Considering how Robert Zemeckis and Jim Carrey’s previous forays into Christmas films (The Polar Express and the live-action Grinch respectively) worked out, it would seem like this motion-capture adaptation of Charles Dickens classic tale, Disney’s A Christmas Carol, would be destined to be the movie equivalent of getting socks for Christmas. Ah, but to my amazement, they’ve actually created a fantastic movie, one that’s refreshingly scary and is one of the few adaptations of the classic holiday story that makes Scrooge’s plight feel truly effective.

Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey) is a greedy miser who cares only about the money in his life. Ignoring his hard working assistant Bob Cratchit (Gary Oldman) and his cousin Fred (Colin Firth) he prepares for another dreary Christmas, when he is visited by the ghost of his old business partner Jacob Marley (Gary Oldman again). He warns him that he’ll be visited by three spirits, who will try to save the his soul in a single night.

While thousands of adaptations of A Christmas Carol have been crafted, the ones that exceed an hour and actually keep their momentum going are rare. Not only does this version of A Christmas Carol keep every single event from the book in order to keep the film as long as possible, it also keeps the stories dialogue, creating a time-period appropriate form of prose for the characters to converse. As if the animation weren’t enough to separate this from prior adaptations, such a choice shows how devoted this film is in creating not only a faithful adaptation, but just a good movie, plain and simple.

But perhaps the element that makes this one of the definitive film versions of this tale is Jim Carrey, who unlike his role as the Grinch, completely creates a character, with not even a trace of people like Ace Ventura seeping into Scrooge’s personality. That is to the films benefit, since Carrey actually displays some great acting here that help sell Scrooge’s transition from irredeemable grouch to a fellow who is the living embodiment of the holiday season.

Speaking of surprisingly elements, the film’s refreshingly dark tone is radiated by some unexpectedly scary moments that will terrify even the most jaded viewers. With choices like this, along with the gorgeous animation, a powerhouse performance from Jim Carrey and some excellent writing, here is a film that excellently portrays Scrooge’s odyssey like very few other adaptations of this story have.