A Christmas Carol 3D Blu-ray (2009) [Region Free]

[disco1979]

Originally Posted by hariseldon

For a while, the large majority of players had 3D capability included other than the super economy models. As I understand it was a minimal cost added.

Ah, that makes sense. Interesting. Well, I'm glad I bought it even if my original intention was not to use it for 3D movies.

[emailking]

Well yall got me to watch it. Cost me $60 to get a new copy! Was a good time of year to watch it though.

The movie was ok. I guess I've just seen so many adaptations of this now and copycat storylines that I'm just kind of numb to the whole thing. If you could come into it completely fresh somehow it might be a lot more impactful, especially the stuff with the future spirit.

I watched some of the special features. I thought it was interesting that the filmakers think this is the first time that the book has been properly adapted to a movie. Of course that's not that difficult with animation. With motion capture maybe, but I imagine they could have done it as a cartoon a long time ago. Mickey's Christmas Carol was kind of an exaggeration, plus involved non-humans.

I don't know how I missed this before. It was probably before I had a 3D TV. Anyway, the 3D is absolutely excellent. Medium strong to strong depth throughout. Several popout moments. I appreciate they tried to make a faithful rendition of the novel, but I was more interested in the 3D in this case than the movie.

[thestrangestick]

I also watched this for the first time this xmas. I thought it was utterly bizarre in a good way.

Firstly, this is NOT a kids movie. I mean, even aside from the animation, which is uncanny valley levels of horrifying at times, it's so pyschedelic, so all out, so completely off the wall and just downright creepy and even horrific. That's not a complaint because it was compelling, but I consider this to be premium nightmare fuel for kids. I know if I watched this as a child I would be having nightmares for weeks. I found it so bizarre that this is a Disney xmas movie.

I give it a lot of respect for using what I believe to be original dialogue from the book. Again, as an adult I can follow it, but I have to believe that kids would really struggle. It's Victorian Shakespeare as far as being that much different to modern English. Another marker on the 'I can't believe this is a Disney movie' scoresheet.

The animation has not aged well at all. It's interesting to think that this came out the same year as Avatar, because that holds up well, but this is so clearly dated. It's actually a crying shame, because I know I am fickle for thinking this, but it kind of ruined the movie for me a little. It's just too creepy and 'off'. Not as bad as the Polar Express, and some shots (especially at distance) looked great, but I can't help but think if this came out even 2-3 years later it would have had good enough technology behind it at that point to be kind of timeless. Or even if they had gone for a less 'realistic' style with tech that couldn't back it up. I can't imagine watching this again because the animation, to a cynic like me, is a niggling reminder that this movie could be so much more.

The 3D is definitely very good, although I didn't think it was excellent. Maybe because I was distracted by the animation, but I also felt like this movie could really have benefitted from being 16:9.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and I have a lot of respect that it was ever made because it's so unique and does its own thing in a completely unapologetic way. But yeah, can't see myself watching it again.

[dartfrog298]

One of my annual viewing pleasures. Love everything about this adaptation.

[Jbug]

Originally Posted by dartfrog298

One of my annual viewing pleasures. Love everything about this adaptation.

Same here.

[GreatGreg]

A great adaptation. The CGI really brings out the imagination in this film.

[Nesmaster75]

Originally Posted by mar3o

I posted this in the 2D thread but got no response so I'll try here.

I started watching the 3D disc yesterday and suddenly the disc froze just as the scene with the horses started up late in the film. My Panasonic player couldn't get past that spot. I couldn't skip forward either. I ejected the disc and checked to see if it was clean and scratch-free (it was) and tried again and it froze in the same exact spot. The disc played fine up until then. I also watched this disc last year and when we first got it, and the disc has played fine previously. I bought a new Panasonic 3D blu-ray player this past January so this is the first time I played this disc on this player. Last year it was played on my old Panasonic 3D player and there were no issues.

Has anybody else had an issue like this with this disc? The set is several years old now so I doubt I could get a replacement 3D disc which is a shame. I hope the disc didn't go bad. I don't have another 3D player to try this in. So I don't know if the disc is going bad or if it's some issue with my Panasonic player. Yes, it's up to date on firmware. Also, I just bought it this past January and this 4-disc set is several years old so there's shouldn't be any compatibility issue. Very frustrating. This set was expensive when I bought it several years ago.

