Two Cents is an original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team will program films and contribute our best, most insightful, or most creative thoughts on each film using a maximum of 200 words each. Guest writers and fan comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future entries to the column. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion.
The Pick
The Muppets were at a bit of a low ebb in 1992, following the sudden and shocking passing of Jim Henson in 1990. Suddenly, the troop of felt-crafted showbiz lifers were left without their creator and, in the case of beloved stalwarts like Kermit the Frog or Rowlf the Dog, without their voice.
Directed by Jim’s son, Brian Henson, The Muppet Christmas Carol went a long way to reassuring audiences that the joy endemic to the Muppets would continue even with Jim Henson. Faithfully adapting the original text of Charles Dickens’ novel (with Gonzo the Great serving as author-narrator and reading Rizzo the Rat providing color commentary), The Muppet Christmas Carol is today regarded as a classic in its own right. Held up as one of the best Christmas Carol adaptations, many a family doesn’t consider the Christmas season complete without at least one revisit.
Led by Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge, playing things deader than dead straight, and featuring a full roster of classic songs penned by the legendary Paul Williams (returning to the Muppets a decade-and-change after receiving an Oscar nomination for penning ‘The Rainbow Connection’), The Muppet Christmas Carol seemed the perfect Yuletide treat to close out the year.
Next Week’s Pick:
We’ll see you in January!
The Team
The Muppet Christmas Carol remains the best telling of the Dickens classic ever put to stage or screen. Full stop. Every few years I’m reminded how much I love it and how much more entertaining it is than any other take on the classic Christmas tale. Outside of Scrooged and maybe Mickey’s Christmas Carol, it’s actually not even all that close. Such a great film, a family favorite, this is a great way to celebrate the spirit of the holiday.
Merry Christmas y’all! (@ThePaintedMan)
The Muppet Christmas Carol is a pure treat, end-to-end. While I often head into rewatches worried that the magic will wear off this time, the jokes fly so fast, the songs are so delightful, and Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge is so sincere and stands in such beautiful contrast to the usual vaudeville shenanigans of the puppets around him, that the whole thing remains just as magical as ever.
A Christmas Carol is one of those stories that has been told and re-told so often as to become meaningless, so any adaptation or riff is going to succeed or fail based around how they tweak or keep the narrative beats that we all know off by heart. The Muppet Christmas Carol works because it plays Scrooge’s redemption dead straight, investing a weary old format with genuine pathos and soul. And by playing the emotional heft of the story for all its worth, it gives Henson and the Muppet performers free range to go as silly as they wish with the critters in the margins, like Scrooge’s rat employees suddenly sporting tropical gear.
The Muppets would return to this well again and again, plugging the gang into everything from The Wizard of Oz to It’s a Wonderful Life, and while I maintain a soft spot for Muppet Treasure Island (if only for the gag where Gonzo gets stretched like taffy) they never really got close to this platonic ideal of melding of classic story and daffy, lovable comedy.(@TheTrueBrendanF)
As The Muppet Christmas Carol turns 25, there’s no question to me that it’s not only one of the best adaptations of Dickens’ novel, but fully entrenched as one of our great Christmas classics. Sure, I’m a big fan of the Muppets, but that’s no golden ticket — there are plenty of terrible Muppet productions. But Christmas Carol is a fully entertaining treat for all ages that’s faithful to the story while absolutely bringing its own manic humor and style to the proceedings.
The movie does have one big whiff at bat, and it’s a curious one that they were fully aware of when making the film and just ultimately made the wrong decision on. The three Christmas ghosts were new creations specifically for this film, intended to bring gravitas and not dilute the characters by having them played by familiar faces (a similar decision brilliantly cast human Michael Caine as Scrooge). Unfortunately they missed a big opportunity to utilize Uncle Deadly as Christmas Past, Sweetums as Christmas Present, and honorary Muppet Alice Cooper as Christmas Yet to Come. (@VforVashaw)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhpu2tq9GG4http://amzn.to/2BRfUFq
