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Charles Dickens' novel has inspired countless film and TV versions over the years, with the role of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge played by everyone from Alastair Sim to Bill Murray. It has also inspired a slew of animated adaptations featuring Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny and the Flintstones, not to mention a Muppets pastiche with Michael Caine.
All of which means "Christmas Carol - The Movie" has a lot to live up to. The bad news is that it proves unequal to the challenge.
Part of the problem lies in the bland and lifeless animation, which rarely rises above the primitive level of Saturday morning cartoons. But far more damaging is the way co-writers Piet Kroon and Robert Llewellyn (of Red Dwarf fame) have presumed to improve upon the original.
The film starts with a live-action prologue showing Dickens (Callow) arriving in Boston to read "A Christmas Carol" to his American fans. Emboldened by this interesting opening gambit, the writers see fit to retell the story through the eyes of a couple of mice - a cutesy device out of keeping with the bitter tone of Dickens' instructional tome. They also provide Scrooge with a simpering love interest, impassively voiced by Kate Winslet.
Quite why Callow, who has toured the globe playing Dickens on stage, allowed his hero to be served so poorly is a mystery. A pity the film as a whole could not match Winslet's singing voice, the only ripe plum in an otherwise rum pudding.
