Just hop onboard! Right after I posted that Disney was staging a 40-city train tour to promote their holiday release A Christmas Carol in 3D, which kicked off May 22 in Los Angeles, I got an invitation to take the tour myself. Gotta love the perks of the job.
Heading downtown L.A. to where the train was stationed, I walked through the five-car virtual tour, which showed the making of Charles Dickens’ classic, visualized by animation innovator Robert Zemeckis, using his performance capture technology. In the first couple of cars, I saw the character designs of Jim Carrey as Scrooge through the years, as well as Colin Firth as Scrooge’s nephew Fred; Gary Oldman as Scrooge’s faithful clerk Bob Cratchit; and Robin Wright Penn as Scrooge’s long lost love Belle.
As well, there were monitors showing behind- the-scenes footage of the actors performing their roles in what looked like tripped out wet suits, with black dots all over their faces and wires going every which way. I swear Zemeckis came up with this technology just to torture his actors. There were also artifacts from the Charles Dickens Museum in London, including a first edition of A Christmas Carol and other letters he wrote. As a literature major, this particularly fascinated me.
The best part of the train tour itself was the interactive kiosks. Using Hewlett Packard TouchSmart PCs, I was able to explore Dickens’ London told through his 
story, as well as morph my face into a character from the movie. It was kinda difficult to line up my eyes where I was supposed to, so in my picture I had my tongue sticking out from concentrating too hard. Lovely. I chose to morph with an image of Marley’s ghost since that was the only pic that didn’t show my tongue. You can even email the picture to yourself. I didn’t, though. Wonder if Jim Carrey emailed his pic, on the left there.
As I departed the train, I was ushered into a giant inflatable movie theater in which they showed a few scenes from the movie. Armed with the most high-tech 3D glasses I’d ever seen (wonder if they will be handing those out at the theaters when 
the movie opens), I watched Scrooge bah humbug his nephew Fred, after the later wished him a happy Christmas and then a scene in which Marley visits Scrooge to let him know he is in for a bumpy night. It all looked pretty damn cool. Even though I’ve seen A Christmas Carol a hundred times, this kind of animation technology will surely allow the story to stretch its imagination. Beware though — small kids (under 5, let’s say) might get a little scared by the imagery.
The whole Christmas-y feel to the tour (there’s even fake snow) was a little odd to experience in May, but I’d imagine by the time the train hits the Northeast in late fall, it’ll fit right in. Again, for details on when the train might be stopping in YOUR town, go to www.christmascaroltraintour.com.
Stay tuned to read what Jim Carrey had to say about playing another “Christmas hater” and working with Robert Zemeckis.