Scrooge on cartoon? Bah, humbug!

The producer, Iain Harvey, and director, Jimmy Murakami, both played a big part in bringing us cartoon classics The Snowman and When The Wind Blows, so it would be fair to expect great things from this latest project.

But flat, unimaginative animation, an uninspired script and some strange twists to the plot just make this a whole load of humbug.

Some of the UK's acting artistocracy lend their voices to this seasonal story and the cast-list alone should have us rushing to the box office.

The great Simon Callow plays Ebenezer Scrooge, initially in live-action and then, as the animation takes over, as the voice of the miserable old miser who needs to be taught to care more about kindness and a great deal less about cash.

The film opens with Dickens in a Boston theatre. He is disturbed by a mouse when he is just about to begin a reading of his tale and from there on we get a strange and meandering apology for why the plot is "not quite the same one I wrote in the book".

This gives the writers license to add two irritating, Disneyfied mice and promote the character of Belle, Scrooge's lost love, to a nurse now in his debt.

Belle is voiced by Kate Winslet, who has taken the opportunity to launch her music career by releasing a track from the score, What If, which made it into the top 10 earlier this month.

Other big names taking part include Rhys Ifans, Nicolas Cage and Jane Horrocks but even this abundance of talent is not enough to lift the film from the mundane.

The movie was screened at the American Film Market back in February but there are still no buyers on that side of the pond they've obviously got more sense.

This is sure to be on the video shelves in time for next year's Christmas stockings but for now the most this film can offer is a few hours away from the frantic, last-minute chaos of the shopping centres. Other than that, I would save your money.

December 17, 2001 12:06

Tracey Kerr