A new retelling of the famous A Christmas Carol in a very different format. The audience entering the imagination of one of the children a stage transforms to the magical world which contains real dancers and stylish sets. The tale unfolds as a fantastic theatrical drama with the characters portrayed by dancers and voiced by some truly outstanding actors.
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I always imagine that everyone has a not again reaction to seeing another version of A Christmas Carol coming out at Christmas time nearly every year. But I personally love this, its a truly engaging and inspirational story that even the angriest and most bitter of people can change. The thing with the story is that it has been filmed and told in so many different ways and each time you watch a different version it manages to show something a little bit new and creates different thinking points.
This version is truly incredible to watch as it is all so beautiful. The idea behind putting dancers on stage and having actors speak their roles was an inspired idea. It gave the theatrical feel in the best possible manner and felt a perfect mixture of stage and screen mixed together to create this lovely telling of the story.
The plot is the same as we all know with Scrooge being mean and keeping his money to himself, hating Christmas and the sentiment surrounding it. He is visited on Christmas Eve by three ghosts who teach him about the past, present and more importantly future. How he can ensure the future changes if he is willing to change himself. That is something that we all must remember right? Well, we certainly hope so without actually being visited by any ghosts.
Having familiar voices included within the film makes it great to listen to as well as the visually pleasing dancer and movements from the actors on stage. I feel it is important to include the cast list given the doubling up on screen with the voices and the fantastic dancers.
Cast
Simon Russell Beale as the voice of Scrooge - Danced by Michael Nunn and Jakub Franasowicz
Andy Serkis as the voice of Marley's Ghost - Danced by Russell Maliphant
Martin Freeman as the voice of Bob Cratchit - Danced by Karl Fagerlund Brekke
Daniel Kaluuya as The Ghost of Christmas Present - Danced by Mikey Boats
Carey Mulligan as Belle - Danced by Grace Jabbari
Lesley Caron as The Ghost of Christmas Past - Danced by Dana Fouras
Dame Sian Philips as The Narrator
Another thing that felt pretty perfect was Sian Phillips as The Narrator and sounded just wonderful. This was certainly the third aspect of the film to bring to all together in such a lovely and pleasing manner. It dared to be unique and different, something that it pulled off in such a great manner. If you are missing the theatre then this will fill that gap as well considering the fantastic mixture of the stage and screen feel.