YMMV / A Christmas Carol (1999)

• Awesome Moments: Having dropped his Ironic Echo dismissing Tiny Tim's death with Scrooge's comments about poor people dying to decrease the surplus population, the Ghost of Christmas Present gives Scrooge a "The Reason You Suck" Speech condemning him for having such a vicious contempt for the lives and livelihoods of the poor. This is straight from the book, but most other adaptations leave it out.
• Can't Un-Hear It: Patrick Stewart gives one of the best takes on Scrooge. It helps that he'd previously performed a one-man version of the novel onstage.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Jacob Marley's jaw falling when he unties the bandage round his head is certainly Nightmare Fuel, but circles back into being funny when Scrooge tells him to speak up and nervously pushes the jaw back into place.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Scrooge joins in on a Christmas morning mass, and his enthusiasm briefly deflates when he realizes he doesn't know the words to the song the congregation is singing. The man standing next to him notices, and wordlessly shares his hymnal with Scrooge so he can be a part of things.
  • Fred's joy at Scrooge accepting his invitation to dinner as Scrooge talks to Fred's wife.
  Scrooge: Can you forgive a stupid old man who doesn't want to be left out in the cold anymore?
  • Scrooge's defense of Fezziwig to the ghost of Christmas past, holding his former boss in such high esteem be "he had the power to make our lives easy or hard" and how Fezziwig always chose to look after his boys as if they were his own.
• Narm: The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come uses a normal human hand instead of draping black cloth, a skeletal hand, or a creepily long hand to point at things ^note though the book does say it has a pale gaunt hand and thus at least has skin, making this creative decision closer to the book, and its Glowing Eyes of Doom have been compared to Jawas. Seeing a ghost most often the scariest thing in the story come off as so unfrightening is bizarre.
  • Though it is certainly unsettling to look at, since the actor in the ghost's robes is wearing a fake head and neck, so their arms emerge unsettlingly low on the ghost's figure, making its proportions all wrong. Also, their fingernails are long and yellowed. Yech.
• Narm Charm: Scrooge laughing for the first time in many years. Literally strangling out a laugh may look really goofy, but the fact that it's Patrick Stewart doing this and the circumstances leading up to it make this one of the film's Heartwarming Moments.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Jacob Marley's face appears in portraits of Bible stories around the fireplace, resulting in the paintings slowly turning their heads to glare at Scrooge.
  • Jacob Marley's jaw falling down onto his chest when he unties the bandage around his head - the first time this detail from the book was included in a live-action adaptation.
  • This is one of the few versions to show Tiny Tim's dead body. The scene is played for pathos, not fear, but it can still be unnerving to see such an unflinching view of a child's corpse.
  • When the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come fades out, the ground opens revealing Scrooge's deceased future self, and Scrooge falls in and lands on top of him, followed by the ground breaking again and they fall into the unknown. Thankfully, that's when Scrooge wakes up in his apartment again.
• Tear Jerker:
  • A quietly sad moment is at the very beginning when the priest says Jacob Marley is at peace and Scrooge wishes him to rest content, given his sheer self-inflicted misery and eternal punishment.
  • Scrooge yelling at his younger self to go after Belle when she breaks up with him. He's desperate to not see himself make the mistake of not reconciling with her, even though there's not a damn thing he can do to change what's happened.
    • At the same time, as Belle walks away, she briefly turns back towards Scrooge with one last bit of hope that he might come to his senses and admit that he does love her more than money. When he doesn't, she walks away, knowing that it's truly over.
  • The prison scene during the Ghost of Christmas Present’s visit. One of the prisoners starts playing “The First Noel” on his flute, leading some of the prisoners into singing along.
  • In the future, Bob Cratchit speaks to Tiny Tim's body and tells him not to be afraid and that he'll always love him.

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