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IN SHORT: A fine, adult adaptation. [Rated PG for scary sequences and images. 96 minutes]

Since Disney's A Christmas Carol is an animated film, we offer pages and pages of wallpapers for you to download.

Retreading the mammoth footsteps laid down four decades ago by the late, great Quincy Magoo, himself the recipient of two Academy Awards (though not for Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol), actor Jim Carrey and writer/director Robert Zemeckis hit one out of the park with their adaptation of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". We're not sure if the visual modifications justify Disney slapping its corporate trademark on the property, but it's probably a legal thing to protect different visual interpretations of aspects of the story. It still rubs us the wrong way, but we have little say in the matter (aside from the griping we just got out of the way). Onwards.

Need we repeat the basics of the life story of the penny pinching, thoroughly unpleasant Ebenezer Scrooge (voiced by Jim Carrey), or of his impoverished yet good-willed employee Bob Cratchit (Gary Oldman) whose crippled and sickly son Tiny Tim may not live to see another Christmas; of the warning to Scrooge by the ghost of his partner Jacob Marley of the coming visitations by three Ghosts -- of Christmas Past/ Present/ Yet to Come and the transformation that may be the first in all of english language fiction to deliver what we now refer to as the "warm fuzzies" (which are a big step up from an  ordinary happy ending).

We didn't think so. To be complete: Carrey voices the Ghosts. Oldman also voices Marley and Tiny Tim. As for the  supporting cast, they are names you probably know in roles you will know by heart once this adaptation has taken its place in regular holiday television rotation: Bob Hoskins as the boisterous and life-affirming Mr. Fezziwig, Scrooge's first employer; Belle (Robin Wright Penn), young Scrooge's only love who, in this version, seems to be contractually obligated to marry the man and graciously lets him out of t he deal, so that he may marry his true love. The love of money . . .  that may be in the Dickens original. It's been a very long time since we cracked a binding. Since we don't compare to Source Material, it's a trivial point but since we all think we know what the story is from endless repetition of the adaptations, perhaps its time to revisit the original. Think of it as a present to yourself.

Finally, there is Scrooge's nephew Fred (Colin Firth), who extends an invitation to Christmas dinner out of familial obligation if nothing else.

What Disney's Christmas Carol has the opportunity to do is apply a near century of animation skill and ideas to elements of the story that have previously been locked up by the need to have actors performing parts. You'll see it most obviously in the figure of the Ghost of Christmas Past in which anthropomorphic yadda yadda is most skillfully applied. More important, the advances in animation technology are such that there were multiple points in the film which struck us as looking like live action location shots. . . and those were enough to offset Zemeckis' overuse of establishing shots that we've "seen" hundreds of times before, whether in earlier adaptations or in any Christmas themed film. A minor point about which to quibble. Probably brought on by a bit of undigested beef.

On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Ten Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to A Christmas Carol, he would have paid . . .

$7.50

A fine adaptation, though its serious bent may be better for older kidlets and adults.

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