This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:15] Jesse McAnally: Hello, I'm Jesse Mack and Alley.

[0:17] Alan Seales: And I'm Alan Seales.

[0:18] Liz Estude: And I'm Liz Estude.

[0:20] Jesse McAnally: And welcome to Carrey'd Away, a podcast where we explore the films and television shows starring the one and only James Eugene Carrey.

[0:25] Alan Seales: And we're still in the Christmas zone right now.

[0:28] Jesse McAnally: And it's like the danger zone, meaning that you have to spend a lot of time with your family and have uncomfortable conversations.

[0:34] Alan Seales: And watch films that are probably not that good, but fuck it, it's on Freeform, so you're gonna sit through it anyways.

[0:39] Jesse McAnally: Like this week's topic.

[0:42] Alan Seales: I love Freeform.

[0:44] Liz Estude: Yay!

[0:45] Jesse McAnally: Yay, Freeform.

[0:46] Alan Seales: I will sell my soul to Disney at any point.

[0:49] Jesse McAnally: Disney, you want me to sell out? Just reach out to my email.

[0:52] Alan Seales: Dude, there are two, not one, two new Doctor Who hour-long specials on Disney Plus right now.

[0:58] Jesse McAnally: You think I haven't watched them already? You're welcome.

[1:01] Alan Seales: No, I'm talking to our listeners because you think they haven't watched them all already?

[1:05] Jesse McAnally: Fair point.

[1:06] Alan Seales: Fair point.

[1:06] Jesse McAnally: All right, listeners. Let us know.

[1:07] Alan Seales: We'd rather talk about Doctor Who.

[1:10] Jesse McAnally: Let us know what you think. Anyway, what are we here to talk about?

[1:13] Liz Estude: Um, David Tennant?

[1:14] Alan Seales: No.

[1:15] Jesse McAnally: David Tennant is not in A Christmas Carol.

[1:17] Liz Estude: Um, despite probably being a better fit for every role than the people they cast.

[1:25] Alan Seales: But yes, this is Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol.

[1:28] Jesse McAnally: Cue the music.

[1:35] Alan Seales: In Disney Digital 3D, and IMX3D.

[1:54] Jesse McAnally: So A Christmas Carol is an animated motion capture film released on November 3rd, 2009 in London, and November 6, 2009 in the United States, written and directed by the one and only Robert Zemeckis, based on Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol.

[2:10] Alan Seales: The film stars Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, Robin Wright, and Carrie Elwes.

[2:16] Jesse McAnally: Um, and the plot of which is an animated retelling of Charles Dickens' classic novel about a Victorian era miser, taken as a journey of self-redemption, courtesy of several mysterious Christmas apparitions.

[2:28] Alan Seales: So, let's talk about apparitions?

[2:31] Jesse McAnally: Apparitions.

[2:32] Alan Seales: I'm so sorry. I was like, what's an apparatus?

[2:35] Jesse McAnally: Also, the fact that anybody needs to summarize what the plot of A Christmas Carol is now is just strange to me.

[2:42] Alan Seales: Because how many different variations of this overdone story have we seen or heard or read?

[2:49] Jesse McAnally: At least three.

[2:50] Alan Seales: Good answer.

[2:51] Jesse McAnally: Um, The Muppets, the Will Ferrell, and this one.

[2:55] Alan Seales: I performed in one.

[2:57] Jesse McAnally: I performed in two, actually, in my day.

[2:59] Alan Seales: I performed in one. I played Scrooge.

[3:01] Jesse McAnally: I was not good.

[3:02] Alan Seales: Um, didn't even attempt the accent.

[3:06] Jesse McAnally: Didn't not even, not even an attempt.

[3:08] Alan Seales: I hear you asking, person that didn't keep up with trends of the early 2000s. Robert Zemeckis doing A Christmas Carol. How did that come to be?

[3:17] Jesse McAnally: Well, this came to be out of corporate desperation of keeping his weird little animation company afloat and basically just begging to have something done so he didn't have to lay off his workers.

[3:28] Alan Seales: So if we can track back his entire reign, Robert Zemeckis is one of the most prolific directors to ever exist in film history.

[3:36] Jesse McAnally: His range of work from the 80s to the 90s, truly some of the most impressive films ever made.

[3:42] Alan Seales: Who Framed Roger Rabbit, all three Back to the Future films, Death Becomes Her, Cast Away, Forrest Gump.

[3:49] Jesse McAnally: This track record is so incredible. And I even brought up my favorite film of his, which is What Lies Beneath.

[3:55] Alan Seales: One of the best horror films, and truly something that has inspired my film, Ars of the Domino, a lot.

[4:02] Jesse McAnally: And we were just having conversations with my composer about how What Lies Beneath is a big inspiration in what we're doing.

[4:08] Alan Seales: Um, that being said, Robert Zemeckis took a pill in the early 2000s, and I would call that the insanity pants pill of the motion capture.

[4:19] Jesse McAnally: He developed motion capture, in his own words, mostly as technology that we could use later. He was giving this as a gift to future filmmakers, and by doing so, he had to keep making films.

[4:32] Alan Seales: The first of which was the very, very strangely successful Polar Express film, which I don't think most people have thought aged perfectly.

[4:41] Jesse McAnally: I don't know how you guys feel about that film.

[4:44] Alan Seales: I hate it.

[4:44] Jesse McAnally: I hate it.

