The Muppet Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol is an incredibly timeless story that has existed in the pop culture space for several centuries now, and despite its rampant showcase in various different formats, it still holds a special place in the hearts of many and everybody has their personal favourite version, as well as one that first introduced them to the 1843 Charles Dickens novella. A common adaptation that most people have as their introductory film happens to be the 1992 version starring The Muppets, which has become a staple version of the story, and a lot of viewers consider it one of their favorites. With moderate success at the box office and favorable reception from critics, The Muppet Christmas Carol definitely has a lot going for it, so why does it not feel up to par for this story? In 19th century London on Christmas Eve, Charles Dickens portrayed by Gonzo (voiced by Dave Goelz) and his friend Rizzo the Rat (voiced by Steve Whitmire) narrate the story of A Christmas Carol as it unfolds before them, as cold-hearted moneylender, Ebenezer Scrooge (played by Michael Caine) has no joy for the Christmas spirit and makes it clear to all those around him, especially his well-spirited yet timid employee, Bob Cratchit portrayed by Kermit the Frog (also voiced by Whitmire). After giving Cratchit and his other employees the day off for Christmas, Scrooge finds himself haunted by the spirits of his old business partners, Jacob and Robert Marley portrayed by Statler and Waldorf (voiced by Jerry Nelson and Dave Goelz) who warn him of the chained afterlife he is set to face unless he changes his ways. This forced redemption will come in the form of three spirits (voiced by Jessica Fox and Jerry Nelson), who show Scrooge his whole life, how he was formed into the bitter man who grew to, everything that he has lost and has the chance to lose and make him understand the true meaning of Christmas. As an adaptation of the story, The Muppet Christmas Carl is a perfectly likeable and charming rendition which sports impressive visuals, occasional funny moments, great music, and a solid presentation to make this a nice beginner-friendly version for newcomers, but there are a few elements about this movie that hold it back from really working as well as it could have.

The idea of the Muppets hosting their own version of A Christmas Carol seems right up their alley as they have several times before told a classic story through their own point of view (which they would continue to do later on with their next cinematic film, Muppet Treasure Island) and something like Christmas Carol offers plenty of opportunities for the Muppets to lovingly satirize and construct their own delivery out of it. However, therein lies a noticeable change from other Muppet experiments, in that this filmed is strangely played straight. While there are definitely comedic moments sprinkled throughout, its isn’t portrayed as an attempted and failed Muppet performance, but rather a mostly stable rendition of the tale, but just with Muppets as some of the characters. It leaves little room for inventive comedy, satirical analysis, or even traditional Muppet mayhem, but this wouldn’t be a problem if the film portrayed the story in a very effective manner, and it’s hard to say it really does that. It’s done perfectly nicely, no scene really feels heartless or without effort, and for a film meant to be for a first-time viewer, it’s not a bad way to digest this story, but the script by Jerry Juhl doesn’t bring anything that different to the original story and therefore nothing feels that surprising, different, or even that fresh. The directing by Jim Henson’s son, Brian Henson (in his directorial feature film debut) is also a little shaky and factors into the odd feeling this film has all throughout. The pacing can be a little too rapid, a lot of the traditional scenes can feel a touch hollow with how sporadic they feel, there’s an occasional awkward line read from some of the actors, and whenever the Muppets try to inject their traditional sense of humor, it’s there and its appreciated, but it’s not really that dynamic or fulfilling enough to give this film that strong of an identity. Whether he was just out of his element in having to construct a Muppet based property with a degree of stability or if this was a consequence of being the first Henson production without Jim Henson attached (he and Muppet performer Richard Hunt had passed away before the film’s release and the film is dedicated to both of their memories), you can feel a slight disconnect from this Muppet tale against other Muppet tales. With that said however, the film, however basic it may be, is still handled perfectly decently as it presents the expected scenes fine enough and nothing in the movie is truly bad in anyway, just a little underwhelming.

