 |
UK Release of film: December 7, 2001 (UIP) Running Time: 81 minutes
Cast: Simon Callow - Scrooge Kate Winslet - Belle (Scrooge's jilted fiancee) Nicholas Cage - Ghost of Marley Michael Gambon, Jane Horrocks, Rhys Ifans, Juliet Stevenson, Robert Llewellyn, Arthur Cox, Ian Jones
Executive Producers: Nik Powell, Ranier Mockert Producer: Iain Harvey Line Producer: Michael Algar Director: Jimmy T. Murakami Screenplay: Piet Kroon, Robert Llewellyn Editor: Taylor Grant Production
Designer:
Errol Bryant Sound:
Danny Hambrook Production start date: June 15, 2000
|
What If? Kate's single from the film was released Nov 26.
Go to the What If? page for music video, interview, and more.
Listen to the entire song at MP3.com!
|
|
News:
December 6, 2001: Three negative reviews were published today: Rejoice
- but not until you've left the cinema Film A stellar cast can’t save this Christmas dose of saccharin, says Damon Smith Christmas Carol - The Movie (U) TIS the season to be jolly, unless, sadly, you have to sit all the way through Christmas Carol The Movie. Made by the team responsible for The Snowman and When The Wind Blows, this $15million animated reworking of Charles Dickens is full of everything, except Yuletide spirit. Director Jimmy Murakami and his crew have reworked the timeless tale into a soppy love story, complete with cute critters in supporting roles. This Disneyfication of the classic text is underscored by a soundtrack of tearful ballads performed by the likes of Charlotte Church, Kate Winslet and The Tiffin Choir. On Christmas Eve, miser Scrooge (voiced by Simon Callow) is visited by the ghost of his dead partner, Jacob Marley (Nicholas Cage). The spectre warns Scrooge that three more spirits will visit him in the dead of night. The trio of ghosts - Christmas Past (voiced by Jane Horrocks), Christmas Present (Michael Gambon) and the silent Christmas Future - show the crotchety old man the error of his ways. They also reignite his passion for his one true love, Belle (Kate Winslet), whose own fate hangs precariously in the balance. Christmas Carol - The Movie combines live action, animation and digital paint techniques to bring the fable to life. Next to other recent animated features, the film is visually unappealing and lacks imagination. There's little to interest younger viewers - humour is woefully lacking and the newly introduced mice characters serve scant purpose. A dazzling A-list cast list is wasted.Vocal performances lack energy and Cage is almost unrecognisable in the briefest of supporting parts. A powerful tale of redemption has become a cliched melodrama, dripping with cheesy sentiment. On the plus side, Winslet's contribution to the soundtrack is impressive, and the running time is a sprightly 81 minutes. Praise be for small mercies. Rating: One out of five Source: Western Daily Press
Scrooge By Name Christmas
Carol - The Movie Parts of the film appear to have been parceled out to "best value" animation outfits in Estonia, Korea, Spain, Czechoslovakia and Poland: it's amazing they all sing from the same carol sheet. But although expanded to embrace the miser's lovely one-time fiancée Belle, and include two Disneyfied mice, Gabriel and Ellen, who have almost as much playing time as Ebenezer, the movie’s style belongs to almost 50 years ago. London town looks suitably wintry, but pale faces and flat outlines suggest more than Tiny Tim were starved; the population is generic, hardly individualised; the seasonable tones are lugubrious; the all-star "voice" cast includes Nicolas Cage, Jane Horrocks, Michael Gambon, Juliet Stevenson and Kate Winslet, but they might all be performing an uninspiring radio play, their tones have no imaginative visuals to animate them. Simon Callow tops and tails it, in the flesh for a minute or two as Dickens, then "voicing" Scrooge. The skinflint is no longer a cantankerous old curmudgeon, but a vain, even foppish chap preening himself in the mirror. Bold but self-destructive revisionism, for which even Callow's Dickens apologises to the Boston audience, to whom he's reading the story: "It's not quite the same one I wrote in the book." Source: Evening Standard
