Since its publication in 1843, Charles Dickens's A CHRISTMAS CAROL has been retold and reconfigured more times than perhaps any other story in the history of the English language. It's been performed as a play and a musical. It's been filmed. It's been animated. It's been spoofed. It's been Muppet-ized, Murray-fied and McConaughey-ed. It's been done. But it's never been done by Robert Zemeckis before. And, according to Jim Carrey, that's more than enough reason to do it all over again. When you're talking Zemeckis post-CAST AWAY, this means it's never been done in performance capture and projected onto a seventy-fooot IMAX screen (in 3-D!) before. The Walt Disney Company is gambling that this infusion of technological wizardry, overseen by one of the industry's most visually gifted filmmakers, will be sufficient to convince audiences that they need to see grumpy old Ebenezer Scrooge once again learn to love his fellow man via illuminating visitations from the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future. Having seen somewhere in the neighborhood of ten minutes of (seemingly) finished footage from Zemeckis's retelling, I'd advise every community theater troupe in the country to steer clear of Dickens's evergreen this year; if parents have to subject their kids to one go-round with A CHRISTMAS CAROL this holiday season, they're probably going to opt for Carrey and the guy who directed THE POLAR EXPRESS. As was the case with BEOWULF and THE POLAR EXPRESS, Zemeckis's A CHRISTMAS CAROL has clearly been designed with the vertigo-inducing capabilities of IMAX in mind. This was most evident from the extended theatrical trailer that closed out the brief footage presentation, the highlight of which was Carrey's Scrooge being rocketed through the roof of his house and into the sky high above Victorian-era London by what appears to be Bodhi from SOLARBABIES. I don't remember this scene from the novella, but it's the kind of breathtaking visual we've come to expect from Zemeckis since he began experimenting with performance-capture cinema. If nothing else, the man still knows his way around a set piece. Whereas THE POLAR EXPRESS was nothing more than an impressive showreel for this technology, I felt Zemeckis managed to tell a fairly compelling story with BEOWULF. That said, he still hadn't found a way to forge the ol' "uncanny valley"; no matter how engrossing the action was, I couldn't get past the dead eyes of the characters. This is the problem performance capture has yet to remedy. While it appears incremental advances have been made with A CHRISTMAS CAROL, I'm afraid you're still acutely aware that the actors are part of a "process". This is especially true in the sequence where Fred (Colin Firth) nobly defends the spiritual virtues of the holiday to his cold-hearted brother; it's actually a beautifully-written scene (it's worth noting that this is Zemeckis's first solo flight as a screenwriter), but Firth's Fred constantly looks like he's lost his bearings. The effect is less distracting in the Marley scene - in that there's nothing wrong with a dead-eyed ghost - but fans of THE FRIGHTENERS might be a little peeved that Zemeckis has swiped The Judge's detached jaw bit of business (thought, to be fair, Zemeckis did produce Peter Jackson's 1996 horror flick).

But here's the good news: none of this is going to bother your kids. Skeptical. Well, over the next five months, you'll get to check out this footage for yourself for free as the CHRISTMAS CAROL whistle-stop train tour hits thirty-eight destinations across the continental United States. Isn't a train more closely associated with THE POLAR EXPRESS than A CHRISTMAS CAROL? As Zemeckis said at last Thursday's press event in Los Angeles, "Trains and Christmas! It's like peas and carrots! They just go together!" At which point he broke free of his leg braces and ran to Baltimore. Obviously, this is one big promotion for a (hopefully) huge Hollywood movie, but I imagine kids will have fun touring the train, which is outfitted with touchscreen tours of the film's virtual set, a motion-capture stage, production art, flat-screen televisions showing off behind-the-scenes footage and a face-morphing application that mutates your visage to fit one of several characters from the film (I tried several times to pull off Scrooge, but the result was consistently a Sloth-level deformation). The 