempos and horribly shortened). And a dog??!! Scrooge was much too mean and stingy to have ever entertained having a pet. Hollywood - please please try doing something original. A new score would have been much better to go along with all the other changes that were made. It was like they wanted to tell it a new way but then kept changing their minds and copying bits and pieces of the well done 1970 version. Those who are unfamiliar with the Albert Finney masterpiece will enjoy it I think. But for those of us who treasure that version, this was all a bit confusing.

Ebeneezer Scrooge (Luke Evans) is a cold hearted miser who makes no secret of his contempt for the holidays as he runs his moneylending services with no room for compassion or humanity. Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his deceased partner, Jacob Marley (Jonathan Pryce) who is now condemned to wander the Earth in the shackles he forged in life and tells Scrooge that a similar fate awaits him with an even longer and heavier chain. Marley offers Scrooge a chance to avoid his fate by telling him three ghosts, the Ghosts of Christmas Past (Olivia Colman), Present (Trevor Dion Nicholas), and Future who show Scrooge his long forgotten past, its effects on those in the here and now, and what may happen if he continues on his course unaltered.

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol is yet another adaptation of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The film is produced by Timeless Films a UK based production company that specializes in low to mid budget animated features often produced as co-productions with China or Germany. Scrooge: A Christmas Carol marks the company's third film to debut on Netflix as an original following previous releases such as Pets United, Dragon Rider (aka Firedrake The Silver Dragon), and Extinct. The film is written and directed by Stephen Donnelly whose previous directorial effort was the direct-to-video animated film Monster High: Welcome to Monster High, but more commonly works as an art director such as the Timeless produced TV series Lost in Oz. The film takes inspiration from the 1970 musical Scrooge written by Leslie Bricusse (to whom the film is dedicated) who also wrote the 1967 Doctor Dolittle as well as assisted in the music for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with as well as credits across several other projects before his death in 2021. While Scrooge: A Christmas Carol indulges in a few well worn tropes of mainstream animated fare, this honestly isn't a bad revisit of Scrooge.

While the movie doesn't have the budget of larger studio produced animations being a smaller European production, the movie looks good for what it is and features some solid design work, character models, and smooth movements. Luke Evans makes for a solid take on Scrooge not playing it quite up to the level of over-the-top that Albert Finney did in the original take on the musical material in 1970, but Evans strikes a nice balance between the over the top pageantry of something like this as well as the more subtle character moments with a particularly well staged scene in Scrooge's past where his lost love sees his cruelty during a debt collection which leads to a really strong song "Life Never Came" which is one of the new songs that Bricusse wrote and contributed prior to his passing and it's a really solid sequence both in terms of animation, music, and performances by Luke Evans and Jessie Buckley. The movie also features revisits and remixes of songs that previously appeared in the 1970 film also written by Bricusse such as "I Like Life", "Thank You Very Much", "The Beautiful Day", and "I'll Begin Again". The rest of the cast is very good across the board with Johnny Flynn strong as Bob Cratchit, Olivia Colman very good as the Ghost of Christmas Past, and Trevor Dion Nicholas playing a very large personality as The Ghost of Christmas present that certainly fits with his performance, but Dion Nicholas also played the Genie in a west end production of Disney's Aladdin stage musical and it does feel like the movie is trying to capture that to a degree.

The movie remixes various elements of the Dickens story as well as the original layout of the 1970 film so even though familiar beats are struck throughout the film, there are differences in details and delivery that are quite unique. One of the elements they do is change Scrooge's relationship with his nephew by incorporating a reason why Scrooge holds him at a distance which recontextualizes an element from other versions of this story such as the George C. Scott one from 1984 and for the most part I think it's done very well. The movie also tries to extend the link between Bob Cratchit and Scrooge by creating an additional encounter in the past and I think it mostly works. In terms of aesthetics, the ghosts are all well designed with the transition between Ghost of Christmas Present to Ghost of Christmas Future a particularly memorable and unique take on the ghosts that I did like. Some elements such as the inclusion of Scrooge's pet dog Prudence or impish creatures called Cheerlings that seem like they go to the minion school of animated assets did seem a little out of place and didn't really add all that much, but I've seen those kind of elements incorporated more poorly (looking at you King and I 1999) and their inclusion here isn't all that distracting luckily.

