For Chicago, it's Christmas in July indeed, as the A Christmas Carol Train Tour promoting the new film from Robert Zemeckis and Jim Carrey is currently parked inside the Windy city's grandiose Union Station. On July 24th and 25th, it will be operating from 9 AM to 7 PM. On its final day of July 26th, the Train Tour will be open from 9 AM to 4 PM.
In a wildly unique way to promote the film and also unravel the its movie magic, Disney has packed a dolled-up Amtrak train with numerous special elements from the film. The individual cars break down the process of creating A Christmas Carol, from making models to decide exact details on faces and locations, to costumes, to footage of the multi-layered procedure of motion capture. Actual handwritten letters from Charles Dickens can also be seen on the tour, which is just as special as the train car which has 40+ flat screens showing the different stages of animation. Each car is also playing its own kind of behind the scenes featurette.
The Train Tour is much like walking through a special feature on a DVD, but obviously more interactive. I'd recommend taking your time on the tour, as there's an overwhelming amount to be seen. It's intriguing, it's thorough, and best of all, it's free. Even if it's a tad self-lauding of the hard work going into the film, the train tour shows audiences that the ego may be just.
After the end of the tour, you are invited (and would be extremely wise) to check out roughly five minutes of footage from the film, indicative of what the final product will be when A Christmas Carol rolls into theaters on November 6th. Apparently the footage is not 100% complete, which would explain why the "animated" faces don't capture our eye as much as any type of action sequence in the short. However, ending clips of Jim Carrey as all three ghosts end the 3-D preview on an optimistic note.
Completing the Christmas experience are period-costume wearing carolers and even local special talent (jugglers, etc).
People of Chicago - there's movie history going on in your trainyard. You'd be a Scrooge to not want to check it out.
For anyone slightly east of Chicago, this is only stop 15 out of 40 scheduled appearances. To see if and when the Train Tour is riding into your neck of the woods, go here.