"A Christmas Carol" is a sometimes beautiful, sometimes scary, re-telling of the classic Dickens story of greed and redemption. Jim Carrey gives a fully realized performance as Ebenezer Scrooge, the stingiest, meanest man in town. He's a miser visited by three spirits, all of them also played by Jim Carrey. Bob Cratchit and the ghost of Marley are both played by, Gary Oldman.

The film was made using "motion capture," a fascinating process that allows the actors to act and adds the animation later. It's the same process "Forest Gump" director Robert Zemecki's used in "The Polar Express." With the addition of digital 3-D, these computer-generated characters have a heightened sense of awareness.

"A Christmas Carol" is rated an intense PG. It can be frightening for pre-schoolers simply because Dicken's story gets dark and because the film is so well-made.

I'm a bit perplexed why it's coming out before Thanksgiving. it's much too early, so consider this a premature holiday gift about a man who finally realizes there is great joy in being generous.