3-D footage will be shown in an adjacent tent. There will also be a variety of other Disney promotions tied into this. The tour schedule is listed below. Zemeckis, Carrey and Disney Chairman Dick Cook hung out for a brief press conference following the tour and footage presentation (sadly, they won't be traveling with the train). Since there were kids around, I figured this was not the appropriate time to ask Zemeckis if he's considered making a raucous, R-rated, USED CARS-ish performance capture comedy. Another time, hopefully. Until then, I can honestly say I'm looking forward to A CHRISTMAS CAROL if only to see how Zemeckis has moved the technology forward. That said, it's still the appetizer for the big IMAX 3-D meal coming from James Cameron in December. Faithfully submitted, Mr. Beaks

“DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL” TRAIN TOUR SCHEDULE Stop # Market Date Site Address City State Zip 1 Los Angeles May 22-25 Los Angeles Union Station 800 N. Alameda St. Los Angeles CA 90012 2 Grand Canyon May 29-31 Williams Depot 233 North Grand Canyon Blvd Williams AZ 86046 3 Santa Fe June 2 Santa Fe Depot 410 S Guadalupe St Santa Fe NM 87501 4 Albuquerque June 5-7 Albuquerque Amtrak Station 214 First Street Southwest Albuquerque NM 87102 5 Denver June 12-14 Denver Union Station 1701 Wynkoop St Denver CO 80202 6 Salt Lake City June 16 Ogden Union Station 2501 Wall Avenue Ogden UT 84401 7 Sacramento June 19-21 California State Rail Road Museum 111 I Street Sacramento CA 95814 8 San Francisco June 26-28 Port of Redwood City 675 Seaport Blvd. Redwood City CA 94063 9 Portland July 1 Portland Union Station 800 Northwest 6th Avenue Portland OR 97209 10 Seattle July 3-5 King Street Station 303 South Jackson Street Seattle WA 98104 11 Spokane July 7 Spokane Amtrak Station 221 W. 1st Avenue Spokane WA 99201 12 Whitefish July 10-11 Whitefish Amtrak Station 500 Depot St Whitefish MT 59937 13 Fargo July 15 North Dakota State University 1301 12th Avenue North Fargo ND 58102 14 St. Paul July 17-19 Amtrak Midway Station 730 Transfer Road St. Paul MN 55114 15 Chicago July 24-26 Chicago Union Station 225 South Canal Street Chicago IL 60606 16 St. Louis July 31- August 2 St. Louis Union Station 550 South 16th Street Saint Louis MO 63103 17 Memphis August 4 Memphis Central Station 545 South Main Street Memphis TN 38103 18 New Orleans August 7-9 Riverview in Audubon Park 6500 Magazine Street New Orleans LA 70118 19 Houston August 11 Houston Amtrak Station 902 Washington Avenue Houston TX 77002 20 San Antonio August 14-16 San Antonio Amtrak Station 350 Hoefgen Street San Antonio TX 78205 21 Dallas August 18-19 Dallas Union Station 401 South Houston St Dallas TX 75202 22 Oklahoma City August 21-23 Oklahoma City Santa Fe Depot 100 South E. K.Gaylord Blvd Oklahoma City OK 73102 23 Kansas City August 25 Kansas City Union Station 30 W. Pershing Road Kansas City MO 64108 24 Omaha August 28-30 Durham Museum 801 South 10th Street Omaha NE 68108 25 Detroit September 4-6 Henry Ford Museum Greenfield Village 20900 Oakwood Blvd Dearborn MI 48124 26 Indianapolis September 9 Downtown Bargersville 24 North Main Street Bargersville IN 46106 27 Louisville September 11-13 Louisville Union Station 1000 W. Broadway Louisville KY 40203 28 Cleveland September 18-19 Cleveland Brown’s Lot 1085 W Third St Cleveland OH 44114 29 Albany September 22 Albany Rensselaer Rail Station 525 East Street Rensselaer NY 12144 30 Boston September 25-27 South Station 2 South Station Boston MA 2110 31 Baltimore September 30 B & O Railroad Museum 901 W Pratt St Baltimore MD 21223 32 Washington October 2-4 Union Station 50 Massachusetts Ave. NE Washington DC 20002 33 Atlanta October 6 Southeastern Railway Museum 3595 Peachtree Rd Duluth GA 30096 34 Spencer October 9-11 NC Transportation Museum 411 S. Salisbury Ave Spencer NC 28159 35 Savannah October 13 Savannah Amtrak Station 2611 Seaboard Coastline Dr Savannah GA 31415 36 Miami October 16-18 Gold Coast Railroad Museum 12450 SW 152nd St Miami FL 33177 37 Jacksonville October 20 Jacksonville Amtrak Station 3570 Clifford Lane Jacksonville FL 32209 38 Charleston October 23-25 Ansonborough Field Washington and Concord Streets Charleston SC 29401 39 Philadelphia October 27 30th Street Station 2955 Market Street Philadelphia PA 19104 40 New York October 30 - November 1 Grand Central Terminal 42nd Street and Park Avenue New York NY 10017