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol is an enjoyable mid budget animated take on the classic Christmas story that features some decent revisits of the songs by the late great Leslie Bricusse and a strong cast who add effort and energy to the material. In terms of its placement among the many tellings of this story, I'm not quite sure where I'd rank this, but I'd probably be more inclined to revisit this than some larger scale versions of this story like the Robert Zemeckis "rollercoaster" 3D approach he did with Jim Carrey or the three hour Steven Knight miniseries that upped the darkness and taboo material largely suffocating the themes of redemption. If you like the fun pageantry of something like the 1970 Scrooge, you'll find a lot to appreciate here with it.

I'm a bit of a Scrooge-a-holic, always looking for new versions of the classic tale. While the animation here was quite striking, what they did with it added little to the story. A Christmas Carol is a story of redemption. This Scrooge is terrorized by the characters he encounters. After seeing his headstone, he falls into a kind of hell, ending up in his bedroom. Was this a story of redemption or an ugly assault on the senses. Because all the children looked bright eyed and healthy, even Tiny Tim, I couldn't buy into the pathos. Dickens meant the world to be a dark one because it reflected what many in Victorian England faced every day: poverty, hopelessness, and fear. Scrooge, in the original, propagated that through indifference and inaction. By the way, I found the nephew absolutely insufferable and Cratchit way too insignificant. We get little character development and some of the best parts of the story are glossed over or treated without foundation. I also found the dog silly and unnecessary.

What. The frick. Did I. Just. Watch.

This is a supposed remake of the brilliant and beautiful and loveable 1970's version of "A Christmas Carol" with Albert Finney. This completely desecrated said movie and the whole beautiful tale of "A Christmas Carol".

First of all, it is canon that Scrooge is NOT a victim of circumstance. He is an absolute miserable old miser, a crotchety old man and completely unlikeable. This Scrooge was a strange silver fox and completely TOO likeable. Scrooge is an OLD DUDE, NOT A HUNK OF BURNING LOVE. The whole point of Scrooge's character is the hope of redemption/repentance and of hard change. Not the easy "Oh wow yeah I can change" that this movie portrayed. There was no great gradual change, no resolution with Cratchit and Fred (who, for whatever reason has a totally different name??? Wth was up with that????)

Wtf is up with the dog??? There was no point. Absolutely none.

Background work? Totally lazy. Like the animators said, "oh we didn't render that so we'll just go to Doctor Strange's Astral Plane".

Also, the ghosts. Past? Annoying AF. Sweet mother of potatoes my ears are BLEEDING. Why does she repeat everything, and why does she look like a giant pile of nacho cheese? AND WHY DID SHE STEAL THE DOCTORS ICONIC PHRASE?! Uh uh, honey. Absolutely not. Why was Christmas Present so freaking WEIRD???!? And why does he directly quote the Cave of Wonders? Ghost of Future was NOT scary. He looked like a weird scarecrow, and the costume came straight from Party City.

The songs were so cringy, especially the repeated ones from the Albert Finney. Especially "Thank You Very Much" - I feel physically ill. Just use different songs, OR sing them like they were meant to in the original movie. For the love of Christmas, don't modernize it.

AND STOP TALKING DOWN TO THE AUDIENCE. WE GET THE SYMBOLISM. YOU DONT HAVE TO SHOW US EVERY FRICKIN THING AS A PARALLEL IN THE SKY.

Pros: Luke Evans has a very pleasant, beautiful voice.

Cons: everything else. I am Scrooge. Humbug.

The movie itself isn't that bad, it's a faithful adaptation, but that's what I don't like about it.

The story of A Christmas Carol has been retold so many times that I feel there really needs to be strong justification to make yet another adaptation. I mean, what's even the point of making a movie if you're just going to tell the exact same story that's been told ad nauseam?