[4:45] Alan Seales: It was, I hate it.

[4:46] Jesse McAnally: It was equally creepy, I will agree with. There's this weird line that if you blur it when you're trying to animate things to a point of being hyper-realistic, but they can't quite get it, then it becomes, it takes you out of it and becomes actually less believable.

[5:05] Alan Seales: Do you remember Team America: World Police?

[5:07] Jesse McAnally: Fuck yeah?

[5:08] Alan Seales: Yes.

[5:08] Jesse McAnally: Yes.

[5:08] Alan Seales: There was an interview with Matt and Trey where there was an extra set of servos in the faces of these marionettes that gave them actually the ability to like smile or something, and it made them look too real, and it actually lost the comic effect.

[5:23] Jesse McAnally: Like they had lateral face movement. Anyway, my point being that Polar Express is creepy AF.

[5:28] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[5:28] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, that's just a very smart way of saying it, and I just said I hated it without any intelligent analysis.

[5:33] Alan Seales: So, but I think we have to kind of look back at the bigger picture of what the Polar Express is. As a film, I think it's just a failure. As basically a tech demo, I think it is one of the most impressive pieces from the early 2000s.

[5:49] Jesse McAnally: In 2004, like motion capture was in its baby, baby infancy. Um, so his company, Robert Zemeckis' company, Image Movers, got its start there and was lending out this technology to other companies just to show what it could do.

[6:04] Alan Seales: Most famously Monster House, which I think uses motion capture perfectly, because that is heightened, not realistic facial things, but you get all the emotion.

[6:15] Jesse McAnally: It is not trying to replicate a perfect human face, it is just trying to replicate the actor's intentions with it.

[6:21] Alan Seales: And that is the correct use of motion capture. Then we've got something like Beowulf, which is a show, hey, it's not just for kids, this animation. This can show you some really gross bloody stuff and can make an adult-centric film.

[6:34] Jesse McAnally: And nothing Robert Zemeckis has ever made is like Beowulf for good reason.

[6:39] Alan Seales: Thing is, outside of Polar Express, these films were not really successful. This was not a, this is a very expensive technology, and it's very hard to put into place without a good amount of money.

[6:51] Jesse McAnally: And for years, like Robert Zemeckis was trying to get a film done in this style, a remake of Yellow Submarine. He was running out of money, couldn't find anyone to co-distribute it, and the only one that has ever been successful was the Polar Express.

[7:04] Alan Seales: So he goes to Disney, and Disney said, maybe we'll produce this if you give us another Christmas classic that we can make money off of in re-airings and all these other pieces, syndication, that we can re-release in theaters, because Polar Express did not make its money really in its original run, but every subsequent run in IMAX is where it really started making the big chunks of change.

[7:25] Jesse McAnally: So Disney wanted their own. And Robert Zemeckis didn't really have an emotional connection to this aside from keeping his workers employed and getting this out there.

[7:36] Alan Seales: So what did he do? They basically forced him to do A Christmas Carol, because A, you're the time travel guy, and B, this is the only thing that we can get, and you need a big star in the lead.

[7:47] Jesse McAnally: Enter Jim Carrey, who Bob Zemeckis had never worked with before, and the only reason really is his face. He wanted to show the limits of this technology, and he did so with the person that can use his face in the biggest of ways.

[8:18] Alan Seales: One of the reasons why I think Tom Hanks' performance in the Polar Express doesn't really work is if you've ever compared him doing the performance onset with all the dots on his face, he's doing some very subtle, tiny things that are very impressive and very good for a movie with proper actors.

[8:36] Jesse McAnally: However, for an animated film, it is not reading. Jim Carrey, on the other hand, has this expressive giant face where if you put dots on it and it's moving, the most giant big expressions are dampened by the animation.

[8:50] Alan Seales: So it still comes across, and you still get a very effective performance. And that is why, as far as technicalities go, I think this is the most successful motion capture film, but I would never call this good.

[9:02] Jesse McAnally: I would never say that this is good as entertainment. There's the tech that goes into making the story. There's the writers that write the story. There's the actors that bring the two together, and then there's this other pile of shit that we're talking about right now.

[9:21] Alan Seales: I don't think that's, I want to be fair. I don't think that's fair to the artists and people that came together. I get that this was a last-ditch effort to keep yourself employed, and you're just trying to get a hit. And to their credit, they did get a mild hit.

[9:35] Jesse McAnally: But it's the texture, the environment, the like, like somebody has to animate all of this. They have to, there's background people, and there's your crowd people, and there's your lighting people.

[9:47] Alan Seales: Like, I don't, there's way more that I know about when it comes to actual animation. But there's people who make the environment that the actors are then put into with the motion capture, and the performances aside, the whole thing was dark in a way that kind of felt like literally dark, as in it's nighttime in London, and it's just kind of creepy and scary, and the people have just, they look like they're all, uh, have bad skin, and just it's not pleasant to watch these people visually.

[9:51] Jesse McAnally: But then the script itself, or maybe it was even directed that way, came across as very like a dark film totally.

[10:23] Alan Seales: I think that you could go either way. I think there's a version of this where it's a strictly dark adaptation of A Christmas Carol, and it would work really, really well.

[10:33] Alan Seales: But there's also a version of this where it's a bright and fun and optimistic version of A Christmas Carol, and that could work very well. And they tried to do both, and therefore neither work.

[10:39] Jesse McAnally: But they didn't do that.