With characters that are this well known by now from the story, it’s fitting that we have equally iconic characters portraying them in this version, with several of the Muppets taking on some of the roles and being pretty fitting with how they are as characters. While some are relatively miscellaneous, others feel perfectly ‘’cast’’ so to speak with Kermit as Cratchit feeling like a perfect match, both Statler and Waldorf being the Marley brothers is a nice touch, Gonzo and Rizzo as the narrators results in a few chuckles, and it feels like the entirety of this movie was made just so that they could get Fozzie (voiced by Frank Oz) to play Fezziwig, or ‘Fozziwig’ as he’s called here (it’s just too good a pun not to go for). Again, it does feel like the characters aren’t allowed to bring their usual strengths and personalities to the front and centre because they are playing roles in a regular fashion rather than in a manner that matches their original show or even movies tonality, but for going down this direction, it works out well enough, most of the voices are still great at what they do, and there is still a nice balance of light-hearted humor, warm-hearted wholesomeness and even a sprinkling of cold-hearted darkness to meet all the right criteria for the story. As for the human performers (for the little that there are), most of the background roles like Steven Mackintosh as Scrooge’s nephew, Robin Weaver as Fred’s wife and even Meredith Braun as Scrooge’s former love, Belle, do their bit parts fine enough and though they can feel a little over-the-top in parts, they don’t feel too distracting. Arguably the most confused performance and the one that is the hardest to pin down in the entire film is Michael Caine as Scrooge. This is an actor that feels like a great choice for Scrooge and there are several moments where he does get the spirit, attitude, and emotion of the scenes perfectly, but there’s also a good chunk that feels very off, distractingly over-the-top, and even a little flat. There’s an occasional soulless read, it can sometimes feel like he’s reading off a script rather than saying genuine dialogue, and whenever he has to act angry and shouty, it feels pretty phoney. With that said however, his demeanor and softer anger feels pretty effective, some of the emotional moments are handled fairly strongly, it never feels like he’s undermining the role or treating it as less than worthy due to working against Muppets, and he does come across as genuinely kind and lovable once the film reaches its end, it’s a very fractured performance but there’s still half a portrayal that is really good.

Most Muppet properties are known for their amazing puppetry, and most of the movies have reflected this impressive quality with some very clever techniques in hiding the puppeteers in a way that allowed these characters to exist in a movable space. With this in mind, this film manages to take it a next step further and actually has some fun and unique camerawork attached, which hadn’t really been done before. While there’s been impressive work around how they were filmed before, the cinematography has always needed to straightforward and moderately angled in order to crop out the obvious addition, whereas in this film with new technology and more time to iron around these issues, it allows cinematographer, John Fenner to get some cool cinematic angles that add to the film’s mood, create a situation where it can better show off the sets which are delightfully minute and stripped down to match the puppets yet still look nice, and really allow the film to have a different look and feel down to the lighting, the atmosphere and the overall look of the picture. While the movie doesn’t do a ton to stand out from other versions and most of the expected scenes play out the way you’d expect them to, there are occasional moments that are given enough of a switch to feel like nice new additions. Scenes like Scrooge singing a duet with his past love after reviewing their break-up(with a song that has gone through one heck of an odd history), the Ghost of Christmas Present having a bad memory because he always lives in the present, and other small touches like that are small, yet go a long way in helping this film give its own foot in the door and make it its own. Another aspect that helps with that are the musical numbers, all of which are pretty good and result in some catchy numbers. This isn’t a surprise given that it’s the Muppets, but each number created by Paul Williams (who returned after working on the songs for the 1979, The Muppet Movie), has great wordplay, catchy melodies and really captures the tone of each scene they are placed in. In comparison, the score by Miles Goodman is not as effective; definitely not bad by any means and sounds good in moments but is a little too understated throughout to really stick out.

For a story that has had countless iterations, The Muppets would obvious get their chance eventually and theirs was definitely one worth remembering for a lot of people. It’s hard to say that this is one of the best ones they’ve made as a lot of other versions have been able to showcase this story in a more meaningful and stand-out way, whilst this one seems more focused on the gimmick of famous sock-puppets populating the screen as ”actors” for the film. With that said however, the film still manages to work as a nice likeable version with memorable songs, fun moments, enough new additions to not be completely beat for beat with the original source, and a capable handling of the source material to not feel completely lost. Maybe a version more akin to the Muppets actual tone and style would’ve been a bit more enjoyable and fresher, but for those who had their first experience with the story through this film, surely no love was lost on them.