There's nothing original about this one other than a few musical numbers and a dog, it's essentially the same movie we've all seen dozens of times before. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if every single line was pulled directly from another adaptation, it's so generic that they didn't even need to bother hiring writers.

There have been over 100 versions of this story on film and TV in the last 100 years or so.

This one, while competently made, adds nothing to the canon.

It is technically well enough done and has some fine glitz and glitter, but the plot is truncated to the point of abandonment; the character development isn't; the songs, with some exceptions are lifeless and listless.

How can I say this: even Tiny Tim comes off as a two-minute afterthought.

It's not that the story can't abide restaging. The best may still be the 1951 Alistair Sim, but the 1992 Muppet version was fresh and winning, and eve last month's Spirited gave us some pizzaz and some energy.

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol 2022, while not bad, per se, was as unnecessary a project as I can remember.

I am one of those people that can love movies solely on the artwork and music. This movie served several, strong music "reveal" moments. I would compare it to how you felt the first time you watched "Show Yourself" and/or "Rewrite the Stars." So many of those moments. Also, I found it to be hilarious. If you're big on the traditional Dickens style, this may not be the movie for you. Because it's loosely comparable. CAN BE SCARY FOR SOME KIDDOS. The ending is a little darker than maybe some of the other adaptations. I would say it's similar to the Moana ending. All in all, I wept through the whole thing, lol. My Spotify playlist gained nearly the whole soundtrack!

Going into this, I hadn't seen the trailer, promotional images, cast, *nothing*. All I saw was a new Christmas Carol adaptation, but animated, on my Netflix Recommended, so I clicked play!

Going-in blind, I was pleasantly surprised by the fact it was a musical, and even more surprised when I heard *familiar* songs, because it turns-out this is a remake of my all-time favourite adaptation from 1970!

The animation is beautiful, the voice acting great, and the plot additions work really well, although there are classic elements from the book that were admittedly missed. Music-wise, the new versions of the old songs were pleasant although I admit I didn't enjoy them quite as much as the original, and the new songs were lovely additions.

I love how child-friendly this is! Reminiscent of The Muppet Christmas Carol, with the darker elements lessened and lighter elements added, and of course the songs. The animation and direction is *stunning* in my opinion and I think children will love it.

I see a lot of one star reviews from fans of the original, and that saddens me. Open your minds and your hearts! This adaptation was written by the same man - Leslie Bricusse - who did the original 1970 film, and yes, that includes the new songs. Sadly, he passed-away last year (2021) during production (RIP).

All-in-all a wonderful adaptation, enjoyable by newbies, and fans of the original who can open themselves to it.

Merry Christmas!

I was quite surprised to see that this year has two films based on the classic story of a Christmas Carol, first the movie Spirited and now this lovely film. The two are also musicals as well, but the first is live action, while this one is animated. Even though the classic story has been done many times, this remake was very entertaining, the animation work is very remarkable, the musical numbers are very good and moving, and the voice actors are brilliant; Luke Evans did a marvelous job, he's of course no stranger to musicals, and the rest of the cast were very nice as well. The film has a lot of funny moments, besides the touching moments also. I loved it a lot and it's a great addition to the Christmas movie list.

When I heard there was a new version of a Leslie Bricusse's musical I was intrigued, so I watched it.

CGI, music, great songs... I was really looking forward to revisiting one of my favourite stories.

Well, I am torn. While it is admirable that another version of the story has been made (I love the story), this is a very superficial telling. The CGI is clearly well done, but still manages to feel flat, and it feels that money has been thrown at animation without using any budget to create any warmth, so basically you end up not caring less about any of the characters.

Finally, I must mention the music. If you are going to have a new film version of the musical, at least put some of the songs in it. It's bare, and feels like a musical by numbers with little effort.

Avoid.

Homage to Roald Neame version of Scrooge, it is , for CGI more, a seductive animation inspired by the classic novel. And, sure imaginative at whole, reminding the good tastes of the fascinations specific to childhood.