[10:43] Jesse McAnally: So I think that if they had leaned into the darkness a touch more and gotten rid of all the goofier elements, we might have a masterpiece on our hands.

[10:52] Alan Seales: Maybe.

[10:52] Jesse McAnally: That's a good point.

[10:53] Alan Seales: That's a very good point.

[10:54] Jesse McAnally: Expect the first tomorrow when the bell tolls one.

[11:03] Alan Seales: Expect the second the next night at the same hour.

[11:08] Jesse McAnally: On the third.

[11:10] Alan Seales: Upon the next night, when the last stroke of twelve has ceased to a vibration.

[11:17] Jesse McAnally: So, or gone the other way. With these films, the main thing is we need this to be on an IMAX screen.

[11:24] Alan Seales: So for each one of the ghosts, Scrooge has to be doing something fucking big and wacky and massive, so that when we show it on a big screen, it is effective.

[11:35] Jesse McAnally: So that distracts from the narrative. Those things are what are avoiding this from being a story anymore. It wants to be a roller coaster ride version of A Christmas Carol as opposed to an actual story.

[11:48] Alan Seales: And some of them are kind of clever, some of them are fun. I really like the Ghost of Christmas Present lifting up the house, and that is the way that they look into the houses. That's a clever idea.

[11:57] Jesse McAnally: But then you've got the Ghost of Christmas Past skyrocketing Scrooge into the sky and the Ghost of Christmas Future chasing him in the shrinking Scrooge down and chasing him. Those things ultimately ruin the emotional impact of the darkness.

[12:16] Alan Seales: Yeah, mini, mini Scrooge didn't work for me.

[12:18] Jesse McAnally: No, it is the worst time. If that had happened earlier, like during the Christmas Past things, I think I'd be more fine with it. But the fact that it's happening in the one time that it we should be taking it seriously. Even the Muppets version knew we have to take away the comedic characters for that last third.

[12:35] Jesse McAnally: We have to remove all the comedic elements so that the emotions hit harder.

[12:40] Alan Seales: And that's where this one misunderstood the assignment altogether. That being said, we know this movie isn't great. Most people don't like it. I don't like it. You guys don't like it. How is Jim Carrey in this? How does he do as Scrooge and the three ghosts, which is another clever idea that makes it almost worth doing this animation style. When I was first watching this, I did not fully realize that it was motion capture. I thought that it was just straight animation with them voicing it and I was like why is he really going or why was Jim Carrey needed for this role because the character itself, you know, just kind of like hunched over and doing the Scroogey thing and I thought it was just animated.

And then when I realized it was motion capture, I said, oh okay, you know that makes a lot more sense. But I don't think he was necessarily needed. Other than the fact that what you were saying a second ago about that you have to be over the top with your face so that it translates and looks relatively normal when it's animated. Compared to everyone else, Jim Carrey's the only one that looks particularly good in this movie. Like everyone else is kind of doing smaller subtler performances. Colin Firth, God bless him, he looks horrible in this film. But Jim Carrey, either they spent a lot more time rendering his face, maybe they heightened it a little bit more, made his nose a little bigger, made his eyes a little heightened, but he looks visually the most pleasant to look at, which on one hand is a good thing, but on the other hand, he's Scrooge.

[14:05] Jesse McAnally: Well, that was my point. Is that visually it just looks creepy. It looks like it's in some weird dream state of people that don't quite fit what we expect people to look like. It's a little too real, but not animated enough. It's right there on this line that makes it just seem creepy. Liz, now that you seem to be back with us, what did you think of Jim Carrey's performance?

[14:30] Liz Estude: I've seen like of the three of these motion capture movies, this looks the best in parts. Like I think Jim Carrey's Scrooge is the best looking of the crew. And the Ghost of Christmas Present looks pretty cool. But then you cut to Bob Cratchit, who looks like a goblin. And Colin Firth looks like Colin Firth 30 years from now, if he drank too much and gained a lot of weight. Um, and like it just there's some people in this movie that just don't look good, but Carrey, like not just Carrey Elwes, Carrey Elwes never looks good. Jim Carrey's characters look pretty decent, but overall, just all the uncanny valley-ness of the background and the buildings being weirdly like not textured in some spots.

It's like I just think this is the only one with like a conceit, like a reason to make motion capture. Um, Jim Carrey as Scrooge, it works. Um, and making him play with the first one. You can make live action Beowulf. You can make live action Polar Express. You should have made a live action Polar Express with actual children and not Tom Hanks' child for some reason.

[15:36] Alan Seales: Tom Hanks with Meghan Trainor's boyfriend's voice.

[15:40] Liz Estude: Yes, which is weird.

[15:41] Alan Seales: It's weird.

[15:45] Liz Estude: Meghan Trainor is currently married to the kid from Spy Kids, the boy from Spy Kids.

[15:51] Jesse McAnally: Which boy?

[15:52] Liz Estude: Daryl Sabera. Uh, Juni Cortez.

[15:54] Jesse McAnally: Sabera me is Googling.

[15:57] Liz Estude: Oh, that kid.

