The Muppet Christmas Carol
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Jim Henson’s menagerie have been entertainment icons for half a century, from a cabaret show, to animation to films. And thanks to streaming services their take on Charles Dickens’ Christmas fable will forever endure!
Transporting brash American characters into classic English literature would make a wealthy dowager faint, but it all works to bring this dark tale to a fresh young audience. The festive tone is just right as the cheerful overture compliments views of cramped Victorian London dusted in snow.
Most of the Muppets break the fourth wall as they invite us into their world through song and smartass ad-libs. Our tour guides are Gonzo, the blue proboscis nosed alien (I assume), and his wiseguy sidekick Rizzo the rat. Playing it straight we have Michael Caine as the infamous miser Ebenezer Scrooge. By today’s standards he would be considered an anti hero. He has no time for friends or fun. I think we can all relate a little to Scrooge. Sometimes you just don’t want to go to the Zoom party. To be fair to him he just wants to be left alone.
Anyway, the ghosts of his old business partners pay him a visit - a stroke of genius splitting the role and casting infamous hecklers Statler and Waldorf as the Marley Brothers - who of course warn him about his impending adventure through time with three curious tour guides.
The spirit of Christmas Past is truly creepy; a porcelain faced little girl with a chilling clipped accent. Give me the faceless ghoul of Christmas Yet to Come any day. At least he’s silent. Of course the party belongs to the Present Day Spirit; a hearty Brian Blessed style party animal. Who doesn’t want to “come in and know me better, man”. He provides the best song and finally cracks a smile onto Scrooge’s granite face.
The musical numbers do a Lionel Bart and turn Dickens’ London into a Mardi Gras. Forget the tuberculous, the crime or the gin induced deaths; here is a city of colour and romance. I suppose it is a children’s film after all.
The brilliant thing about revisiting films you loved as a child is that you suddenly understand so many jokes. Lines from Bob Cratchit’s fellow clerks begging for a warmer office declaring that their “assets are frozen”. Listen out for savvy dialogue in the background like a teacher telling an impressionable teenage Scrooge “remember, don’t tip the driver”. And then of course the evergreen relationship between a meek frog and a horny pig.
Kermit and Miss Piggy play the Cratchits with hilarious support from their piglet daughters, who despite their poverty have fabulous ringlets. And not forgetting the manipulative Tiny Tim. I could do without his saccharine song, but it is incredible how emotionally invested one becomes with what is essentially a small olive sock.
This perfect adaptation captures the Christmas tradition of telling tales of hope and horror and expresses Dickens’ humour, empathy and social commentary with apt frivolity.
The wonderful ending will leave you abuzz. Watch this with a glass of Baileys if you’re feeling the holiday blues and you could do with reconnecting to your inner child.
10 Emerald Thumbs Up!
