Fan Fare

Every year, movie distributors pull out all the promotional stops to gain the media’s attention here at the Cannes film festival. Two years ago, it was Jerry Seinfeld, dressed in a bee outfit and attached to a cable at the top of a roughly 10-story hotel that gently “flew” him down to the beach below. He was promoting his ” Bee Movie” from DreamWorks Animation.

This year, so far, the stunt of Cannes belongs to Disney, which turned on snow machines in the heat and sun outside the Carlton Hotel, covering the road with white stuff while comedian Jim Carrey was driven to the front of the hotel in a horse-drawn carriage. Hundreds of photographers snapped away as he promoted his upcoming title, “Disney’s A Christmas Carol.”

The movie is, of course, a re-imagined tale of the classic Charles Dickens novel about how mean old Scrooge is visited by ghosts who eventually convince him to change his miserly ways and soak in some Christmas spirit. The new twist is this “Christmas Carol” is animated, and uses motion capture technology to create lifelike cartoon characters. And, it will be released in 3D.

Carrey portrays Scrooge, along with the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. After the splashy photo call, director Robert Zemeckis was asked by reporters whether there would be enough digitally-equipped screens to show the movie broadly when it debuts in November — a key issue in the industry. He answered that even if there were not, the movie would still look great in 2-D. Then Carrey piped up.

“I was actually in the movie and for me it was 4-D, and you can’t imagine what it was possibly like.”

No Jim, we can’t.

The footage looked strong, however, and regardless of how it eventually does in movie theaters one thing is for sure, it ruled the day here at Cannes, and gave Disney a big media gift wrapped in a bow — and covered with snow.