[15:58] Jesse McAnally: That kid, yes. I just remember when this film was announced. Um, Robert Zemeckis was just half-heartedly promoting this, like, you know that this is the original time travel story, and who is the one guy that knows how to tell a time travel story? Y'all aren't ready for this one, and then oh my god. Ugh. Um, although, like, still the flashbacks with using Jim Carrey's face, super effective. Wish they had done a little bit more with that, but I thought it was really cool. Like that. Like, there are things that like make this almost worth existing. But let's talk about how dark it is real quick. Um, unpleasantly dark. I would not take my kids to see this. This would like freak them out. There was like on-screen death in like five different sections.

[16:48] Alan Seales: Would you show your kids this?

[16:50] No, no, that was my next thing. It was like it's so real-ish that it's not appropriate for children.

[16:57] Jesse McAnally: Would you show them Spirited though?

[16:59] Alan Seales: Yeah, with uh Ryan Reynolds. I would show them yes, maybe Spirited we did watch with my younger one.

[17:07] Jesse McAnally: Well, there we go. I feel like this was a down to the wire kind of thing because every scene feels like it's cut in half. Every scene, because I know A Christmas Carol really well, the book, the story. It feels like every scene was cut in half to make it as short as possible, as Spark Notes version as we can. This cannot be like the one you watch because that's just missing so much of what makes it great. Surprisingly, the Muppets is still like significantly more accurate to the novel than this is.

[17:39] Alan Seales: Well, Dickens wrote to—what did I want to call it? Did I want to call it to say Dick Wolf?

[17:43] Liz Estude: Dick Wolf did not do the Muppets.

[17:49] Alan Seales: Jim Henson.

[17:50] Liz Estude: Why were where did my brain insert Dick Wolf or Jim Henson? Who are we talking about?

[17:55] Alan Seales: Robert Zemeckis?

[17:56] Liz Estude: I don't know.

[17:56] Alan Seales: Robert Zemeckis.

[17:58] Liz Estude: Yeah, yeah. I don't understand. I don't understand where my brain is this morning.

[18:03] Alan Seales: It's fine.

[18:04] Jesse McAnally: It's four PM, Alan.

[18:05] Alan Seales: It's like four o'clock in the afternoon.

[18:08] Liz Estude: Maybe in your time zone.

[18:10] Alan Seales: Oh, where are you at?

[18:11] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, I think we're all in the same time zone.

[18:13] Alan Seales: I don't know. You'll never know. This is the time travel episode, remember?

[18:18] Jesse McAnally: Alan's in tomorrow.

[18:19] Alan Seales: Yeah, I'm in Australia right now, mate. I'm slowly dying. How about we compare our pitch opinions of those who write for the professional critic houses?

[18:28] Liz Estude: Our Pittix critical corner.

[18:31] Jesse McAnally: I like our Pittix with the apparitions.

[18:35] Alan Seales: Apparitions. That's good. I think that's from IMDB. They made it fancy for some reason. I don't know why they didn't just say ghosts.

[18:42] Alan Seales: So Roger Ebert said Jim Carrey is in there somewhere beneath the performance capture animation. You can recognize his expressive mouth, but in general, the Zemeckis characters don't resemble the originals very much. In this, The Polar Express, you were sure that it was Tom Hanks, but here you're not equally sure of Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Robin Wright Penn, or Bob Hoskins. Um, I like the way that Zemeckis does it. He seems to have a lot more sure touch than any of the other directors using 3D instead of being used by it. That is also something we should have brought up. There's a lot of moments where they're just trying to shove things in your face for the 3D of it all. And if I remember correctly, this was one of the better 3D experiences in the theater in like 2009 when—no, this is a month before Avatar came out.

[19:30] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, it's for Avatar.

[19:35] Alan Seales: The greatest 3D movie of all time.

[19:37] Liz Estude: That's our second Spy Kids reference this episode.

[19:39] Jesse McAnally: Yes.

[19:40] Alan Seales: This is a Spy Kids.

[19:42] Liz Estude: We gotta make it an even three. Um, so should you take the kiddies? Anyway, A Christmas Carol has one quality parents hope for in a family movie. It's entertaining for adults.

[20:00] Alan Seales: What accent is that?

[20:03] Jesse McAnally: That's Midwestern.

[20:05] Alan Seales: Oh, yeah.

[20:11] Liz Estude: Well, no, he's not overweight in his voice. He's like, well, I definitely think this, Cisco, I don't really don't like that. It's like he holds out the atts and his A's so long.

[20:21] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, that's true. Uh, so do we agree with that?

[20:25] Alan Seales: No, I d—I don't think it's entertaining for adults. I sincerely think adults are the ones it's not. I would go back and watch Sex and Violence Family Hour before this.

[20:34] Jesse McAnally: I would. I think that's—no, I think you're wrong.

[20:37] Alan Seales: I wouldn't. Um, as a person that had to rewatch it for a week, it was not fun.

[20:42] Liz Estude: Why did it take a week to watch Sex and Violence Family Hour?

[20:45] Alan Seales: Oh, you also had to edit the episode so that I had to go back and find the sketches. I'm like, oh god.

[20:53] Jesse McAnally: Share point.

[20:54] Alan Seales: Well, I would rather watch any of the early porn than this again because this was just creepy. And I already knew how it was gonna end.

[21:02] Liz Estude: Yeah, yeah. There's some things to appreciate here, unlike those. Like I can appreciate, like, you know, there's like one or two scenes that I think are really, really brilliant, and the slog is still the slog.

[21:14] Jesse McAnally: True. Very true.

[21:15] Alan Seales: Well, okay. So what was your favorite scene then?

