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It feels like Christmas, right? Sure it does, especially since it's only just November. And, hey, it feels like there's mistletoe above my head whenever I walk out into the record 90-degree heat. Okay, sure, I live in a place full of so-called "dry heat", but let's be honest: as much as advertisements would have us believe, the real Christmas season shouldn't start until after Thanksgiving. But that's not stopping Walt Disney Pictures from releasing one of two major holiday releases this week. Unlike next month's first major foray into hand-drawn animation in a few years, The Princess and the Frog, Disney's kicking things off with Disney's A Christmas Carol. Right. Because Walt Disney scooped up the rights before he died.

Okay, I'm being a bit nitpicky. Usually, when it comes to adaptations of books, I'm very laid-back; a movie is a movie, and a book is a book, no matter how big. And yet, my hypocritical streak only comes out whenever Charles Dickens' classic novella about a miser who learns to live again thanks to some rejuvenated holiday spirit is in the mix. It's been a long, long time since a feature film version of A Christmas Carol was released that didn't have some unique quirks to make it stand out from just being an adaptation. Since 1951, when the British version starring Alastair Sim was released, we've seen a version with Mr. Magoo as Scrooge, a version with Mickey Mouse, a version with the Muppets, a version with Bill Murray as a Scrooge character, and now we've got the most unique version of all.

Disney's A Christmas Carol is from director Robert Zemeckis, and is presented in his new favorite form of filmmaking, motion-capture. Looking like some odd mix of computer animation and live performance, Disney's A Christmas Carol manages to use only a few actors on a soundstage, and make it look like the London of the 1800s. And, as the iconic character Ebenezer Scrooge, who else but famed...comedian Jim Carrey. Carrey will also be playing all three Ghosts who visit Scrooge (of course, Gary Oldman is also playing Tiny Tim, so it's weird casting all around). Carrey wouldn't seem a likely candidate for a relatively faithful version, but thanks to motion-capture, he looks a lot older. In a bit of Christmas spirit, though, I had to wonder what other unlikely actors could, but shouldn't, take on the mantle of Ebenezer Scrooge, and came up with a list of five actors who really shouldn't come anywhere near this classic, but if Hollywood's bored, they will.

Adam Sandler

Okay, being fair, Sandler has skirted very, very close to the kind of treacle and sentimentality that a bad version of A Christmas Carol can veer into. What, don't you remember Click, which was only slightly a twist on It's A Wonderful Life, where he played a guy who had a pretty good life, but wanted to see what things would be like if he had a remote control that could pause things, mute his nagging wife (played by Kate Beckinsale; I won't go harping on it too much, but give me a break) even though she's incredibly hot and charming and Kate Beckinsale - okay, I'm harping. Things spiral out of control for the Sandler character, which means that he'll learn a valuable lesson in the end.

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