If the Grinch and the Nutcracker are old Christmas favorites, I got a DVD last year that is going to be a new one. Not new, really, as I’ve read the Dickens classic dozens of times. In fact, I just added “The Complete Charles Dickens Collection” to my Nook to replace the books lost in the fire, so I could compare “A Christmas Carol” in print with the DVD—though I knew already that the Disney movie was very close to the Dickens original, just from the familiarity of the dialog.

The dialog was indeed taken almost entirely from the book, and the Christmas past sequence, aside from the transitional bits such as the flight with the ghost and the candle snuffer becoming a rocket, also closely followed the book. The Christmas present sequence also followed the book reasonably well, though the vision through the floor of flights through the air over London were new.

The main place the film diverged from the book was in the Christmas future sequence, which was nightmarish far beyond the original. True, the hearse was mentioned in the book, but only as a comparison for the width of the steps to Scrooge’s rooms.

Although the characters are computer-generated, they all move and use their faces so naturally it doesn’t feel at all like a cartoon. I always enjoy the “Making of” shorts on these discs, and this one was a fascinating introduction to motion capture, including the capture of facial expressions.

So is it worth watching? I think so. Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is an old favorite, and I think I’ll add this DVD in future years.