[21:18] Liz Estude: Oh, my favorite scene that is not any other version, and I know other people have brought this up, is when Scrooge has to go and visit Bob Cratchit in his house, and Bob Cratchit, when Tiny Tim died, and he's putting on a strong face for his family, and Scrooge is on the stairs, and then when Cratchit goes up the stairs, Scrooge has to look dead in the face to his real emotions that he's been hiding from his family. And that is like, ooh, that's a good cinematic idea right there. Like that, and it was very well done, and that is not an end that was a wholly original thing for this adaptation alone. I'm like, okay, that's a pretty cool idea. In most versions, there is a weird kind of moment when the Ghost of Christmas Present opens his robes and there's just two children under there, and it always feels very iffy.

And here they do the brilliant thing of showing them grow up and become monstrous creatures in front of them. Like, there's a lot of little things that I think really shine about this, and when it shines, I'm like, ooh, that's smart. Ooh, that's good. Like, there's a good director in here somewhere. It's just lost in the bullshit.

[22:40] Jesse McAnally: So would you, with this whole end-to-end situation, the motion capture and the big acting and the blah blah blah, would it have worked better, maybe with Great Expectations instead of A Christmas Carol?

[22:53] Alan Seales: The thing is that wouldn't market as well. You've got to think about the Disney marketing machine that says we want our own Polar Express.

[22:59] Jesse McAnally: Okay. Okay.

[23:00] Alan Seales: You gotta keep it Christmas. You gotta keep it something that you could re-release every year for a holiday.

[23:04] Liz Estude: Okay, point for Jesse. You win this round. We haven't played Let's—

[23:08] Alan Seales: Yeah, Alan. Calm down. AO Scott of the New York Times said, The London that Mr. Zemeckis renders has a story about quality for sure, but a pall for poverty and injustice hangs over its brick houses and cobbled streets. It's not only the ingenuity of 3D that sends some of the shadow drifting into theaters, and the ghosts are not playful spooks, but rather symbols of the deep terror at the heart of this not entirely cheerful story, governed from start to finish by agonizing fear of death. Carrey also has a good time portraying some of Scrooge's inhuman company. In particular, the bombastic Bacchanalian Ghost of Christmas Present. The three main episodes of Haunting provide Mr. Zemeckis opportunity to push ahead with the experiment that he has sustained through The Polar Express and Beowulf, and they show mixed results.

[24:07] Jesse McAnally: No one is talking about an emotional connection or verbose kind of new take. They are just talking about the spectacle, which on one hand I get, but on the other hand, it doesn't work well if you're only watching it on your TV screen at home five, ten years later. I can't say I disagree with these reviews because I can't really put myself in their place to see it in 3D the way that the directors all intended, and seeing it with the full audience reactions, but I don't think I agree with it in its current form of just watching it for bullshit on Disney Plus.

[24:37] Alan Seales: No. Did you ever have a curved 3D TV?

[24:41] Jesse McAnally: I currently have a curved TV, not 3D.

[24:43] Alan Seales: The curved TV went the way of the Buffalo along with the 3D at home.

[24:47] Liz Estude: But I love curved TVs because you don't get reflections in them.

[24:51] Alan Seales: That's fair. I couldn't keep one that wouldn't break. Samsung sent me two replacements and then eventually just it got replaced with a flat one the third time because they didn't make the curved one anymore.

[25:01] Liz Estude: But 3D TVs, garbage. My godparents had that one, and I just for shiggles, um, I was house sitting for them, and I turned on—oh, what was it?

[25:11] Jesse McAnally: I think it was like up in 3D, and I'm like, this looks bad.

[25:15] Alan Seales: Well, the reason I ask is because if you don't see it in, if you don't see Christmas Carol in the theater, then maybe around the same time frame you could have come home and watched it on your Blu-ray, your 3D Blu-ray player, whatever that was.

[25:29] Jesse McAnally: But I don't think people did that because no one wanted to watch this.

[25:32] Alan Seales: Well, 3D only works if you're James Cameron, really, truly.

[25:37] Jesse McAnally: Mm-hmm.

[25:38] Alan Seales: Yeah, and you have your own submarine.

[25:40] Jesse McAnally: That's true.

[25:40] Alan Seales: So three, that's the takeaway. Get your own submarine, you're successful at 3D.

[25:44] Jesse McAnally: How about we go on to the letterbox game?

[25:47] Alan Seales: Welcome to the letterbox game where I review is letterbox, and I'm gonna tell Jess and Alan some reviews, and they have to tell me if it's a one or a five-star review.

[25:59] Jesse McAnally: I'll go first because my name doesn't start with an A.

[26:01] Alan Seales: Yeah, I'm gonna be, I was gonna say, I'm gonna make Jess go first because Alan always goes first.

[26:06] Jesse McAnally: Jess he is.

[26:07] Alan Seales: Get it.

[26:07] Jesse McAnally: Just good.

[26:10] Alan Seales: Alright.

[26:11] Jesse McAnally: Assassin's Creed Miss.

[26:13] Alan Seales: Hmm.

[26:14] Jesse McAnally: I get it.

[26:15] Alan Seales: Five.

[26:15] Jesse McAnally: That is a one.

[26:16] Alan Seales: Fuck!

[26:17] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, yeah. Definitely would have won that. I would have won all over that.

[26:20] Alan Seales: The best lesson to learn.

[26:22] Jesse McAnally: The best lesson to learn.

