A Christmas Carol

From director Robert Zemeckis, who brought the world 'Forrest Gump' and 'Beowulf', comes the Disney adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic 'A Christmas Carol'.

This festive season staple gets trotted out every year round about this time, but I guarantee you that you've never seen an adaptation quite like this one. Gone is the squishy Christmas sentimentality. This movie is definitely not for kids.

One of the major crimes of movie-making in the last few years has been the dumbing down of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'. In most adaptations, the terrifying appearance of Marley's restless spirit takes on more of a comical Casper-the-friendly-ghost feeling, and Scrooge is more of a grumpy old man who just needs a hug, rather than the truly awful person of Dickens' creation. But this film's mission was to stick as close to Dickens' novella as possible — and for the most part, it succeeded.

Don't let the fact that this film is a) an animated movie and b) made by Disney fool you into thinking that this is a children's movie. It is most certainly not. Zemeckis insisted that the dialogue be lifted directly from the novel, which is fantastic if you are a fan of Dickens, but not so much if you're trying to find a way to entertain your six-year-old.

There are also some scenes that are truly frightening — Marley's return and Scrooge's meeting with Christmas-Yet-To-Come left me shaken, and will no doubt terrify younger children. The film comes with an age restriction of 10 which I urge parents to adhere to.

The animation is incredible. Zemeckis has made use of motion-capture technology to maximise the character animation, and the 3D effects are truly breathtaking. It is a visually stunning portrait of England in the 1800s, and both the scenery and the characters are works of art.

Jim Carrey plays four of the main roles in the film — the main character, Scrooge, as well as the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet-to-come. There is no denying that Carrey is one of the best character actors of our time, and his vocal performances for this film are astounding. Carrey is accompanied by a stellar cast, including Colin Firth as Scrooge's nephew Fred and Gary Oldman as his clerk Kratchitt and Kratchitt's son Tiny Tim.

Despite such an outstanding cast, there isn't much space to connect with other characters except old Scrooge. Carrey dominates the board (understandably), and instead of Tiny Tim being the embodiment of quiet strength and Christmas spirit, he makes a sort of cameo appearance to utter his famous line. Also, the distinction between the rich and the poor — the backdrop of almost all of Dickens' work — is skimmed over entirely, and so Scrooge's miserly ways are much less shocking than they should be.

In all, while this is a good movie and definitely one of the better adaptations of 'A Christmas Carol', it fails to deliver that which would make it great: the moral transformation at the heart of the novella.

A Christmas Carol This festive staple gets trotted out every year, but you've never seen a version like this one.

What was Joost thinking? Would somebody please tell me what the hell is going on in Joost van der Westhuizen's brain?

TAR: Bombay's away! This week's destination was Mumbai, and things couldn't go worse for the Big Friendly Goths.