Let’s say you have a big picture planned for the 2009
holiday season. One that not launches a
brand-new hi-tech production arm at your studio but also renews your company’s
relationship with one of Hollywood’s top hitmakers.
You’d need something big to signify an event like that, right? Something of size. Like – say – a train.
Photo by Brian
Gaughan
So this past Thursday, that’s exactly what The Walt Disney
Company did. On Track 12 at LA’s Union Station, they rolled out “Disney’s A
Christmas Carol” Train Tour. Which will spend the next six months rolling around
the country, visiting 36 states as it spreads the word about this all-new 3D
version of Charles Dickens’ classic holiday tale.
This press event got off to a suitably festive start, as
carolers strolled the train platform singing holiday favorite and jugglers in
period garb performed.
Photo by Brian
Gaughan
Eventually Dick Cook – Chairman of Walt Disney Studios –
took to the stage and thanked members of the media for turning out.
Photo by Brian
Gaughan
Cook then introduced the talent behind “Disney’s A Christmas
Carol,” Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis and human cartoon Jim
Carrey.
Photo by Brian T.
Gaughan
After some banter involving a charitable donation that The
Walt Disney Company was going to present to the Boys & Girls Clubs of
America (Before this over-sized check for $100 thousand dollars could actually
be turned around and revealed to the press, Carrey loudly exclaimed that the
amount that Disney was about to give was $100 million. “Oh my gosh, Dick,” Jim
said. “That’s incredibly generous.” To which Cook replied “That’s okay, Jim.
We’ll just deduct that amount from your pay”), these three then sat down and
began fielding questions from reporters.
Photo by Brian
Gaughan
Perhaps the funniest exchange in this press conference came
when Jenni Smart of Jenniradio.com – after pointing out that Carrey had now
played two holiday icons (i.e. The Grinch
and Ebenezer Scrooge) – asked what it
was about projects this that appealed to the performer. Jim growled in
response, “I hate Christmas.”
Photo by Brian
Gaughan
When asked if the world really needed yet another big screen
version of “A Christmas Carol,” Zemeckis responded that – thanks to the
state-of-the-art performance capture system that ImageMoversDigital uses – for
the first time ever, Dickens’ classic
holiday tale can finally be told the way that he actually wrote it. “Dickens was an incredibly cinematic writer.
And we now have the tools that we needed in order to really do justice to this
story.”
Photo by Brian
Gaughan
Which quickly came apparent as the press filed into the
inflatable theater that was set up on site there at Union Station to scope out
some scenes from “Disney’s A Christmas Carol.”
Photo by Brian
Gaughan
The sequences that were screened for the media should be
familiar to any fan of this holiday tale. They showed that moment from early on in
the story where Scrooge’s nephew Fred visits his uncle at the
counting house. We also to see Ebenezer’s frightful encounter with the Ghost of
Jacob Marley. And while I was not exactly a fan of Zemeckis’ earlier
performance capture projects (I thought that “The Polar Express” looked stiff
& creepy, while “Beowulf” was just plain creepy), I have to admit that I
was won over by “Disney’s A Christmas Carol.” This time around, though this
picture is clearly CG animation, the performance is purely human.
Afterwards, I toured the four cars that will be taking part
in the “Disney’s A Christmas Carol” Train Tour and checked out all of the
exhibits. And I have to admit that there was some pretty neat stuff on display here.
Everything from props & costumes that were used in the making of this movie to
genuine artifacts from the Charles Dickens Museum of London (Which The Walt
Disney Company has on loan for the length of this six-months-long promotional tour).
All in all, I thought that the “Disney’s A Christmas Carol”
Train Tour was a great take-in. And film fans around LA seem to have agreed
with me. Given that – this past weekend – some people stood in line at Union Station
for upwards of 3 hours in order to get the chance to experience this traveling
exhibit.
Photo by Brian
Gaughan
And speaking of traveling … The “Disney’s A Christmas Carol”
Train Tour rolled out of Los Angeles this morning. It’s now en route to
Arizona, where it will then set up shop for three days at Williams Depot near
the rim of the Grand Canyon from May 29 – 31st. From there, the train makes a
single day stop in Santa Fe on June 2nd before then chugging onward to
Albuquerque. Where this exhibit will do a three stand at the Amtrak Station
June 5 – 7th.
If you’d like to know if “Disney’s A Christmas Carol” Train
Tour is coming through your neck of the woods as this traveling exhibit makes
its 16,000+ trip around the country, be sure and check out the official
website. Which lists all 40 stops that this tour will make now through November
1st.