The story of Scrooge and the ghosts who visit him on that fateful night is a tale as old as time, one which has been adapted in almost every way you could imagine and it is so engrained in society. With this in mind, if you decide to make a new version, you have to make it incredibly fresh.
This is what brother and sister duo Jacqui and David Morris have done, as they have decided to tell the story through a mix of modern dance and animation, as well as some other mediums, and have attracted some A-list voice talent to do voiceover work.
Carey Mulligan, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Andy Serkis and more all pop up but because of the medium are not able to particularly shine or show off their talents. Not seeing real actors talk or even the animated characters talk much (and this doesn’t always have to be the case, just look at classic silent cinema) means a lack of investment in these specific versions of the characters creeps in.
One thing this film does focus on more explicitly than most other versions is the focus on class disparity and the crushing issues caused by capitalism. Just this alone provides it with a unwise perspective and let’s you understand why they felt necessary to remake a classic.
The story is so well known that it is almost impossible to successfully put a new spin on it, and not everything about this film does work, but the modern dance elements do create a real ethereal and unique feeling to the film, a graceful haunting quality that personifies the tragedy that lies at the heart of this story.
Rating = 3/5
