A Christmas Carol (PG)

DECK the halls with boughs of holly, fa la la la la, la la la la. Whaddaya mean, it's only the first of November? Shut up and shove a mince pie in your moaning gob, fa la la la la, la la la la.

Halloween's over, so that means it's officially Christmas, whether you like it or not. And Christmas means Christmas movies.

The first newie this year is the Disney- backed 3D computer-animated version of A Christmas Carol, starring Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge and the three ghosts. The (fantastic) trailer paints it as an action-packed slapstick riot, with Scrooge flying around Victorian London and getting bonked on the head every 30 seconds.

But the full-length film is a much darker beast. The atmosphere's chillingly spooky, and the ghosts could well scare younger children - and not just because of Carrey's attempts to do Yorkshire and Irish voices.

The movie sticks painstakingly close to the book, apart from a few Carrey ad-libs and of course the 3D thrill-ride sequences, which are neatly done but totally disposable. And the acting's fine, if heavily borrowed from the Alastair Sim version. Then there's the animation. Technically, it's superb but it's "performance capture" - the weird type of animation where actors' movements are reproduced by their CG counterparts.

It gives me the heebie-jeebies, frankly. The characters come out like creepy, unblinking weirdoes.

As a movie to get you in the Christmas spirit, A Christmas Carol does its job nicely - and I speak as someone who saw it in October. But it's a festive experience rather than a proper film. Bah. Humbug.

OUT WEDNESDAY 4TH NOVEMBER

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