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Animated Disney remake of the Dickens classic: Ebenezer Scrooge (with
the voice of Jim Carrey) is shown various stages of his life by ghosts
that bring the miser's life and indifference to those who are less
fortunate into perspective. Filmed in 3-D, it contains many scenes that
show objects, people, etc. coming out of the screen and seemingly
toward the audience; also many scenes create the feeling of a roller
coaster ride as the audience seems to fly over landscapes and between
buildings. Also with the voices of Gary Oldman, Steve Valentine, Daryl
Sabara, Colin Firth, Cary Elwes, Robin Wright Penn, Bob Hoskins, Sage
Ryan and Ryan Ochoa. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. [1:36]
SEX/NUDITY 1 - Several times, wives kiss their husbands on the cheek.
► In
one scene, a female spirit wearing a long dress that is low-cut
(cleavage revealed) dances and rubs her body against the back of an
elderly man. In two party scenes, women wear floor length, low-cut
gowns that reveal cleavage.
► In two flashback scenes, we see a man dance with a woman at a party and he proposes marriage.
► A man and a woman argue about whether love is greater than money.
VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - Throughout the film, ghosts
appear: One ghost is in multiple chains and is partially transparent,
one is a flaming floating head that hisses and sparks and moves at
great speeds creating shafts of light, one is a giant king sitting atop
a huge Christmas tree, and one is a tall black-robed faceless entity
with black skeletal arms and fingers; a man appears frightened,
grimacing, shaking, trembling, stuttering, yelling, crying and
displaying shock.
► A
ghost gives off gray vapors and floats around a room, breaks his jaw
open accidentally, a long tongue hangs out and he works and adjusts his
jaw with his hands. An elderly man tries to enter his house and the
doorknocker becomes a ghostly head: it roars, and the man is knocked
backward down a flight of steps, unhurt.
► The
giant skeleton forefinger of a spirit points out into the audience's
faces three times. A spirit shows empty black eye sockets with a rim of
white light around them and the old man screams and pleads. A bony hand
reaches out from under a giant king's robes, which he opens to reveal
two other spirits, "Ignorance" (a hissing male child) and "Want" (a
starving female child); he says that they are the children of mankind
and they soon disappear in dust.
► A
man looks out and sees scores of ghosts wandering through the air, one
bangs his head on a trunk chained to him, and another roars, flies into
a window and knocks the man back.
► A man conducting a shell game slaps the face of a boy that gets too close.
► A ghost turns gray, shouts, laughs, falls down, and disintegrates, his flesh turns to dust and the skeleton does the same.
► An
elderly man sits in a dark room, four small bells begin to ring, become
extremely loud, heavy footsteps approach from outside, 7 ghostly
translucent trunks on chains fly through the door and land with a loud
thud, and they are followed by a chained ghost that roars and wails
several times during a conversation with the man.
► A
beam of light pierces the dark bedroom of an elderly man, changes into
a ball of flame with a face that floats above a nightshirt that has
hands at the end of its sleeves, it carries a giant candle snuffer, and
the man attempts to snuff the creature but it shoots up like a rocket;
flames appear under and around the closed door of the room.
► A
huge carriage pulled by two giant horses with red eyes chases an
elderly man as he grows smaller and smaller; he enters a drain pipe and
comes out tiny on the other side.
► The
face of a ghostly head with hair aflame changes to those of many
townspeople and the scene ends; in another scene, the face of a king
changes to that of an elderly man and back to his own.
► In
a dream, a man and a woman sort through a bag of clothes the woman
stole, describing them as coming off a corpse; a huge rat screams and
the man tries to hit it with a cane, striking an old man that has
become tiny, and the tiny old man flies out the door, down steps, over
rooftops, down hills, and then out of bed.
► In
dream sequences, a long table is moved straight through the middle of
an elderly man, but does no harm; in another dream, a man walks through
the elderly man and in a third, a sad man walks up to him and looks
deep into his eyes, although the second man cannot see the first. A man
briefly slashes at an old man with a knife, but does no harm.
► An
elderly man falls out of bed and onto the floor three times after
waking with a start and the last time, he hangs head down for a minute,
because his leg is tangled in bed curtains, but he eventually falls on
his face, unhurt.
► At
a dark, dusty undertaker's shop, an elderly man identifies the corpse
of another man in a coffin and says that he is indeed dead (we see the
dead man who is pale, with pennies covering his eyes and when leaving
the shop, the elderly man steals the pennies). In a brief scene, a
corpse is covered completely with a sheet. A black spirit extends a
black skeleton's hand, begins to uncover a body and we see part of the
forehead.
► A
man lifts wriggling eels to sell at a market stall as a nearby
fire-eater swallows a flame from a torch. Translucent ghouls in normal
street-clothes in the street throw food at an elderly man and laugh. An
elderly man throughout the film has dirty, stringy gray hair. A man and
a woman have boils on their faces and are covered in caked dirt.
► Someone
predicts the imminent death of a young crippled boy. In a brief dream
scene, a family sits around a fireplace that is nearly burned out,
crying over the death of their youngest son. Words in a close-up shot
of a book state, "Marley was dead." An elderly man argues with and
insults everyone he meets and he states loudly that people are lazy and
always whining and that the poor should die and decrease the useless
surplus population. A woman runs out from behind a curtain and yells,
"Boo" to scare her father; he does not seem frightened and turns to hug
her briefly.
► Boys
and a man slide down an icy street for fun; the man falls but is
unhurt. A woman hits an elderly man on the shoulder with a feather
duster.
► Many scenes take place in dark houses and nighttime streets with a large number of shadows.
PROFANITY 3 - 1 scatological reference, 1
anatomical reference, 9 mild obscenities, name-calling (fool, idiots,
bug, poor, useless, cheap, bedlam, pud), 13 stereotypical references to
the poor, the rich, preachers, Christmas celebrants, married couples,
men in love, 3 religious exclamations.
SUBSTANCE USE - Wine in glasses are shown on a
dinner table in a couple of party scenes (no one drinks), a dozen
people hold sherry glasses and lift them in a toast (the scene ends
before anyone drinks), we see a bowl of punch at a dance (no one drinks
any and we cannot tell if it is alcoholic).
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Ghosts, dreams, significance
of Christmas, death, greed, guilt, religion, loneliness, generosity,
family, friends, love, forgiveness, amends, happiness.
Disney's Animated "A Christmas Carol"
Happy Christmas (as the english say)