I like Prudence , against the strange idea about a Scrooge as owner of a pet, I admire the scene about connection , in past, between Robert Cratchit and Ebenezer, like the inspired option for Jonathan Pryce for ghost of Jacob Marley, remembering the old beautiful work of Alec Guinness in the original version.

It is unfair to critic it . First, because it is a new demonstration of hard work with a not significant budget and about large possibilities offered by technology today. Second, because i am too old for critics. My favorit options are in the past . And this correct , imaginative, seductive Scrooge, like a noble hommage to work for 1970 Scrooge, has the beautiful virtue to remind, in fair manner,the splendid art of leslie bricusse.

Yet another film transposition of one of the most beautiful and iconic Christmas stories of all time and I can say by heart that this is the ugliest and least faithful of all, even if the film itself is not bad but when compared to all the others done so far this is the worst done. The main problems of the film are two, one is the dog that has absolutely nothing to do with it and is just annoying for most of the film and the other is the fact that the film is too childish, denaturing the more adult part of the original work in favor of an audience of small children, thus taking away a lot from the original teaching of history to make it more likeable.

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol (2022) is a movie my daughter and I recently watched on Netflix. The storyline follows the Charles Dickens tale as Scrooge learns the errors of his way, how he got here and what he can do to change them...if he gets a chance to change them.

This picture is directed by Stephen Donnelly (Lost in the Oz) and contains the voices of Luke Evans (Dracula Untold), Olivia Colman (The Lobster), Jonathan Pryce (Tomorrow Never Dies), Johnny Flynn (The Outfit) and James Cosmo (Beaveheart).

The animation in this is outstanding and this may be my all time favorite depiction of the ghosts. The ghosts are unique and so are the way their powers work. Luke Evans voice felt a little young for Scrooge but his accent worked. The depiction of Bob Cratchet, his family, their home and lifestyle was good. The dialogue is well written and Cratchet's wife was hilarious. The ending resolve was perfect as always.

Overall, this is a worthwhile addition the the animated holiday film genre. I would score this a 7/10 and recommend seeing it once.

Firstly I need to clarify that the muppets own this story in celluloid format, doesn't mean there can't be others, but if you can still make a film annually rewatchable, despite Michael Cain's lame performance, then that's pure magic.

Back to this film, I'm doing this from an adult perspective and let's just say I'm glad I relaxed into this one with a little 420 - there's enough colour and sparkle to keep you a little transfixed.

The animation itself at times really annoyed me, mainly due to its consistency, when everything full throttle, time cracking and neon blazing it all works really well. When it's Victorian London goes broadway not so much.

I'm not sure if it was my eyes, but the style seemed to constantly change from almost classic cartoon like to early morning kids tv show cgi and only really hitting it when it was perfectly between the two.

Personally once we'd moved onto Christmas present and future the visuals got better and so did the colourful imagination. I thought the transitions from one time to another and all the detailed quirks of each ghost's universe were all really well thought out and entertaining.

Throughout the motion, colours, framing are all on top form, again it's only the cgi that distracts you from this at times.

I'm not a fan of these types of songs, but they seemed to belt them out pretty well and it's the singing numbers that go all out on the crazy so I was happy to watch.

Overall it's not going to be a film on my go to Christmas countdown watch list, but I'd happily watch it again if I had some time to kill or needed a "in the background movie"and it popped up somewhere around the holiday season.

At the end of the day, it's just another version of a Christmas Carol and it's quite hard to retell a story that has been done countless times. This one though is a little different based purely on the soundtrack. The vocals are simply stunning and the songs themselves are perfectly done. I originally put this on as background noise and stopped in my tracks each time there was a song so put it on properly. I'm also now desperate for this version to be put on the stage because I'd be front of that queue, especially with the same cast. I also thought the spirits were well done. Like i said it's hard to come up with an original concept but I do think they managed it with the spirits while keeping to the story.

