History WesternAnimation / AChristmasCarol2009

* BaitAndSwitch: Near the beginning of the film at the undertakers Scrooge briefly stops the undertaker's assistant from enclosing Marley's coffin. At first it seems Scrooge wants to say a final goodbye to his deceased friend and partner. But what does he do? He greedily snatches the two coins from Marley's eyes much to the shock of both the boy and the undertaker.

* CoinsForTheDead: Scrooge's EstablishingCharacterMoment comes when he takes the pennies that had been placed on his recently deceased partner's eyes, saying "tuppence is tuppence".

* DueToTheDead: The film begins with Jacob Marley's death and his corpse being prepared for burial with two pennies covering his eyes to keep them closed. Scrooge stole them from the body.
* EekAMouse: Mrs Dilber and Old Joe are startled by a rat and chase it and Scrooge away.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: After bearing witness to his old business partner's death, Scrooge practically shrinks back from the mortician's hand, held out in hope of gratuity. Scrooge then parts with two pennies, fighting his greed the whole way, before pocketing the coins off the dead Marley's eyes, because "tuppence is tuppence".

* LaserGuidedKarma: Scrooge [[RobbingTheDead robs the late]] Jacob Marley out of two coins and the Ghost of Christmas Future shows a future where a deceased Scrooge is robbed out of curtains and the clothes his corpse would be buried with.

** The five-minute title scene, starting with one conversation with Scrooge, flying all around London and then back down to the other side of the city, finishing with him approaching his house.

* RobbingTheDead: In his EstablishingCharacterMoment, Scrooge takes the two coins off of Marley's eyes. Like in the book, Scrooge is shown as a future victim of this by the Ghost of Christmas Future.

* ShoutOut:
** The film opens with a shot of Marley’s body lying in a coffin like the 1977 tv film.
** During the opening credits, a few kids are having fun by [[Film/BackToTheFuture1 clinging onto the backs of carriages and hitching a ride on them.]] Upon being redeemed, Scrooge himself does this too.
** Creator/GaryOldman's Marley, with his [[MonochromeApparition bluish tint]], deathly calmness and raging howls of anguish somewhat recalls Frank Finlay's portrayal of the ghost in the [[Film/AChristmasCarol1984 1984 film]].
** Scrooge scaring Mrs Dilber after his reformation was also done in Creator/AlastairSim's ''Film/Scrooge1951''.
** A nod is also given to ''WesternAnimation/MickeysChristmasCarol'' (another Disney incarnation of the tale) when Scrooge is hanging from a root above his own grave while a hellish light beams up from his coffin.
** The way Scrooge falls into his grave is similar to how he fell in ''Film/Scrooge1970''.

* InkSuitActor: As usual for Zemeckis' motion capture movies, the main characters all resemble their actors.

* LeanAndMean: TheScrooge is depicted as rail thin here. But as one would expect from a telling of the story, he drops the ''Mean'' part after his visit with the three ghosts.

** Scrooge rides on the back of a carriage, waving at people through the street. Many people took this to be a ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' reference - which was unintentional by Robert Zemeckis.

** During the opening credits, a few kids are having fun by [[Film/BackToTheFuture clinging onto the backs of carriages and hitching a ride on them.]] Upon being redeemed, Scrooge himself does this too.

* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: The Japanese version uses [[https://www.jpopsuki.tv/video/JUJU---Present/2c28f716b709ceb783219239c2996365 "Present"]] by JUJU as its theme song.

* ShownTheirWork: This film arguably follows the descriptions of the characters better than other film versions:

* ShownTheirWork: This film arguably follows the descriptions of the characters than other film versions:

* PlayingGertrude: Scrooge's nephew Fred is played by Colin Firth, who is actually older than Jim Carrey. The use of motion capture makes this less obvious than it might have been in a fully live-action movie.

* AdaptationExpansion: In the novel, Ignorance and Want are only shown as feral, almost animalistic children. Here, both age up into adults as the Ghost of Christmas Present dies, with the former becoming a knife-wielding thief and then being imprisoned while the latter becomes a prostitute and is then trapped in a straight jecket. Both throw back a line Scrooge had said earlier in the film ("Are there no prisons?" for the boy, "Are there no workhouses?" for the girl), showing that they are the end result of this line of thinking.

* ForeShadowing:

** Marley lying dead in his coffin foreshadows him haunting Scrooge seven years later.

** The clock tower chiming before Scrooge and Bob Cratchit finish work foreshadows the clocks chiming for the three spirits.

** Marley in chains infamously foreshadows the same fate awaits Scrooge unless he repents.

** Bob Cratchit is only about 5 foot 5 in the film making him accurate to the way Dickens described him in the book, as he was apparently short in height.

** The ghost of Marley is very accurate to the Marley in the book including being green in colour and his hair and clothes moving on their own accord.

** The Ghost of Christmas Past speaks in a low whisper like voice like the book where Dickens said the ghost had a low far away voice.

->''"What if you were given a second chance to get your life right? This holiday season, the ghosts of past, present and future will give one man that chance."''

->''"What if you were given a second chance to get your life right? This holiday season, one man will get that chance."''

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Scrooge pockets the coins off the dead Marley's eyes.