This fine, if thoroughly unremarkable movie is a basic retelling of Charles Dickens' classic fable with few minor alterations. Simon Callow plays Dickens in the two live action pieces that bookend the film, and he also lends his voice to Scrooge. Of course, as pretty much everyone is aware, at the start of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is a miserable ould git. Yet on Christmas Eve, he's visited by several ghosts - including his former partner, Jacob Marley (voiced by Nic Cage) and the various ghosts of Christmas. Having seen the error of his ways, Scrooge decides to change for the better. Although the animation is not in the same class as some of the other films that have appeared this year, Christmas Carol is a decent excursion. There's a host of star vocal cameos and the narrative moves at a feisty pace. On the downside, the movie seems to want to emulate the worst excesses of Disney and Murakami never takes any real chances with the material.