Netflix produces a CG animated musical version of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". It's apparently a remake of Scrooge (1970) although I've never heard of that one. This has a bit more of Ebenezer Scrooge's story. I like his failure with Isabel Fezziwig. Their breakup produces a pretty good song. I mostly like it because it advances the story. Their relationship adds a bit of tragedy to his life. On the other hand, I really don't like the dog which softens Scrooge too much. He could have a mean guard dog, but this dog is too nice. In many ways, this whole movie softens Scrooge too much. It's trying to justify his greed and his meanness.

As for the need for another version, there is rarely actual need to redo the classics. It doesn't mean that all the new versions need to be wipe off the face of the Earth. It does mean that the new ones have to be good to earn their place on the all-time list. This one is not going on that list.

Sigh. Where to begin? If there had even been a half decent attempt to remain true to the period, this might have been decent. Instead, they chose to put jazzy, Broadway-esque forgettable songs in Victorian England. If that was the score you wanted, you should have modernized it.

Then there's the casting - Luke Evans as Scrooge was a horrible choice. He over sings anyway, but as Scrooge? Here's a man who is supposed to be elderly and he's singing and riffing, belting out these songs like the young man he is. No. Just NO.

Horrible acting...horrible script....horrible music. I'll take Muppet Christmas Carol over this any day of the week.

I felt this was a good rendtion of the classic story. But having said that there are a few things that do bother me with this movie. First although shes cute the addition of prudence is a bit of a mystery. Im surprised scrooge would ever care for a dog since he dosn't even like people. But really it is more of a kid version which might be why she was included. And really it was nice to see a new character. The cratchets seem to have 7 kids out of nowhere as well. Luke evens provides the voice of scrooge and man what a great voice he truely has. Others like olivia coloman and such would all good. There were dark unchild friendly parts in this film which there always is but they were still lighthearted to an extent. I enjoyed the animation style and thought overall it was enjoyable but still not the best version that has been made.

This is a retelling of the classic Dickens novella. Scrooge is a miser who gets visited by his relative's ghost, then gets guided through his past, the people he lives with in the present, and the grim future which is about to come if he doesn't change. The story demonstrated by the movie has a good message about the importance of change and becoming kind, even if bad things have happened in the past. It is filled with clichés - of course this is partly because the original story has became one.

• The first part where his past was revisited was the most well done. We get to know where he came from, his character gets nuanced by knowing his hardships and mistakes, and he starts to reevaluate things. The first ghost was enjoyable.

• The second part is about the present where we observe how the people around him relate to him. This is where things start to get nonsense. Everybody is too good and even tho he is unlikable, people still have faith in them. While unreasonable, I can accept it as a good message about believing in people. The second ghost was slightly annoying. The flying elf things were introduced here whose presence was unnecessary and bothering.

• The third part is about the cruel future which was portrayed in a super simplistic yet hugely over dramatized way. The thing that people celebrate about is nonsensical especially since he isn't really a vicious evil man, "just" a miser who doesn't know grace. The third ghost, especially his speechless observing nature is really well done. At this point fear also becomes a motivation of change which makes the change less genuine.

Character development started well but it became rushed especially in the third part. Even if what the third ghost showed are indeed the prospects of the future, and changing out of fear is still better than not changing, it would have been better if the change was induced because of the realization of one's mistakes and how his actions affect others. The character changes immediately and starts to do everything perfectly. There were no subtleness in the process. Also, this isn't really a funny movie. Don't expect jokes.

Picture is well done. It isn't mind blowing, but the visuals were the best part of the movie. The town has superb Christmas vibes, it would have been great if they showed more of it. The "dreams" and songs were really colorfull and saturated in a good way. This will hook the younger ones.

This is also a musical with many songs ranging on a broad spectrum. "Later Never Comes" was good, but most of the songs were mediocre or just okay, with some of them being plain unnecesary, adding nothing to the story. It would have been better leaving some of them out and spending more time with character development. Voiceovers were okay but some of the voices weren't fitting to the characters. Hungarian dubbing was also decent but when it comes to the songs the original ones are better.

All in all, it worth a singular watch, especially during Christmas considering its visuals. It has some good messages digestible for kids but it lacks deepness.