I would love to know how many versions of A Christmas Carol have been produced over the years, I swear we get a few new takes on it each year. Well, Scrooge: A Christmas Carol is a Netflix Original movie and their take on this classic tale. This is a musical adaptation of the classic Dicken’s tale and I have to say, I went in expecting the worst, but it was actually ok.
How to Download Scrooge: A Christmas Carol
You can download or stream the film from Netflix. Click on the Download button at the end of this review If you like the story, check out also A Christmas Carol by Robert Zemeckis.
The Movie Review
For this version of the tale, the inspiration is the awesome 1970s musical version of the tale starting Albery Finney, which for many is the best adaptation and the best Scrooge performance ever on film. Now, Scrooge: A Christmas Carol is not a huge budget production, actually it is made by a studio that is known for making lower-budget movies.
Rather than just being a straight retelling of the classic story, this does try to put a couple of its own stamps on things. To start with, Luke Evans as Scrooge is awesome and he belts out some fantastic music with some really epic power ballads. I found the soundtrack to be very enjoyable, mostly because of Luke Evans performance.
One area where the movie does change things up is with Scrooge’s relationship with his nephew Fred. We get to see why Scrooge keeps Fred at arm’s length and it adds a great deal of depth to Scrooge as well as making their uncle/nephew relationship even more complicated. I loved this aspect and I may be wrong here, but I cannot think of another adaptation of a Christmas Carol that had this.
Another interesting addition to the story here is with Bob Cratchit. We get to see a very interesting interaction in the past between Scrooge and Bob’s father that added a whole new dimension to the two. It is great stuff and just like his relationship with Fred, I felt this fleshed-out Scrooge more.
Now, I am going to assume that you are familiar with the story of A Christmas Carol. The movie starts really strong. I love our introduction to Jacob Marley and his design is very interesting and I know this is a strange comparison, but he kind of reminds me of an enemy from the recent God of War: Ragnarök video game!
Of course, the Ghost of Christmas Past is the first spirit (well after Jacob) to visit Scrooge. The Ghost of Christmas Past is played by Olivia Colman and she is awesome. I love her interesting design, and the way she can shapeshift and she and Scrooge have some excellent chemistry.
The scenes in the past are the best part of this movie. We get to see Scrooge and his failed relationship, the love he had for his sister, and also the start of him becoming the mean old man we know. We get a truly epic song here, with Scrooge and his love called Life Never Came and it is my favorite song in the entire movie.
Unfortunately, I feel that the movie really peaked with the stuff in the past. The Ghost of Christmas Present and Christmas Yet To Come just fall flat after what we had with the Ghost of Christmas Past. It is not horrible and there are a few good songs here, but the movie certainly feels like it is on a downward slope once Scrooge returns to the present day.
I will admit, I did not expect much from Scrooge: A Christmas Carol at all, I have read some scathing reviews, but I think they are way too harsh. While this is not a great movie, I like the changes it made and it does have some very good and well sung songs. If you fancy a new version of this classic, give this one a watch, it may surprise you!