[26:24] Alan Seales: Is that your dramatic reading?

[26:26] Jesse McAnally: Yes, it's my dramatic reading. It's my neutral dramatic reading.

[26:29] Alan Seales: Lesson to learn.

[26:30] Jesse McAnally: Five stars.

[26:31] Alan Seales: You know, you're right.

[26:32] Jesse McAnally: Yes!

[26:33] Alan Seales: Oh yeah.

[26:33] Jesse McAnally: Jess I am.

[26:34] Alan Seales: Jess Jesse is.

[26:36] Jesse McAnally: Born at the perfect time for childhood trauma in the 3D Renaissance.

[26:40] Alan Seales: Ooh.

[26:41] Jesse McAnally: They call it the perfect time.

[26:43] Alan Seales: That could go either way.

[26:43] Jesse McAnally: I'm gonna say five because perfect reads five.

[26:46] Alan Seales: That is correct.

[26:49] Jesse McAnally: I'm coming back.

[26:50] Alan Seales: I'm coming back.

[26:50] Jesse McAnally: I know what you're about to ask me.

[26:52] Alan Seales: Jess I am.

[26:53] Jesse McAnally: I like to check just in case.

[26:55] Alan Seales: My name is Alan.

[26:57] Jesse McAnally: So every time I say Alan, I think of that clip from Jurassic Park 3.

[27:00] Alan Seales: I'm so sorry.

[27:01] Jesse McAnally: Alan out of it.

[27:04] Alan Seales: Alan.

[27:06] Jesse McAnally: Alan.

[27:07] Alan Seales: I'm scared.

[27:08] Jesse McAnally: I'm scared.

[27:09] Alan Seales: One star.

[27:10] Jesse McAnally: That's correct.

[27:12] Alan Seales: Oh my goodness.

[27:16] Jesse McAnally: Alright. Got my comfy pants on. You know.

[27:18] Alan Seales: I'm relaxed today.

[27:19] Jesse McAnally: In Australia.

[27:20] Alan Seales: Oh, in Australia, where you are.

[27:21] Jesse McAnally: I mean this morning.

[27:22] Alan Seales: This morning.

[27:23] Jesse McAnally: That's what I mean. It's the morning for you.

[27:24] Alan Seales: It's nighttime for us.

[27:26] Jesse McAnally: That's right. It's like already dark outside for me.

[27:28] Alan Seales: It really is.

[27:29] Jesse McAnally: Morning?

[27:30] Alan Seales: The mocat made me smell toast.

[27:33] Jesse McAnally: That means I had a stroke.

[27:35] Alan Seales: Heart attack.

[27:36] Jesse McAnally: That's a one.

[27:37] Alan Seales: Isn't toast when you have a heart.

[27:38] Jesse McAnally: That is correct. It could be both.

[27:39] Alan Seales: I thought stroke was toast.

[27:41] Jesse McAnally: Burning toast.

[27:42] Alan Seales: I don't know.

[27:42] Jesse McAnally: Definitely burning toast.

[27:43] Alan Seales: Yeah, definitely heart attack.

[27:44] Jesse McAnally: Alright. Are you ready, Alan?

[27:46] Alan Seales: What's the next one?

[27:47] Jesse McAnally: Uh yes.

[27:48] Alan Seales: Alan I am.

[27:49] Jesse McAnally: Freak as hell.

[27:50] Alan Seales: Freak as hell.

[27:51] Jesse McAnally: Five stars.

[27:52] Alan Seales: That's it.

[27:53] Jesse McAnally: That is correct.

[27:54] Alan Seales: Yes!

[27:56] Jesse McAnally: This movie had no reason to be that scary.

[27:59] Alan Seales: The fuck.

[28:00] Jesse McAnally: One!

[28:00] Alan Seales: Five.

[28:01] Jesse McAnally: Fuck!

[28:02] Alan Seales: That's definitely, yeah, you gotta read, you gotta read the Liz inflection.

[28:05] Jesse McAnally: The Liz Flexion gets a lot of things.

[28:06] Alan Seales: I don't know. I try not to put a deflections on these, I swear.

[28:10] Jesse McAnally: I know. Like that's but that's your tell.

[28:13] Alan Seales: See, when I do them, I try to give inflections, but I try to trick them.

[28:17] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, no, you do like really positive inflection on a one just to fuck with people.

[28:21] Alan Seales: It's really fun. I love it. It's my favorite thing to do.

[28:25] Jesse McAnally: Chaos.

[28:26] Alan Seales: That was it. Just chaos?

[28:27] Jesse McAnally: Yep.

[28:29] Alan Seales: That's a good read. You've learned.

[28:30] Jesse McAnally: Oh, okay. I'm learning.

[28:33] Alan Seales: I wasn't an actor in high school, so I'm learning.

[28:36] Jesse McAnally: Chaos.

[28:36] Alan Seales: Chaos.

[28:37] Jesse McAnally: Chaos.

[28:38] Alan Seales: Curl.

[28:39] Jesse McAnally: Five star.

[28:39] Alan Seales: Chaos reads.

[28:40] Jesse McAnally: That was a one star.

[28:41] Alan Seales: No, your acting spoiled my time.

[28:44] Jesse McAnally: I'm so sorry, Alan.

[28:46] Alan Seales: You're still winning, so like you're fine.

[28:49] Jesse McAnally: Jess.

