When I set out to watch every Nicolas Cage movie ever made, I had a disclaimer that stated I could choose to skip animated movies where he doesn’t physically show up on screen. But now I’ve decided to change my stance on this weak-sauce cop-out.

No skips, no buts, no excuses. I’m watching them all (and other Cage-related things as well.)

I’m curious, after watching 35 of his movies, to see if Nicolas Cage’s magic also works on animated films? Can he raise the bar on a sub-par animated film simply by showing up to voice some lines, without his expressive face, his over-the-top gestured theatrics, and his shamanistic acting style?

Well, it’s time to find out with WATC(H) #36.

[Note: I decided to post this one out of chronological release order since it keeps two Christmas movies together AND will follow with two war movies.]

In this animated film, Christmas Carol: The Movie (2001), Nicolas Cage takes on the voice / role of the ghost, Jacob Marley, who is desperately and posthumously trying to change the fate of the miserly Scrooge.

It’s interesting that this is Cage’s second Christmas movie released in the span of a year (was he just feeling the Christmas spirit in 2001?) since The Family Man came out in 2000. But with the meager number of lines (~4:00 min of total screen time) he had playing Marley, I think it more likely he was doing a friend a favor or something.

In fact, he could have just recorded these lines while he was on a coffee break making either The Family Man or Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.

Whatever the logic for taking on the project, you watch all of Cage’s lines in the movie here:

Longtime Fan, First Time Critic

Now, you can call me a lot of things, but one thing you can’t call me is A Christmas Carol ingénu (look it up, but don’t call me that).

I consider myself a connoisseur of the many adaptations of the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol. I’ve seen a good number of the top-ranked (and not-so top ranked film versions) and I have my opinions about who should be considered the “best Scrooge” between George C. Scott, Patrick Stewart, Bill Murray, and Alastair Sim. (Hint: It’s not Mr. Magoo.)

When I was in seventh grade, with the help of my younger sister, I wrote a script and enacted a “stuffed animal” version of A Christmas Carol that I believe she and I performed (via puppetry) to the dismay/amusement of our captive audience, parents. I’ve read the novella (maybe three times), and each Christmas I must choose which version of the film (if any) I plan on watching again after carefully searching to see that a new version (or remixed twist on the classic) has not been created in the meantime. (Usually, I end up watching the animated Jim Carrey version since that seems to be my youngest daughter’s go-to.) Suffice it to say, I know what I am dealing with when it comes to A Christmas Carol.

But I hadn’t seen this one before.

Watching a Christmas movie (animated even?) in late July feels a bit like sacrilege to me. I know some people like to do that sort of thing, but I am not one of those people. Christmas music should not be played before Thanksgiving, and ideally not before December 1st. Stores should not sell candy canes or Christmas lights on November 1st, and Christmas movies should be watched only in the few weeks leading up to Christmas (and, if absolutely necessary, up to one week after.)

But getting caught up in the Cage delirium like I have been, I was kind of excited to try to go against the grain and watch this Christmas movie, even animated…in late July. Some things I didn’t know about it before watching were that:

• It was directed by Jimmy T. Murakami, a director and producer of other animated films such as Heavy Metal, The Snowman, and When the Wind Blows.
• It was made by a British film studio and included some live action sequences to open and close the film, with Charles Dickens (played by Simon Callow) narrating his novella to a live audience in a Boston theater.

• Other than Nicolas Cage, the film also included Kate Winslett, who sang the film’s theme song “What If”.
• Not surpisingly, the film was a box office disaster, largely panned by critics and holding a 13% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Ouch.

But even knowing these things (after the fact) I can tell you that while watching the animated version I wasn’t that impressed. I don’t mind when writers / directors / actors riff off of what Dickens originally wrote; I’m no purist. Whether that means modernizing the story for the current audience of the day (Scrooged), or getting creative with the storytelling (i.e. going dark like Guy Pierce’s tell-it-from-Marley’s-perspective) or going full-musical (Spirited, “good afternoon!”), I’m OK with all sorts of variations to make the story interesting and new. As long as the themes hold and the basic characters are represented.

(Heck, The Muppets Christmas Carol may arguably be one of the most entertaining versions of the lot.)

What I can’t abide is a not-so faithful rendering with a bunch arbitrary add-ons that do nothing to further the ideas of the original. A Christmas Carol: The Movie delivers just enough of that kind of crap to make it annoying and boring for the audience. (Gulp) Even Nicolas Cage couldn’t save this one.

Three Reasons Not To Like

1

Why is it called Christmas Carol: The Movie? As if there’d never been a movie version before 2001. As if this fact needed to be called out or clarified for anyone who either went to watch it at a “movie” theater or rented it via a “movie” rental store. I’m so confused. Am I reading a book? Am I gazing into a painting? Oh, wait. I’m watching a movie. That’s a relief.