Another Christmas, another Christmas Carol. This animated version takes plenty of liberties with Dickens’s classic tale - lots of pointless fluff involving two ever-present mice, to start with. The hand-painted backgrounds are atmospherically gloomy, but the animation is simply not up to scratch: it’s mostly rudimentary, jerky and flat. The performances are strangely lifeless, too. Simon Callow comes off best as Scrooge; but Kate Winslet, Rhys Ifans and - bizarrely - Nicolas Cage make little impact. The whole project looks as though it suffered from a touch of the Scrooges itself. ~~Nigel Cliff Source: The Times
December 2, 2001: Great review of the film: Film
choice: Christmas Carol: The Movie: The Big Draw Christmas Carol: The Movie (U) The recent success of Nick Park has given British animation a platform it has never previously enjoyed. Before now, the chief animators were either based in southern California or eastern Europe, the two most noted and accomplished homes for draftsmen and story boards. But picking up the torch is the UK's Illuminated Films who deliver a seasonal favourite in this animated version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Such a familiar story is perfect fodder for the uncomplicated charm of animation. Thematically simple and propelled by an action narrative, A Christmas Carol has all the qualities that have traditionally transferred comfortably to the world of the cartoon. In the hands of director Jimmy T Murakami, who gave us When The Wind Blows, the much loved book is treated with due care and attention. The recreation of the period and the fantasy world of ghosts present, past and future give the film a depth and elegance seldom seen in the Disney-dominated world of creatures and capers. Christmas Carol: The Movie is family fare without the postmodern twists we have become accustomed to in films such as Toy Story or A Bug's Life. Other than the creation of a couple of comic mice, the film relies on the strengths of the story to work the magic. The voices chosen for the animated characters has become a major issue in recent years. Every cartoon now has to have a feast of familiar celebrity voices to portray the on-screen characters. In this case, the producers have wisely mixed super stars with super quality. Scrooge is charged with the gruff thunder of Simon Callow while Kate Winslet is the voice of Belle, the one time companion of Scrooge. Her voice brings a benign Mary Poppins-style decency to the table which manages to hit all the right notes as she desperately pleads with the debt-collecting Scrooge and tries to keep the poor children's hospital open. As Scrooge is visited and warned by the ghost of his former partner Jacob Marley, through the voice of Nicolas Cage, we see his intransigent selfishness being shaken when he is left with the words 'Change your ways'. No sooner has he dismissed the visit as a bad dream then the Ghost of Christmas Past (Jane Horrocks) gives him a glimpse of his own life as a child. In true Dickensian style even a villain such as Scrooge is given a lick of humanity as the ghost shows him how he was indoctrinated by his father to become an unyielding business man. Scrooge flies over the smoking rooftops watching a familiar world he had forgotten. By the time the Ghost of Christmas Present (Michael Gambon) introduces a world where the immediate effect of kindness brings sparkle and colour to the dark grim streets he normally treads, Scrooge is aware of a joy that has been missing from his life. The Ghost of Time reaps the world of possibility by showing Scrooge how he will finally pay the price for his years of ignorance and loathing. All of this is brilliantly realised by the animators, giving the film a specific feel and look that takes it beyond the cheap veneer of fast food cartoons and into the frame of a highly-polished, beautifully-engineered piece of animation. I could have done without the mice who are used as a light comic device, although I'm sure they will bring smiles, if not laughter, to children, who this is really aimed at. If you are becoming tired of the Harry Potter virus that has taken over your life, then Christmas Carol: The Movie offers more than a suitable antidote. The animation is a visual feast and the story is as resonant now as it ever was, transferring from the page without losing any of its truth and magic. Christmas Carol: The Movie is released on Friday. Source: Scotland on Sunday
November 30, 2001: Yahoo! Music has a nice review of the Christmas Carol soundtrack cd:
Source: Yahoo! Music The cd will be released on December 3rd and can be ordered from amazon.co.uk and hmv.co.uk.
