As another reviewer stated I also consider myself a Christmas Carol afficionado. I read the book each season and watch every version I own, which is substantial. I find it to be quite faithful to the book exept for the few instances he mentions. Yet, the film does contain other minor details such as the fact that Scrooge was suffering a cold at the time. However, they do not ruin the movie for me at all. Can I do without them? Yes, I can but they do not in any way detract from a wonderful movie that stays very close story-wise and dialogue-wise.

This movie is absolutely gorgeous to view. I can not wait to get this on Blu-Ray. It completely captured the feel of an 1800's England Christmas. I found the ghosts to all be unsettling and as my wife said "That was actually scary!" It may not be for kids to be honest. And I think that was the point - this wasn't originally written for children, it is a Christmas ghost story which was a very popular thing to do at the holiday times then. The ghosts weren't there to be nice and helpful, they were in Scrooge's life to matter-of-factly show him how he screwed up. I never got the feeling in any CC media that the ghosts truly cared for Scrooge's well-being.

Anyways, this is now an annual staple for my holiday traditions. P.S., I never really cared for Jim Carrey either.

I couldn't disagree more with those who have given this a low rating. I saw this movie in the theater, in 3D and thought it was one of the better movies of the holiday season. Although I couldn't quite understand why it was released so early, it should have been more of a Christmas time release instead of Thanksgiving. As far as the film itself I thought it was a good update on a classic story. While I don't consider myself an aficionado, I do know the story well and found it stayed true enough to it. The warmth and humanity of the characters is definitely still present. Then of course there is the 3D aspect, which completely blew me away. I've seen most of the 3D releases in the last year or so, and with the exception of Avatar this movie did the best job of utilizing it. Actually, I am more excited about this movie being released in 3D than any other movie, including Avatar. I'm just happy you'll be able to buy this movie alone and not bundled along with a TV. Hopefully this is the start of 3D Blu Ray movies be released minus the bundle. And I know Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is currently available but it's no where as good as this movie is.

I was expecting to dislike this film. The trailers for it made it seem like sugar-coated ephemera with little relation to Charles Dickens' original novella. Thankfully, the publicity was misleading. Dickens' subtitle for his tale was "A Ghost Story." And indeed he filled his prose with deliciously grotesque descriptions of London's dark alleyways (think Jack the Ripper's Whitechapel), a brooding sense that Scrooge has long been due his comeuppance, and, of course, the ghosts themselves. This film doesn't shy away from these darker elements of the story and perhaps comes closer than any other version to capturing its suspense. (The one exception is the classic 1951 Scrooge, directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Alistair Sim, with its atmospheric black-and-white cinematography.) On one hand, this is a plus for fans of the book. On the other hand, as with 2007's Bridge to Terabithia, parents unfamiliar with the source material may be misled into thinking the film is lighter than it actually is, resulting in much disgruntlement. I fall into the former category and was able to relish the film as a genuine ghost story. Unfortunately, I found the film's stylistic and cinematic finesse often came at the expense of narrative depth.

The title sequence displays Zemeckis' eye for detail. He quite effectively evokes the Dickensian London: dirty, mean, teeming with life and social inequity. This is no idealized, picturesque Christmas town, but a city in the midst of an Industrial Revolution.Read more ›

I came with an open mind. This, after all was the story my father had told us children, when we were snuggled up warm in our beds. He would plant a dining room chair in the hallway. And from memory he recited "the story of Scrooge." It was a little frightening, to be lying there in darkness, a bit of light streaming in from the hallway, as your father's voice suddenly turned all funny. He became, in turn, three spirits - voices different from Scrooge's own.

Dad did that each Christmas eve. Until we grew "too old for that," as he explained one year while putting his shaving soap on the tree, after putting up all the decorations, including the battered angel - the one my Mom got, that first Christmas in 1936 when Dad planted his first kiss on her lips, as they danced (he said) to English band leader Ray Noble's THE TOUCH OF YOUR LIPS.

Pardon my reverie . . . I just wanted to establish my credentials, for saying . . .

This is not merely the best version of my favorite story (Dad would tell you that; if he were alive this would be his 92nd Christmas). No, no. This is the most amazing "movie experience" that I have ever known. I cannot imagine how any film maker(s) could ever top this.

They had me hooked from the opening. The camera shows a beautifully bound copy of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. An invisible hand opens to the first page and those very words my own father composed . . .

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good . . . for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.Read more ›