Disney's A Christmas Carol

In a story fitting these recessionary times, world-class tightwad Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey) again learns on Christmas Eve that life is about more than making oodles of money. In Disney's A Christmas Carol-silly me, thinking lo these many years that it was Charles Dickens' Carol-the familiar ghost tale is enchantingly retold by writer-director Robert Zemeckis using performance-capture animation in 3D. (Actors are filmed doing their stuff while wired; their images are then transformed into animation, as in Zemeckis' earlier The Polar Express.) There's real artistry and heart here. The animation technique has improved dramatically-though, excepting Scrooge, the characters' eyes still look as if they came straight from a taxidermist's supply shop. Versatile Carrey, who plays Scrooge at various ages as well as all three ghosts of Christmas, proves a spirited vocal shape-shifter.