I made the mistake of researching what some critics had to say about this movie and as a result almost deprived myself of seeing it. To this point, I have not found any local reviews except that of Deseret News critic Jeff Vice, so this review is not only an endorsement of the movie but a rebuttal of those critics who have not given the movie a chance. If you have not seen this movie in 3D you are missing something very special. Try to get past the notion that the animated characters do not look perfectly human and/or cartoonish (but very well constructed and detailed nonetheless) and you will be fine with this movie.

If you don't like Jim Carrey and are concerned that he will ruin this character like he ruined the Grinch, do not be alarmed, he actually stayed very well in control in this movie and stuck to the character you would expect from Scroge, with none of the usual tasteless potty humor in the usual Carrey roles to taint the script. It really is one of his best performances. The following comments were censored from being posted by the Deseret News website, who knows why. I hope the Salt Lake Tribune will not find anything I said here to be too controversial to censor like the Deseret News did.

For those that were considering seeing this movie do not let certain movie critics influence your decision. Keep in mind it took countless man hours and expense to produce this movie and only 10 minutes from a movie critic hack to trash it all with a poorly thought out review. It is a visual feast of special effects and animation, but I strongly encourage you see it at the IMAX in the Sandy Mega Plex. I am being hard on Jeff Vice of the Deseret News because I almost allowed his terrible review to affect my decision to take my date to this movie yesterday and see a different movie. This movie was very well worth the $12.50 I spent for each ticket.

We thoroughly enjoyed this movie and were grateful that with a few exceptions it stayed in character with the story we all know and love, certainly do not share the wish of Vice for "nothing really new to say in regards to the already-much-told tale." We do not want a 2009 interpretation to a 19th century story; stick within the framework of what Dickens intended please, and with minor exceptions the movie does so. How many movies have ruined old stories with twists from "modern trends" and Robin Williams(Aladin) style attempts at humor? There was none of that, and thank goodness.

This movie, especially when viewed in 3D, is a gold mine of visual and special effects and does a splendid job of recreating a 19th century old English setting with digital animation. The Scrooge character is well developed and comes across as very bitter and evil man and we should expect no less.

One local movie critic (Jeff Vice) stated, "...(It) forgot about coherent storytelling and character development." This is not true. It is the Christmas Carol, for crying out loud. We have all seen different versions, and this movie does do a good good job of "developing" the evilness of Scrooge early on as well as the good natureness of Bob Cratchett. Possibly the Tiny Tim character was better developed in other versions but what other significant characters for "character development" are there in the usual version of this story?

Unless your children frighten easily at the spectacular ghost images, this is a wonderful family movie with almost no offesive language, and his comments "disturbing imagery (ghostly apparitions and the like), an off-color joke and references (the aforementioned sewage sequence), derogatory language and slurs, and scattered use of mild profanity" is an extremely negative thing to say and way off base when compared to other modern movies; you have to be hypersensitive to find anything in this move offensive.

Before it it too late go see this in 3D at the IMAX in Sandy. You will not regret seeing this delightful movie.