[28:50] Alan Seales: I'm ready.

[28:51] Jesse McAnally: Jess I am.

[28:52] Alan Seales: Jesse is.

[28:53] Jesse McAnally: He's just like me for real.

[28:55] Alan Seales: Five.

[28:55] Jesse McAnally: Because that's just like me.

[28:57] Alan Seales: That's correct.

[29:00] Jesse McAnally: I don't know the he this review is referring to, but I want to know.

[29:03] Alan Seales: Jess, are you ready?

[29:05] Jesse McAnally: Jess, he is.

[29:06] Alan Seales: I mean I am.

[29:06] Jesse McAnally: I mean, yes.

[29:07] Alan Seales: Steve.

[29:08] Jesse McAnally: Jess Allen is ready.

[29:09] Alan Seales: Alan speaks in third person.

[29:10] Jesse McAnally: Yes.

[29:11] Alan Seales: Alan is ready.

[29:12] Jesse McAnally: Alan is waiting.

[29:13] Alan Seales: I couldn't tell when to be scared or when to laugh.

[29:16] Jesse McAnally: I couldn't tell when to be scared or when to laugh.

[29:19] Alan Seales: That's a good sign of a movie.

[29:21] Jesse McAnally: That's a one.

[29:22] Alan Seales: That's a one, yeah.

[29:23] Jesse McAnally: That is correct.

[29:24] Alan Seales: Alright, Jess. If you get this right, you will tie and rob Alan of a win.

[29:27] Jesse McAnally: I'm gonna Rob, you're not gonna win.

[29:30] Alan Seales: Rob me.

[29:31] Jesse McAnally: Jess me.

[29:32] Alan Seales: Why was I allowed to watch this as a kid?

[29:34] Jesse McAnally: Well, they're rewatching it from childhood. That has to be, they're choosing to watch this.

[29:39] Alan Seales: So this is a five.

[29:40] Jesse McAnally: That's correct. You're tied.

[29:41] Alan Seales: I kicked your ass, Alan.

[29:43] Jesse McAnally: You're not gonna steal another one from me.

[29:44] Alan Seales: We are just gonna both take a win here.

[29:47] Jesse McAnally: I just listened back to the Alex Brightman episode. He's like, I don't care. I'm not competitive. I don't give a fuck. Like, you guys, whatever do you want. And then the two of us are just like, no, yes, no, yes.

[29:59] Alan Seales: I think one of them, us, is a very successful Broadway actor, and you and I do podcasts on the internet.

[30:07] Jesse McAnally: I think that says it all, Alan.

[30:11] Alan Seales: Oh yeah.

[30:11] Jesse McAnally: So for context, we recorded that a year ago, and it just released last week.

[30:16] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[30:17] Jesse McAnally: Yeah.

[30:18] Alan Seales: Podcasting is magical.

[30:19] Jesse McAnally: It's a magical press.

[30:21] Alan Seales: It's all lies. Everything you've ever heard on a podcast is a lie.

[30:25] Jesse McAnally: Yeah. We're recording this in March of 2024.

[30:27] Alan Seales: I don't know what you're talking about.

[30:29] Jesse McAnally: Truly, truly. Honestly, we're recording this in June of 2017.

[30:33] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[30:33] Jesse McAnally: I'm the Queen of England or something.

[30:35] Alan Seales: I can't think of another famous Elizabeth.

[30:37] Jesse McAnally: You're supposed to be dead!

[30:38] Alan Seales: I watched you die.

[30:44] Jesse McAnally: You know how much more it sucks? It sucks so much more if your name's Ebenezer.

[30:48] Alan Seales: Speaking of that, there's a movie called A Christmas Carol where Jim Carrey played Ebenezer Scrooge.

[30:53] Jesse McAnally: That was a better segue than you've had in the past. I'll give you that.

[30:56] Alan Seales: Oh yeah, I give myself a D plus.

[30:58] Jesse McAnally: But the last thing I do want to talk about is for the DVD release, they have footage comparisons where they show you Jim Carrey on set as Scrooge.

[31:08] Alan Seales: And I want to show y'all that really quick. I am pulling it up right now.

[31:12] Jesse McAnally: One hand in my pocket and the other.

[31:15] Alan Seales: So they did show the entire opening in motion capture, and I think it's pretty cool.

[31:21] Jesse McAnally: I'd almost prefer to watch the movie with just the dot face. Like, this is incredible.

[31:26] Alan Seales: Just a it's better like this.

[31:30] Jesse McAnally: This is really cool. And like they do the entire opening. I really like how they have the character names on the suits.

[31:36] Alan Seales: It's very cute. I like that Jim Carrey had to wear little spectacles so he could look over them.

[31:40] Jesse McAnally: Yep. Fun fact that they drew those dots on with permanent markers. Three months of filming. They walked around with dot face.

[31:47] Alan Seales: But this goes to show you the difference in acting. Like, look at how much Jim Carrey's face is moving in comparison to Colin Firth's.

[31:55] Jesse McAnally: Like every moment, Jim Carrey's face is doing like a bunch of big things. Where I think technically Colin Firth is giving the better performance, but Jim Carrey's is registering better.

[32:06] Alan Seales: Behind the eyes, Colin Firth is saying, Why did I do this? And Jim Carrey, he's covered in dots and is questioning his life.

[32:14] Jesse McAnally: Don't you wipe off my freckle, you spoiled bitch?

