A Christmas Carol (known as Disney's A Christmas Carol on-screen and in promotional materials) is a 2009 American animated Christmas fantasy film written for the screen and directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by ImageMovers Digital and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Based on Charles Dickens's 1843 novel of the same name, the film was animated through the process of motion capture, a technique used in Zemeckis's previous films The Polar Express (2004) and Beowulf (2007), and stars the voices of Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, Robin Wright Penn and Cary Elwes. It is Disney's third adaptation of the novel, following Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) and The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), and the first of two films produced by ImageMovers Digital.