When Michael Caine was cast as Ebeneezer Scrooge in 1992’s The Muppet Christmas Carol, he told director Brian Henson that he was going to play the part straight, and not camp it up. In short, he was going to treat the role as if he was performing it on-stage in London, and not opposite an all-puppet cast.
This little factoid piqued my curiosity. How would a Muppet movie play when the key member of the human cast refused to treat them like The Muppets?
Well, it worked wonderfully. