The Muppet Christmas Carol

• Directed by Brian Henson
• December 11, 1992

The Muppets tell their version of the classic Charles Dickens story.

I have put off viewing The Muppet Christmas Carol for several years. No good reason really. I love the Muppets and I also enjoy quirky or odd retellings of stories I am familiar with. Maybe it was because this was the first thing to come out after Henson’s death. When you lose the guiding force and people try to move on, the first effort can be quite weak. Fortunately this has so much of what made the preceding films and the television series special in it.

Michael Caine is undeniably an acting legend. Even at the point he made The Muppet Christmas Carol that was true. He’ is one of those actors that elevates the material he is given no matter what it is. I am not sure how well this film would have worked without him playing Ebenezer Scrooge. How well this works rested entirely on his shoulders. Then again no matter the production the story of A Christmas Carol always rests on who plays Scrooge.

Pre-and post-transformation Caine as Scrooge gets it right. He makes the character of Scrooge child friendly nasty and then full of life and love at the time of Christmas morning. He played it straight throughout with no winks or fourth wall breaking glances at the camera.

We get an assortment of Muppet characters as characters from the Dickens classic and many of the Muppet jokes are employed here. If it is a Muppet from the time, they are in here though in an unusual move for the time none from Sesame Street show up.

Being that they were trying to match up Muppet characters with Dickens characters there are some changes to the narrative but nothing too heavy. Gonzo is cast unusually as Dickens himself and accompanied by Rizzo the Rat as a co-narrator/commentator. Kermit and Miss Piggy are correctly married as the Cratchits. Fozzie the Bear is Fozziwig. And it goes from there.

The narrative changes they make are nothing that harms the message or the overall story. If you are familiar with the book you can see where they veered off. The most obvious change is Jacob Marley (Statler) getting a brother Robert (Waldorf) because the two characters are designed to play off each other and must be paired otherwise they do not work.

The jokes are funny and silly as one would expect. Sometimes they border on breaking the fourth wall or simply just break it. And that is a bit of a Muppets trademark that the Muppets themselves can do frequently without affecting whatever story they are telling. You just roll with it.

The songs by Paul Williams are fun and bouncy with humorous moments that also helped to tell the story. Williams previously worked on the soundtrack to the classic The Muppet Movie in where he and Kenneth Ascher were nominated for an Academy Award for writing the beautiful song “Rainbow Connection” which opened the film and perfectly set its tone. We do not quite get that magic here but his touch makes things special.

The Muppet Christmas Carol is an entertaining adaption of the classic story. It keeps many of the same beats while still making it a prime example of a Muppet film. It is as enjoyable for kids as well as in adults so I say watch it!