The film is a fun little ride, which labors in painstaking detail to capture the atmosphere of 19th century London. This US$175 million interpretation, directed by Academy Award winner Robert Zemeckis (“Forrest Gump” and “Back to the Future”), adds modern thrills to a familiar narrative, with rich images of Scrooge soaring over snowy spires and spookier-than-ever-ghosts.

In spite of the newfangled look, the story of redemption and social responsibility is a well-worn one, and this version hews closely to the 1843 novella. Miserly financier Scrooge cares only for money, cruelly indifferent to the welfare of others. The ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come transport Scrooge on a supernatural journey, forcing him to contemplate his miserable life. Scared silly, Scrooge emerges from the magical night transformed.

While the plot itself contains no surprises, “A Christmas Carol” does provide a feast for the senses. Every hair, pore and wrinkle of Scrooge's permanent grimace is rendered in startling anatomical detail. The film's computer animated textures are luxurious to look at: leather squishes sumptuously, bathrobes' quilting looks soft enough to squeeze, a puff of soot rises from a London chimney, a young woman's golden tresses curl softly down her back. The sound editing is equally striking, with iron gates screeching open, hooves thundering down cobblestone lanes and Jacob Marley's chains clanking heavily with amazing fidelity.

Even the light looks fantastic: when Scrooge heads to bed on Christmas Eve, the old man, holding a single candle, is lit in dramatic chiaroscuro as he creaks up the stairs. Marley's sunken face glows a sickly green; the jolly Ghost of Christmas Present fairly sparkles in room of glittering holly garlands.

With so much to look at, Zemeckis makes good use of the 3-D technology. Unlike Pixar's “Up,” released earlier this year, in which the 3-D seemed like an afterthought, “A Christmas Carol” keeps things interesting with plenty of action — snowflakes, spirits, shiny black horses of death – hurled directly at viewers. Parents take note: all those ghosts, dark colors and loud noises might be too scary for the youngest viewers.

The movie really belongs to Carrey. The rubber-faced actor plays Scrooge through the ages and all three ghosts. His British, Irish and Scottish accents sound passable, and his portrayal of Scrooge is engaging, though disappointingly serious. He lets loose a little at the end, once Scrooge is delirious with Christmas cheer, but overall the tone is grim and short on comic interludes.

The appearance of realistic animated people using performance capture, in which real actors end up digitized in some form, still leaves me a little cold. While Scrooge and Marley look fantastic, Scrooge's nephew Fred (Colin Firth), appears a little cross-eyed and the dancing of Scrooge's former boss Mr. Fezziwig (Bob Hoskins), seems off. Not quite full animation, not quite live action, the human beings rendered using performance capture at times fall into an uneasy gap between the two, the so-called “uncanny valley.” Zemeckis is a veteran of the filmmaking technique, using it to varying degrees of success in “The Polar Express” in 2004 and “Beowulf” in 2007.

Hedging its bets against an unproven format, Disney outfitted four custom train cars with artifacts, costumes, props and digital demonstrations from “A Christmas Carol,” zigzagging 16,000 miles across the United States since May to visit 40 cities and whet moviegoers' appetites (even if it is only November).

There will most certainly be a built-in audience for this film. Full of beautiful, action-packed visuals and a timeless moral of kindness and charity, “A Christmas Carol” is definitely a solid choice for family holiday viewing. The 3-D technology, also formatted for large IMA-- screens, knocks a bit of dust off the shopworn tale. Zemeckis and Carrey certainly don't reinvent Dickens' story, nor do they try to. You know how it's going to end, and the script could have contained a few more twists, but Disney's nifty new take on “A Christmas Carol” sure does look good.