EDIT: I just tried it in my PC using Cyberlink and it froze at the exact same spot, then the screen started chugging and struggling and everything became pixellated for about a minute. Then it got better for a moment, but when I tried to skip a little bit forward, the disc froze again and became all blocky and pixellated and frozen again. I then ran a surface san of the disc and it reported tons of bad sectors at about the half-way point on the 50Gb disc. So I guess the disc has gone bad? If so this is extremely worrying because we watched this disc last year and it played fine. So now I have to start worrying about our entire Disney collection on blu-ray? There's a tiny surface scuff on the disc about a half-inch from the outer edge. I mean tiny. The set was new when I bought it from Amazon years ago.

I'm sorry to revive an old thread, but just wanted to comment that my disc is doing the same exact thing at the same exact spot. I've watched this every year, so it stinks that it's starting to do this now. Debating if I want to re-buy the US release, or just import it from the UK now. But either way, you should check your disc if you haven't in a while!

[ilovenola2]

Originally Posted by thestrangestick

I also watched this for the first time this xmas. I thought it was utterly bizarre in a good way.

Firstly, this is NOT a kids movie. I mean, even aside from the animation, which is uncanny valley levels of horrifying at times, it's so pyschedelic, so all out, so completely off the wall and just downright creepy and even horrific. That's not a complaint because it was compelling, but I consider this to be premium nightmare fuel for kids. I know if I watched this as a child I would be having nightmares for weeks. I found it so bizarre that this is a Disney xmas movie.

I give it a lot of respect for using what I believe to be original dialogue from the book. Again, as an adult I can follow it, but I have to believe that kids would really struggle. It's Victorian Shakespeare as far as being that much different to modern English. Another marker on the 'I can't believe this is a Disney movie' scoresheet.

The animation has not aged well at all. It's interesting to think that this came out the same year as Avatar, because that holds up well, but this is so clearly dated. It's actually a crying shame, because I know I am fickle for thinking this, but it kind of ruined the movie for me a little. It's just too creepy and 'off'. Not as bad as the Polar Express, and some shots (especially at distance) looked great, but I can't help but think if this came out even 2-3 years later it would have had good enough technology behind it at that point to be kind of timeless. Or even if they had gone for a less 'realistic' style with tech that couldn't back it up. I can't imagine watching this again because the animation, to a cynic like me, is a niggling reminder that this movie could be so much more.

The 3D is definitely very good, although I didn't think it was excellent. Maybe because I was distracted by the animation, but I also felt like this movie could really have benefitted from being 16:9.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and I have a lot of respect that it was ever made because it's so unique and does its own thing in a completely unapologetic way. But yeah, can't see myself watching it again.

I believe this is the best and most faithful (dialogue and all!) adaptation of the Dickens classic, followed by the 1951 Alastair Sim version. There are some other good ones to be searched out..... Stewart, Denny, Scott, etc.
But this 3D adaptation really recreates the book and, I believe, is NOT "too scary" for youngsters old enough to comprehend the story.
Oh-- and the 3-D is spectacular!

[Gizz]

Rewatched this classic last week and I still think that it is still one of the best 3D films out there.

[Hydra Spectre]

Originally Posted by ilovenola2

I believe this is the best and most faithful (dialogue and all!) adaptation of the Dickens classic, followed by the 1951 Alastair Sim version. There are some other good ones to be searched out..... Stewart, Denny, Scott, etc.
But this 3D adaptation really recreates the book and, I believe, is NOT "too scary" for youngsters old enough to comprehend the story.
Oh-- and the 3-D is spectacular!

Yes.
Also, I was surprised that it was only rated PG.
I thought it deserved a PG-13 rating.
This is one of the few times when Disney actually branched out to making adult animation outside of Fox or that time when they localised and distributed Studio Ghibli's films in North America (Princess Mononoke, Tales from Earthsea, and The Wind Rises were all PG-13).

[mar3o]

I just watched this again myself last weekend. I watched it with somebody who had never seen it before, and she enjoyed it. I still think the animation is superb and delightful. It's a bit dark tonally and visually regarding the character design, but this is one of the best versions I've seen in terms of making the ghosts seem actually frightening. Somebody previously in here said the animation has not aged well, and I disagree. He compared it to Avatar. Bad comparison. That film was trying to pass the cgi characters off as photo-realistic, and imo succeeded. This film was not trying to do that. It was clearly animated and never tried to hide that obvious fact. It was an animated film. Avatar was not an animated film - it used cgi for some of the characters. There's a difference.

I do think the chase scene with the horses and miniaturization is a mis-step, but it's otherwise a very accurate version, and it even covers a bit of dialogue I've never heard in any other version that does come from the novel. There are a couple bits that are not covered but they're the same bits most versions don't cover. It covers some stuff some versions commonly leave out, like "ignorance" and "want".

