With technology, Carrey, Zemeckis bring new life to Scrooge

totally authentic and outpaces earlier versions Technology finally has caught up with Charles Dickens' imagination.

Jim Carrey and Robert Zemeckis' new take on "A Christmas Carol" brings to life the fantasy about miser Ebenezer Scrooge's holiday redemption in a way old Hollywood never could have dreamed.

Animated adaptations have captured some of Dickens' flights of fancy and fantastic imagery, while the best live-action versions have put touchingly human faces on Scrooge, cheery nephew Fred, maltreated clerk Bob Cratchit and hopeful Tiny Tim.

Opening tomorrow, "Disney's A Christmas Carol" manages both.

Zemeckis applies the performance-capture technology he used on "The Polar Express" and "Beowulf" to present Carrey and company in fine dramatic form, with computer animation richly re-creating 1840s London and Scrooge's bewildering journey through his past, present and future.

"When you read Dickens, it's an incredibly surreal story, and, of course, the earlier adaptations were limited by what you could do with the tools of cinema at the time," Zemeckis said.

"The whole mission here was to truly re-envision the movie in a way no one had ever seen it before. That came about in that when I did 'Beowulf,' I realized I am now working in a form where we can reintroduce audiences to these classics in a way that makes it very modern, yet they can be these very familiar and classic stories."

Performance capture is a hybrid of live action and digital animation. Actors do scenes on a bare sound stage, wearing skintight suits covered with sensors, reference points for digital cameras to record their body language and expressions in 360-degree detail.

Costumes, sets, props, visual effects and alterations to the actors' features are filled in by computer animators.

While the technology sounds a bit soul-killing in terms of drama, actors say it's a surprisingly unfettered way to create a performance.

"It sounds paradoxical, because, obviously, we're in a world of sophisticated technology, and there's a huge amount of preparation in order to make it possible," said Colin Firth, who plays Scrooge's nephew. "But there's no fourth wall to play to, like there is in theater. . . . It's more like playing in your bedroom as a kid."

Past live-action adaptations, such as Alastair Sim's classic 1951 version, were restricted to a few physical sets to stand in for old Britain, while the ghosts who conduct Scrooge through his nights of penance looked like garishly done-up mortals, rarely achieving the grotesque qualities of the nightmare Dickens crafted.

Zemeckis' "Carol" swoops through London, from bird's-eye views of the city's sprawl to claustrophobic tours of the dingiest streets. Scrooge's trek back to his boyhood is a dizzy flight from the city to the countryside. Even the lighting is authentic to the era.

"The other thing that's very subtle that just excited me no end was being able to light the whole movie with candlelight," Zemeckis said. "How great is that?"

Carrey -- who does Scrooge from boy to young man to old skinflint also plays the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, each spirit spectral and creepy in a way that past adaptations rarely managed.

His co-stars also play multiple roles. Among them: Bob Hoskins as both the miser's big-hearted old boss Fezziwig and a seedy pawnbroker.

A day after seeing Zemeckis' finished film, Hoskins said it took him on a journey back to his childhood.

"When I first learned to read, I was about 7, and I read two books. One was 'Treasure Island' and one was 'Christmas Carol,' and it frightened the . . . life out of me. . . . And ever since, I've seen translations of it on film, cartoons, and it's never had that fear. This did."