[32:18] Alan Seales: Spoiled.

[32:18] Jesse McAnally: I was the pride and prejudice guy.

[32:21] Alan Seales: That guy. That would have been a better motion capture, too.

[32:24] Jesse McAnally: Um however, there is one motion capture film outside of Monster House that I think is really effective. Have either of you seen The Adventures of Tintin?

[32:32] Alan Seales: No.

[32:33] Jesse McAnally: I've been meaning to for like five years now, but no.

[32:36] Alan Seales: Steven Spielberg directed motion capture films starring Jamie Bell and Daniel Craig.

[32:42] Jesse McAnally: And the reason why that one works is because once again they heightened and like I have seen it.

[32:48] Alan Seales: Excellent.

[32:52] Jesse McAnally: Did you hit anything?

[32:57] Alan Seales: We're not paying it!

[33:01] Jesse McAnally: It just looks beautiful, and you've got the Spielberg touch.

[33:05] Alan Seales: It is truly the exact opposite of this, where, you know, Bob Zemeckis obviously was picked out by Steven Spielberg to make films.

[33:14] Jesse McAnally: He wrote the film 1941 for Spielberg. Spielberg produced all of his early work, including Back to the Future movies. Truly, they are hand in hand, but Spielberg just ate his fucking lunch when it came to motion capture.

[33:27] Alan Seales: And that's sad because Spi Zemeckis made motion capture, and then Spielberg perfected motion capture.

[33:32] Jesse McAnally: Well, ain't that ironic?

[33:34] Alan Seales: And that's kind of the note I wanted to end on, which is a bummer and kind of sad.

[33:39] Jesse McAnally: And I wish that, like, when Bob Zemeckis came back and was like, I'm gonna do live action films again, he hit that hot streak again.

[33:45] Alan Seales: But no, his live action films he's done lately are terrible.

[33:49] Jesse McAnally: Have you seen the new Pinocchio?

[33:51] Alan Seales: Yeah, no one else has either.

[33:53] Jesse McAnally: So, yeah, what's our overall thoughts? And is it no spank you or an alrighty then? Alan, why don't you go first?

[33:55] Alan Seales: No spank you.

[34:01] Jesse McAnally: Pardon no spank you. He says that with just as much inflection in his face as Robin Wright throughout the entire film.

[34:06] Alan Seales: Epine's a scrooge, you'll your heart has gone and left you.

[34:10] Jesse McAnally: I don't think I can love you again.

[34:13] Alan Seales: Ah, we it's weird that they're both in this movie, yet I don't think they interact.

[34:23] Jesse McAnally: But let's get this over with. Liz, what are your overall thoughts? Yes already then or no spank you.

[34:26] Liz Estude: Uh I the way I like to think about Christmas Carol is our relationship is kind of based on like what verse we watch first. And I watched like the Muppet one and Mr. Bagoose Christmas Carol from like the 70s or the 60s with my dad a lot, so I like those.

[34:43] Alan Seales: And this one is just an adaptation of the book with a random chase scene thrown in for no reason, and it's kinda boring.

[34:49] Liz Estude: Uh don't show it to your kids. Don't watch it, just skip it. No spank you. Not worth your time. Just watch the one or the one with Scrooge McDuck.

[34:58] Alan Seales: That just watch that one. That's also on Disney Plus.

[35:00] Liz Estude: Watch that one. That also cut much less out of the narrative.

[35:05] Alan Seales: Yeah, it's a no spanky for me, but I kind of it's not as hard as everyone else.

[35:10] Liz Estude: Like, I really respect the animations. I get why this was made. I it was the last breath of a dying company, and I feel for those that lost their jobs and all that from it.

[35:21] Alan Seales: I really do. Um I wish this had been a success.

[35:26] Liz Estude: I really wish that it would have been a spark to a comeback of Jim Carrey, but really just kind of led to things like Mr. Popper's Penguins.

[35:32] Alan Seales: This is kind of like his last breath of that mainstay career of his.

[35:50] Jesse McAnally: Whatever we d after this, we're going to, you know, go back to where we were chronologically, which I think what's our next episode of our next episode chronologically that needs to be out is the Duck Factory.

[36:01] Alan Seales: I guess thank you for listening. Follow us on iTunes, Spotify Carry It Away with Jess and Allen.

[36:07] Jesse McAnally: We're on Twitter at Carrey'd Away. We're on Instagram at Carrey'd Away. Email us at Carrey'd Away Podcast at gmail.com.

[36:14] Alan Seales: Our title card was made by Grace Aki. Go send them some love on Instagram at It's Grace Aki.

[36:21] Jesse McAnally: This show is produced and edited by the wonderful Elizabeth Estude.

[36:24] Alan Seales: Our theme song is I Choose You by the band. Thanks.

[36:26] Jesse McAnally: Thank you to the Broadway Podcast Network for having us on the platform for not kicking me off for singing the way I just did.

[36:33] Alan Seales: Alright, are we ready?

[36:34] Jesse McAnally: For what?

[36:35] Alan Seales: What what are we doing now?

[36:36] Jesse McAnally: Merry Christmas.

[36:39] Alan Seales: Merry non-denominational holiday celebration in the winter time.

[36:44] Jesse McAnally: Happy holidays. Hark the Herod Angel sing to the newborn king, peace on earth and good will toward men.

[37:01] Alan Seales: Join him and zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom to our a cappella breakdown.