2

Well, as Variety reviewer Todd McCarthy wrote in his article: “[The] character animation is dully inexpressive, and two obnoxious mute mice do more scampering and gesticulating than Harpo Marx did in his entire career.”

Yeah, for whatever reason the producers added these two mice into every scene of the animation. They weep. They scrunch their faces up in concern. They whimper. Maybe because it’s a kid’s movie and the producer’s thought it would help kids relate better by including two slap-stick mice throughout? I’m not sure I follow the logic.

Scrooge, who hates almost everyone, takes a liking to one of these mice, and would often tote “it” around in his front pocket. Everything that I had come to loath, as a child, about the invention of Scrappy Doo in The Scooby Doo cartoons was on full display in these cutesie, irksome mice.

3

Scrooge hires a henchman, Old Joe, to collect debtors up and throw them into prison. I know Scrooge was not

Scrooge hires a henchman, Old Joe, to collect his debtors up, and and throw them into prison. I know Scrooge was not winning any humanitarian awards in the original story. That’s kind of his schtick. He lacks compassion, empathy, and care for his fellow man. He’s miserly, grumpy, and generally a very miserable human being. But in some ways his sins are sins of neglect rather than outright commission of evil acts. Sure, he makes life miserable for Cratchit in an active way (which is not all that odd for bad bosses) and you don’t want to be at his table at a fundraiser auction, but in general, he’s not thinking about other people enough to actively target them.

So this plot twist seemed to amp things up a notch for no real reason. Plus, Scrooge throws a bucket of cold water onto a crowd of carollers which unfortunately hits Tiny Tim (who’s already suffering from some kind of cold). So, murder in the first degree then (even if it’s by negligence on his part)? 

There were probably other things that could be mentioned, like Scrooge reuniting with his lost love post-ghosts (who didn’t marry in this version) and the ultra-cheesy Kate Winslett song, but for me the main thing was that this animated version didn’t do anything new or especially interesting throughout. 

They didn’t play it safe and they didn’t take risks that made any sense to me. I honestly dozed off near the end, not realizing that Nicolas Cage would return one last time as Marley (during the ghost of Christmas future part). 

What About the Cage Factor

If you watched the 4 minutes of Cage above, you know that he does a very ghostly, quivering kind of voice. 

“Ohhhhhhhhhh, hear me Ebenezer.  I don’t have much time, Ebenezer.  LIttle has changed in the chambers since my departure…I wear the chains of my ignorance. The chains I forged in life. Link by link, yard by yard. I am doomed.” 

There’s more lines than this, but do we really need more? Probably not. It’s a very straight-Marley-business-like affair. 

Marley comes in and warns Scrooge of what will happen on the life path he’s currently on (from his own experience). He shows Scrooge his chains. He tells him how he got the chains and that Scrooge is making his own set. He warns him about the three spirits who will visit him later. Then he peaces out with a group of ghosts who look like Benedictine monks for some reason. The animation is not that impressive, other than the way the ghost at times will chemtrail as he moves to and fro, and that’s all there is to it. 

I almost wish Cage had tried a little more British affection in his voice or a nasal fry like in Peggy Sue Got Married, or that he’d went full Sailor Ripley and really given us a Marley Elvis we could all enjoy (at least for those 4 brief minutes). 

Instead all we got was a pretty tame, echoey ghost, in an otherwise really bad rendition of a true Christmas classic. 

Sigh. But I guess the silver lining is that this film would have been a total loss for me without the fact that Nicolas Cage made an otherworldly appearance. Let’s just hope the other animated features he elects to try his voice-work in aren’t nearly as banal and boring as this one was.

First for Nicolas Cage as Jacob Marley (Animated)

• First time not appearing in the flesh (i.e. as a cartoon voice only)
• First time playing a ghost
• First time wearing chains 
• First time appearing as a door-knocker

Recurrences

• Playing in a Christmas movie (The Family Man)
• Trying to save those who would do ill to society or themselves (Bringing Out the Dead)

Best quotes by Nicolas Cage as Jacob Marley

“I see the weight and length of the links you bear. You’ve worked on them hard these past 7 years.”

“You can still escape my fate. Grow. Blossom. Share. Mend your ways.”

I may not know the reasons why Nicolas Cage got all Christmasy in his movie-making choices in 2000-2001, but I do know that he embodies the Christmas spirit that Dickens was espousing. Case in point, from this article:

His dedication to festive movies even materialised in real life too, appearing in Bath, UK, to switch on the Christmas lights in 2009. ‘My friends, I love you. Thank you, citizens of Somerset and citizens of Bath, for your kindness and graciousness in welcoming me to your community,’ the Hollywood star said to the stunned British audience, according to a local report: ‘I love Bath. I am happy in Bath’.

Or maybe this example, and his movie choices, has nothing to do with having the Christmas spirit at all. Maybe Nic just likes Bath.