November 26, 2001: Andy from EMI Records sent me links today to audio and video clips of 'What If?' (go to the What If? page), as well as a synopsis of the film and track listing for the soundtrack: Title Christmas Carol : The Movie ICPN 7243 5 36246 0 6 - Enhanced CD Release 26 November - UK & International
Tracklisting
November 2, 2001: A song from the film - What If, performed by Kate Winslet - can be downloaded from various sites, including MP3.com
October 17, 2001: Attention: UK Fans -- According to BBC Derby online, there will be a special screening of the film on Wednesday, December 5 at UCI Cinema at 7 PM. Call (01332) 361111 for tickets.
October 16, 2001: The music video for 'What If?' (performed by Kate Winslet) debuts on UK television Oct 17 on GMTV. The program is billed as 'Britain's biggest breakfast show' and is broadcast 6:00 am - 9:25 am.
October 11, 2001: A number of UK news sites have published today articles about bookmakers William Hill giving Kate's single from the film, What If? odds of 7/2 to be the 'Christmas Number One' record! Gennaro Castaldo, spokesperson for HMV commented: "When you hear it, you think maybe she missed her vocation. She's just got an amazingly strong voice. It's a really Christmassy song, and a very powerful ballad."
September 28, 2001: It looks like there will be quite a marketing push for the film. From a Civilian Content press release : Christmas Carol: The Movie, an animated adaptation of the Charles Dicken's moral tale from the team that created The Snowman and When the Wind Blows, is due for nationwide release on 30 November 2001. Featuring the voice talents of Nicholas Cage (Gone in 60 Seconds, Face Off), Kate Winslet (Titanic, Hideous Kinky) and Simon Callow (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Room with a View), it will be supported by an extensive licensing and merchandising programme, including five versions of the tie-in book from Transworld publishers, plus promotional link-ups with Hamleys, ToysRUs, Adams, Asda and Pizza Hut. Prior to the release of the film, both Kate Winslet (EMI Records) and Charlotte Church (Sony) will each release a single taken from the soundtrack.
September 18, 2001: I asked my contact at EMI Records about US and European release dates for 'What If?' and the soundtrack from the film. Here is his response: The soundtrack music recordings are available to all the 40 separate territorial EMI Records operations worldwide to issue in their own local markets ... but I cannot tell you what each separate territory will decide to do, especially where the movie release is still some 14 months away in many of those territories! The movie goes on general cinema release here in the UK in November (2001) and also in a few other countries, such as Spain. However, it appears that in many other countries they are holding the general cinema release of the movie over until November 2002! "The HMV Shop" (one of the UK's leading record retailers) will supply any UK release to anywhere in the world via their website ... so if any of Kate's fans find that the soundtrack recordings are not being issued in their country this year, then they should be able to get them through that site. (Sorry, but this is the only positive suggestion that I can provide.)
September 6, 2001: The trailer is online at mymovies.net. Included is a portion of 'What If?' Very nice! Go HERE, choose 'coming soon', then register with mymovies if you aren't already registered. Thanks to my pal Sylvia of Dougray Scott in Focus, who has been so nicely watching out for us 'Katers' while I try to keep up with all the news this week!
August 28, 2001: I received this morning notification from the folks at the Toronto Film Festival that the entire Official Film Schedule is now available online. A page on Christmas Carol: The Movie is now up on the festival site. CC:TM will be shown Saturday, September 15 at 12 PM at the Visa Screening Room (Elgin). The festival site contains this nice review of the film: Filmmakers
who dare to envision new versions of classic stories tread on
dangerous ground. Audiences have strong expectations about tales oft
told, especially those based on beloved books. The producers of Christmas
Carol - The Movie have assembled a creative team of such stellar
animation and storytelling pedigree, however, that the result - a
lively new take on Charles Dickens’s most popular fable - is an
assured success.
