My favorite book is “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. What is there not to love? It’s a ghost story for Christmastime with time travel, beautiful prose, memorable characters, plenty of humor and deep Christian themes of redemption and charity. I distinctly remember my first exposure to the story: I was in the first grade, at my grandparents’ house for the holidays and my older cousins were watching “The Muppet Christmas Carol.” I entered right after the Marley visitation and was hooked. As my cousins filled me in, I watched Scrooge and the spirits journey through time as he changed his miserly ways. The next Christmas, my grandma gave me a copy of “A Christmas Carol” and I have read it every year since. Jumping forward, senior year of high school, I played Ebenezer Scrooge in our fall show. In preparation for the role, I watched many film adaptations and re-read the book too many times to count; however, I kept returning to the version that ignited my love for the story: “The Muppet Christmas Carol”.
“The Muppet Christmas Carol”, the first Muppet project released after Jim Henson’s passing, was directed by Henson’s son, Brian Henson. Michael Caine stars as Scrooge and accepted the role to be in a movie that his daughter could watch. Caine’s Scrooge is one of my favorite interpretations of the character. Despite being surrounded by puppets, he plays the part seriously as if he were acting beside human beings. He brings comedy when needed but does not shy away from embracing the more menacing and emotional moments required of the character. As for the Muppets, it features Kermit as Bob Cratchit, Miss Piggy as Emily Cratchit, Fozzie Bear as Fozziwig (punning Fezziwig), Statler and Waldorf as the Marley brothers and Gonzo as Charles Dickens. The three spirits were portrayed by new Muppets created for the film.
Last Christmas, I went to the second of two sold-out screenings of the film at a local cinema. It is quite a testament that a 30+ year old family movie can sell out an entire theatre twice! For many like myself, it was their introduction to Scrooge’s story, but how faithful of an adaptation is it and does it hold up? I believe the second part is answered by the sold-out screenings. In terms of faithfulness to the book, it is one of the most accurate adaptations I have seen. With the frame of Dickens narrating the movie, the script incorporates direct quotations straight from the novel. As a Dickens-nerd, I greatly appreciate this; just because a movie has a child audience in mind does not mean it has to avoid exposure to classic literature. Yes, the movie does feature classic Muppet slapstick comedy, but the heart and message of the original book are retained.
I argue “The Muppet Christmas Carol” was the first truly “cinematic” Muppet project, as films prior to this felt smaller in scope due to the cameras being limited by having to hide the animators. This project marks the first time a Muppet production used green screen technology to hide the animators, and the sets were created with this in mind. As a result, the Muppets truly look and feel in place and the camera is far more dynamic in its range of motion. No details were missed by the production team. An example is Gonzo’s costuming. For much of the film, he wears a bright red overcoat. Charles Dickens, the great serious author, was notorious for wearing bright, colorful clothes, much to the dismay of his friends. As for the spirits, they were achieved through practical puppets, in-camera effects and clever cinematography. Some of these tricks included placing Christmas Yet to Come on a railroad track to give a gliding effect and separately filming Christmas Past underwater and superimposing it over the film to give an otherworldly appearance.
A staple of “The Muppet Christmas Carol” is its music. The film contains many Broadway-like musical numbers written by Paul Williams that are complemented by a somber score from Miles Goodwin. Personally, I am partial to the score in this film as I love the brass-heavy Victorian Christmas carols, however the songs are lots of fun and work well thematically. Discussing the music, I must mention “When Love is Gone” and its odd journey. The theatrical edit included the song, but Disney removed it from most home releases. Strangely, a few select DVD editions did include the song, but only in the full screen format. Back and forth between Henson and Disney ensued for years about keeping the song, but the future looked bleak when Disney claimed the original negative was lost. During 2022’s D23 conference, the company announced it found the footage and would add it to the Disney+ release of the film, finally allowing audiences to stream the original theatrical cut.
Concluding this retrospective, I would like to wish you a wonderful holiday season. God bless us, everyone!
“The Muppet Christmas Carol” will be showing in the Browning Cinema at DPAC on Sunday, Dec. 8 at 1:00 p.m.