And the 3D is terrific.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by Nesmaster75

I'm sorry to revive an old thread, but just wanted to comment that my disc is doing the same exact thing at the same exact spot. I've watched this every year, so it stinks that it's starting to do this now. Debating if I want to re-buy the US release, or just import it from the UK now. But either way, you should check your disc if you haven't in a while!

Yikes! So should this disc be on the problem list of discs that may fail? Wow, I think I might have to back this up then. I already bought this disc twice and I don't plan on having to buy it a 3rd time.

[Dan_Shane]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Yikes! So should this disc be on the problem list of discs that may fail? Wow, I think I might have to back this up then. I already bought this disc twice and I don't plan on having to buy it a 3rd time.

I played mine for the very first time yesterday. Not a glitch in sight.

And BTW, I was stunned by the film. I never expected the quality on display in every aspect -- pace, period look, faithfulness to the source, and of course the stunning use of 3D. How come Zemekis is one of the only directors who understands how it's supposed to work?

[Paul H]

Originally Posted by mar3o

Yikes! So should this disc be on the problem list of discs that may fail? Wow, I think I might have to back this up then. I already bought this disc twice and I don't plan on having to buy it a 3rd time.

The laser diode in the Blu-ray player could also have an optical power efficiency loss which can cause problems at a specific encode spot in an authored title.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by Paul H

The laser diode in the Blu-ray player could also have an optical power efficiency loss which can cause problems at a specific encode spot in an authored title.

But I'm still using my blu-ray player that got stuck on that bad disc from a couple years ago. It was a fairly new player when I ran into that problem. I'm still using that player and it's never had an issue with any other disc. So it had to be the disc that was the issue. Surely if my player had power issues I would have run into issues on other discs I've watched over the years?

[film11]

Originally Posted by Dan_Shane

I played mine for the very first time yesterday. Not a glitch in sight.

And BTW, I was stunned by the film. I never expected the quality on display in every aspect -- pace, period look, faithfulness to the source, and of course the stunning use of 3D. How come Zemekis is one of the only directors who understands how it's supposed to work?

Hope he does the same for Pinocchio, with Polar Express Star Tom Hanks

[BossTweed]

Originally Posted by Nesmaster75

I'm sorry to revive an old thread, but just wanted to comment that my disc is doing the same exact thing at the same exact spot. I've watched this every year, so it stinks that it's starting to do this now. Debating if I want to re-buy the US release, or just import it from the UK now. But either way, you should check your disc if you haven't in a while!

I just checked my disc. It played fine.

[chucktatum]

I loved this version when I saw it in IMAX 3D in 2009 and my appreciation has only grown since. I now watch it at least once a year (in 3D, of course).

Other than some moments of less-than-great animation (namely Colin Firth's character), I LOVE so much about it: the 3D and camera movements, Doug Chiang's production design, the unabashed horror elements, faithfulness to the original story.

I would love to see Zemeckis do another full mo-cap Christmas film in the future to make it a trilogy.

[ilovenola2]

Originally Posted by Hydra Spectre

Yes.
Also, I was surprised that it was only rated PG.
I thought it deserved a PG-13 rating.
This is one of the few times when Disney actually branched out to making adult animation outside of Fox or that time when they localised and distributed Studio Ghibli's films in North America (Princess Mononoke, Tales from Earthsea, and The Wind Rises were all PG-13).

I watched the film again last night-- for the first time in two years and the first time since my double cataract removals. And the 3-D is even MORE spectacular than I thought.

I've kind of modified my view on the appropriateness of the film for the youngest of viewers. It is indeed "scary" as sin at moments ("Ignorance" and "Want" are terrifying even to adults!!) and could certainly unnerve the youngest of viewers. But there are plenty of versions of "Carol" that are appropriate for them and will lead them to this (and other) more complex versions as they grow older.

However, this is a rendering of the film that uses Dickens' (beautiful, needing NO "updating") roll-off-the-tongue English dialogue. The performances of the entire cast (especially the to-me usually annoying Jim Carrey and the always-brilliant Gary Oldman) is superb and the animation, color, and especially exciting 3-D, are captivating for the entire 90-minute running time.

As far as I'm concerned, this Disney-produced Zemeckis "A Christmas Carol" has joined the 1951 Alastair Sim version at the top of the list of a number of fine adaptations of the Dickens classic.

--OH! Just wanted to say that I had NO playback issues with this title and have never had.

[levcore]

Agreed, great movie. I love the Muppets one also.