Book Review: The Art of A Christmas Carol

November 6, 2009 by Parka

Robert Zemeckis is out with another motion capture animation movie, A Christmas Carol, the Charles Dicken's classic. Stylistically, it has a very similar feel to his earlier movies, Beowulf and The Polar Express, probably due to the hyper-realism recreation of scenes and characters.

The concept art for this movie is created by production designer Doug Chiang and his group of artists at ImageMovers Digital, a studio run by Robert Zemeckis and Disney specializing in performance capture and CGI.

There are plenty of art on locations and cool architecture since Charles Dicken's story was set in 1840s London. You'll see sets like Big Ben clock tower, Scrooge's English house, city streets and the other sets used in the animated film.

There are also character designs, some miniatures, sculptures and 3D renderings. Not surprisingly, the 3D characters resemble their life voice actors, who are Jim Carrey (except for old Scrooge), Gary Oldman, Bob Hoskins, and Robin Wright Penn among others.

Author Diana Landau has included commentary on the production process with interviews from the director, actors and artists. It's interesting to read about how they approach performance capture, character development, and making various artistic choices.

The Art of A Christmas Carol is a very decent companion to the film.

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