Motion-Capture Christmas Carol Hits Wrong Notes

Most critics express a hearty "humbug" for Robert Zemeckis' motion-capture version of A Christmas Carol, starring Jim Carrey. A sampling:

• "It's a heartwarmer that doesn't have much of a heart itself," Michael O'Sullivan writes in the Washington Post, "populated by figures that are halfway between Wii Fit avatars and real people." Come on, folks: "Just because something can be done with computers doesn't mean it should be."

• Mike Scott of the Times-Picayune sees something else: a classic version of a classic. 'No cartoon characters to be found here, no Muppets, no shiny, happy singalongs. That's not the way Dickens wrote it, and so it's not the way Zemeckis presents it."
• "Mo-cap' comes at a cost," Joe Neumaier writes in the New York Daily News. "Like a dime-store holiday card, this 'Christmas Carol' is well-crafted but artless, detailed but lacking soul."