All A Bored Disney’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ Train Tour
Oct 20, 2009 by Paul YoungTo help pass the time, just like in the parks, Disney had music pumping through the station speakers, a couple of places near the beginning …
To help pass the time, just like in the parks, Disney had music pumping through the station speakers, a couple of places near the beginning and end of the line have HDTVs playing movie information and the trailer. Also, there were four Christmas carolers strolling through the line singing as they go. Unfortunately, they would sing mostly in front of the train engines and unless you were three inches from their mouths, you couldn’t hear them. That didn’t stop me from getting in the mix though.
The one thing I noticed in this line, as in most lines at Disney, where plenty of friendly people in front and behind me to chat with, and lots of kids on dad’s shoulders. One thing that would have made this more of an authentic Disney experience would have been a vendor selling turkey legs and balloons outside of the line.
The other thing I noticed was the over-abundance of seniors. Maybe it’s because I’m in the retirement state of Florida? Anyway, the people were nice enough to pose for a photo for me.
Two hours, several kids’ complaints and a few juice boxes later, we enter the train. Oh what wonders await us inside the fantastic movie vehicle? Well, I wasn’t permitted to take photos in most of the cars but I did manage to get a few near the end where photography was permitted. The first car is filled with portraits of Jim Carrey (Ebenezer Scrooge), Gary Oldman (Bob Cratchit) and Colin Firth (Fred) as their movie counterparts. The ones of Scrooge as a young boy and teen were particularly impressive.
Car number two contained fourteen HDTVs all serving as digital picture frames switching back and forth between concept art and the same scene in CGI format from the movie. It was rather interesting to see what the artist envisioned and how the digital painters brought it to life.
In car three we had about fifty monitors running along both sides, with each showing a different phase of the motion capture (mo-cap) performance, starting with the actors themselves and ending with the finished product at the end.
Jim Carrey stars as seven different characters in the movie, with Gary Oldman and Colin Firth co-starring all via the magic of mo-cap. If you are not familiar with the technology, the actors put on funky looking black suits covered in white orbs that special cameras track as the actors move around. The cameras upload their information to “Central Command” where forty five people process it live and store it on over 300 Terabytes of drive space! It’s quite an impressive ordeal and you can see a picture of the suit in the photos below from inside car four.
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The amount of money Disney blows on movie promotions sickens me…
Sorry to be a first post downer but sheesh man I can’t drive down the street without seeing 19 homeless people begging for a dollar.
Can anybody possibly see this movie being good? I mean really? Have a look at the trailer, things like a little tiny Scrooge sliding along the snow, hitting icicles? Do any of us feel these little action beats are going to serve the story at all? Doubtful, considering it’s A Christmas Carol, and pretty much everyone already knows the story to it. I’ve seen this story be re-enacted by actors, muppets, mickey mouse and Bill Murray (not saying he’s not an actor…). We know the story, backwards and forwards, so anything added to it for the purposes of action and 3D is just going to be gratuitous and annoying.
This is just a way for them to say “hey, look at what we can do with Mo-cap and 3D! All this spanking technology and our movies still aren’t as good as Pixar’s were 10 years ago!”
Shouldn’t the advertising read “Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol”? Or, in the very least, Disney Presents…
It seems a bit rapacious, even for Disney, to claim this story as their own, with not the slightest nod to the source.
Even the print ads for “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” used the work “presents”.
I have heard of the movie but not of this promotional train tour. I have never seen anything like it myself so it was interesting to read about your experience, thanks! Sorry to hear that it wasn’t suitable for your kids!
“All a-bored” pretty much sums up how I feel about A Christmas Carol and all of Bobby Z’s mo-crap pictures.
I’m guessing you meant all aboard?
@Louise
Disney has been doing this forever.
Do you really think that Walt Disney came up with all those old stories, Snow White, Cinderella etc,,, Nope,,,
Enjoyed reading about your experience. I was there as well, but we went fairly early and avoided the extremely long wait times. I agree, this was not geared towards children, my primary reason for going was my 4 year old, he’s a train nut, so just stepping foot inside a “real” train was worth the trip for him! If I had gone later in the day and experienced the huge crowds, I would have probably been very annoyed and felt it a wasted trip!
@Sharon – Always nice to meet a fellow Floridian…and so close to. Love hanging out in St. Augie! Have you gone to the train view platform in Folkston, GA? You’re boy would have a great time there and it’s free. YOU can watch the trains move around in the yard and listen to them talk on the radio or the loud speakers.
@The incredible suit – Nope I meant it as a play on words “All A Bored” because that is how I felt and so did my kids after going.
I went to this event when it was held in Albuquerque, NM this past June.
Was interesting to see “snow” bubbles being pumped out of the display chimneys posted along the long line of people while standing in the hot sun. It took about 4 hours out of the day.
I hope that the film somehow conveys the message that the original story tells, that there is more to life than greed, and you can’t take it with you.
Charles Dickens wrote about a time in the life of the British empire that is looking more and more like a possibility in America: an empire that rewards a few folks at the top who pride themselves on their superiority, while the masses experience deprivation.
It’s a good time to review the message of the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. I hope the film is a good one and that it breaks box office records.
Making this story a Disney, funny, kid-appealing movie is just a bad, bad idea. NOTHING I’ve seen of this so far gives me any hope that it will be even remotely decent.
Vic
@Vic
Pretty sure Disney have already done that… a couple of times (does the Muppet Christmas Carol count as a Disney movie?).
And to be honest (and I’m likely going to be ridiculed for this), but Mickey’s Christmas Carol was half decent. Only about half an hour long and it seems to do everything particularly well (though I am looking at it through the rose tinted glasses of nostalgia).
Doesn’t mean I have any hopes for this movie though. To me it seems absolutely pointless.
Thank you so much for saving me from what would likely be a nightmarish day with two toddlers. I was planning on taking my 2 & 3 1/2 year old kids, by myself, to the Philly stop. It sounds miserable. Maybe if they were much older it would be worth it. Disney really needs to make the target market more clear.
Author: watch a christmas carol
Your handle takes me to a link where I can watch this film for free,,, is that ok with Disney?
@790
I think it’s a scam designed to get you to download ad-aware of some sort. I clicked through a couple of times and was brought to a website that told me I needed to “download their toolbar” in order to watch the movie.
Seems like a definite scam.
(Ok, standing on my anti disney soap box),,,
Joshi, Disney is an evil group… There’s no other way to say it,,,
Not the folks who work at Pixar, Disneyworld or the guy working the door at the Haunted Mansion. I’m talking about the upper crust of leadership.
If I had to make a laymans assessment they’re alot like Scientology. They practice deception and strive to manipulate the population under the guise of providing wholesome entertainment…
A lot of people don’t realize that Disney owns and controls ABC news. The same ABC news that has become the voice of obama and blatantly reports false and inaccurate information to the people. (Swine flu, killing everyone, get your murcury laced vaccine its good for you, etc)
They have become a tool of the government.(See 1930′s German history)
Do you want them providing “entertainment” to your children? Would you download something from them onto your hardrive?
There push for 3D is disturbing enough. Disneys leadership have become absolutely corrupt and ironically stand for the opposite message that their movies portray.
Disney is Scrooge and he’s not talking to Angels’!!!
I’m… not entirely sure why that rant was directed at me, but whatever. You don’t like Disney, fair enough.
No Joshi that wasn’t directed at you I was just ranting out loud,,,
