The term "timeless classic" gets thrown around a lot in the entertainment industry (especially by a certain company with a mouse logo), but there are some things which deserve that title, such as Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. First published in 1843, the story has now become synonymous with Christmas, and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t know the tale. Dickens’ ingenious combination of a holiday tale, a ghost story and a morality play has captivated audiences for well over a century and it’s been told in many forms -- plays, movies, and TV specials. (I wonder how many TV shows have done a Christmas episode which rip-off A Christmas Carol?) Life many “timeless classics”, every generation has gotten their own version of A Christmas Carol, and the latest animated version comes from Disney and Robert Zemeckis.

Jim Carrey provides the voice of Ebenezer Scrooge in this new edition of A Christmas Carol, bringing the famous penny-pincher to life. Scrooge is a successful money-lender, but he’s notorious anti-social and thrifty and he hates Christmas. He mistreats his lone employee, Bob Cratchit (voiced by Gary Oldman), and rebukes his own nephew, Fred (voiced by Colin Firth), when invited to Christmas dinner. On Christmas Eve, Scrooge leaves his place of business, after begrudgingly agreeing to give Cratchit Christmas Day off, and heads home. Once there, while eating by the fire, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley (voiced by Oldman). Marley tells Scrooge that his is forced to carry chains through the after-life which represent his obsession with money while still alive. The ghost tells Scrooge that he will be visited by three spirits, who will attempt to help him change his ways. As the night wears on, Scrooge encounters The Ghost of Christmas Past (voiced by Carrey), The Ghost of Christmas Present (voiced by Carrey), and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Can these supernatural beings help one of the meanest men alive?

OK, so the movie has a nice look, but adaptations of A Christmas Carol are a dime-a-dozen, what makes this one different or better? Well, there are two things which Zemeckis has incorporated to make his version stand out from the crowd, other than the animation. First of all, Zemeckis has attempted to make a very faithful adaptation of the book. The script utilizes a lot of dialogue directly from the story (and why shouldn’t it), and uses my favorite line, “There’s more of gravy than grave to you.” There were also some things that I had never seen in A Christmas Carol before, including two creatures who live under the robe of The Ghost of Christmas Present and the way in which that same ghost shows things to Scrooge. The other thing that Zemeckis has done is taken away any pretenses concerning the scary nature of this story. A Christmas Carol is meant to be a story of repentance and in order to do that, Scrooge must be “scared straight”. This is a dark movie which rarely pulls punches with showing the ghosts and various somewhat grotesque images. Ironically, The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, which is traditionally the only scary thing in A Christmas Carol actually isn’t that bad here.

A Christmas Carol is a favorite of mine and there are many versions which I love. But, I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what to expect from this one. Let’s be fair, we all know the story, but I liked how Zemeckis attacked it. There are no songs here (thankfully) and the scary natures brings a new level to the scary. However, it may be too scary for the little ones. The animation is impressive and once the ghosts arrive, the story is rarely dull. This does not get a humbug from me.

A Christmas Carol does get a bit weird with a horse and buggy chase on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 28 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing no grain and no defects from the source material. As noted above, the image is very detailed and the textures we can see are often amazing. The colors look good, but this is a dark film. This version is not in 3D, but the depth is still good. The Disc contains a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.0 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The stereo effects are nicely done and show good separation. The surround sound effects are on-display throughout the movie and help to make it a more immersive experiences. The finale provides a notable amount of subwoofer action.

The A Christmas Carol Blu-ray Disc contains only a few extras. Actress Jacquie Barnbrook hosts "Capturing Dickens: A Novel Retelling" (15 minutes), a making of featurette which examines the film's production. Zemeckis and the other filmmakers talk about why this project was chosen and how they wanted to stay true to the novel. From there, we get an on-set view of the motion-capture process, and we witness the actors going through a scene wearing their odd get-ups. "On Set with Sammi" (2 minutes) has actress Sammi Hanratty taking us through her day. The Disc contains six DELETED SCENES which run about 9 minutes. None of these look like the finished film, as some are only partially animated, while others show the real-life actors with the movie's sound effects. Most of these are short and incidental, with the one showing Belle at home being the only one of any substance. The final extra is an interactive Advent Calendar.