Here’s a rhetorical question for you: now many versions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has there been over the years? Over the history of filmmaking, one could be forgiven for thinking that every decade has had at least one version of this fable. Animation too has had more than it own fair share of versions, with Warner Bros' Bah Humduck released earlier this year being the most recent as far as I know. This one, seems to be self-appointing itself the definitive version for the family, a title I usually refer towards the muppet version.

Outside of shoving two mice into the film, possibly for the kids benefit, this version sticks quite rigidly to the original story; there’s little whimsy here. Also there is no real reason why this version should be animated expect maybe because it was cheaper. The film is dogged by some rather characterless, by-the-numbers animation that tries for all its worth to look like a work of TVC; only without the talented animators. Flashes of imaginative animation do occasionally spring up, but they are both rare and fleeting, not to mention that they’ve been outdone by better versions.

Because it sticks pretty closely to the original story, there are no real surprises here; this of course can limit the film’s appeal to potential viewers. The film’s style shows a lack of imagination, with much of the character designs being dull at best, uninteresting at worst. The "all-star" cast would seem to be the makers main drawing ace, but none seem to put much effort into their collective roles. Certainly little has been done to warrant a viewer choosing this film over other adaptations.

In all, Christmas Carol: The Movie is a watchable but uninteresting, even dull interpretation. The trouble is that if any film would need to be interesting to stand out from its competition, then it’s another version of A Christmas Carol. Another question that I could ask is this, with so many different versions of this fable out there, why would anyone bother with this one?