The Muppets have had a few Christmas specials over the years: It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, A Muppet Family Christmas, and even the awful Artpop commercial, Lady Gaga & The Muppets Holiday Spectacular. But there’s always been one that stands out from the pack. Day nine of Nick’s Flixmas (and the final A Christmas Carol adaptation I’ll watch this year) is all about The Muppet Christmas Carol.
Why The Muppet Christmas Carol? Well, why not! It’s not a very different take on the story, it’s not very effective, but something about seeing The Muppets do things makes it all worth it. At least I hope it is.
[Nick’s Flixmas is a 25 day celebration of films Nick watches every Christmas! Nick will do some analysis, review, and just generally walk down memory lane. Hopefully you’ll enjoy the ride. Merry Flixmas!]
First of all, there are two big differences from other Christmas Carol adaptations. One, it’s a slight musical. And two, if nothing else (and by that I mean if the singing doesn’t grab you), most of the central characters are filled in by Muppets. Which means you get odd situations where Miss Piggy and Kermit have children, Fozzie is a green elderly man, and even the Christmas Ghosts are puppets. Weird looking puppets, but puppets. At the end of it all is Michael Caine (who I will now forever refer to as “My Cocaine” thanks to this video) who provides a serviceable Ebezenzer Scrooge.
I hate to be so sour toward a Muppet film, but there’s just not much different about it from other Carols. The songs are great, sure, but they’re not exactly memorable other than maybe Scrooge’s finale. Beat by beat it’s the same, but it’s still so darn charming. Tiny Tim is a tiny version of Kermit? DAWWWW. What pains me the most about this whole thing is the whole “Gonzo is Charles Dickens” thing is never played to its full potential. Rather than have Gonzo manipulate the story according to a set design, he simply narrates it. It’s a completely wasted omniscience. But then again, it’s The Muppets. They’re just usually so much better with parody.
Still, every year I watch it because I can’t think of a Christmas without it. It’s just not a holiday in my heart without The Muppets in it. I hope you all are the same way.
And that does it for A Christmas Carol folks. Sure there’s that one starring Jim Carrey, but I honestly don’t want to see that one again. I just did not like it. but what am I going to see tomorrow? Still not sure yet. If you guys haven’t figured it out, I’m slowly working my way toward bigger and more well known Christmas films.
We’re working our way through the mass here. So tomorrow? Hmm. I’ll watch The Polar Express.