August 21, 2001: I just took a look at the official site for the Toronto Film Festival, which runs September 6-15, and find that Christmas Carol - The Movie will be screened at the festival! It’s in the ‘Special Presentations’ section: Special
Presentations: Visit the official site for box office and travel info. Here is some basic info on tickets: Subject to availability, advance single tickets may be purchased at the Festival Box Office beginning Wednesday, September 5th, 2001. Advance tickets for VIACOM Gala screenings at Roy Thomson Hall are $23.55; all other screening tickets are just $13.00. You do not require a Pass or Coupon Book to purchase single tickets. All prices include GST.
June 25 2001: "Kate Makes Secret Debut Single" -- Actress aims to top Christmas charts Titanic star Kate Winslet has set her sights on a Christmas number one after secretly recording a single. The actress jumped at the chance of singing for the soundtrack of her latest film. But producers were so impressed at her efforts they have decided to release the ballad - called What If? - as a single. And insiders say it has the chance of landing the British star with the coveted Christmas number one spot. Winslet provides the voice of the Ghost of Christmas Past in a new £10million animated version of the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol. But she was also smuggled into a London studio to record a ballad for the movie. The song was written by Steve Mac who has produced hits for Westlife, Boyzone and Five. Executives at EMI were so impressed they want the actress to make more recordings. They plan to release the record at the end of November at the same time as the film, which also features the voices of stars such as Nicholas Cage, Jane Horrocks and Simon Callow. The movie is produced by the team which made children's classic, The Snowman. They will be hoping to repeat their success when Aled Jones had a Christmas hit with Walking In The Air. An insider said: "This was just a one-off, but people are so excited. It's a terrific ballad. EMI will certainly hope to tempt Kate back into the recording studio again - she has a lovely voice." Winslet, who gave birth to daughter Mia eight months ago, asked that proceeds from the single be donated to the NSPCC and the Sargeant Cancer Foundation for Children. Source: The Mirror Several publications carried the news of the single, including The Daily Record, Sky News, People News, Reuters. Note: Kate’s character in the film is Belle, not the Ghost of Christmas Past.
May 2001: The 'official site' has been expanded. GO! The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival May 9, 13 and 14: Debuting Product: Christmas Carol - The Movie (U.K.; animation) ... A ghost story with a heart. (In production; availability: Benelux, France, Italy, Japan, U.S.A.)
"Christmas Carol - The Movie" is executive produced by Scala's Nik Powell (Little Voice, The Crying Game, Mona Lisa). Some of the film industry's most celebrated talents will provide the voices to bring the animated characters to life. Simon Callow (Four Weddings and a Funeral) is Scrooge, while leading Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage lends his voice to The Ghost of Marley and Kate Winslet brings life to Belle, Scrooge's jilted fiancée. The character voices for "Christmas Carol - The Movie" have already been recorded and the animation is currently underway, with a Christmas 2001 release anticipated. UIP will handle the UK release.
May 15, 2000: "Kate Winslet Set For Christmas Carol," By
James Morrison, Showbusiness Correspondent, PA News
|
Julian
Nott (Wallace And Gromit) and Steve Mac's soundtrack to the UIP's
animated interpretation of Dickens' tale combines haunting new
compositions with vital and stirring recordings of well established
festive pieces. Most notably, Kate Winslet, who plays Scrooge's jilted
fianceé, Belle, more than proves herself as a singer with her
powerful performance on the track, What If. Charlotte Church And The
Monks of Glenstal Abbey breathe life into Quis Est Deus, while
Charlotte returns later to take centre stage for the suitably poignant
It's The Heart That Matters Most. In the midst of this, The City of
Prague Philharmonic Orchestra provide the film's musical backbone with
a bed of character themes for Marley, Scrooge and even Dickens himself
(played in-the-flesh by Simon Callow in the live action part of the
flick).
"Christmas Carol - The
Movie", a co-production between the lluminated Film Company, MBP
and The Film Consortium. The film will be directed by Jimmy Murakami
and produced by Iain Harvey, the Oscar and BAFTA-nominated team who
brought us 'The Snowman' and 'When the Wind Blows'.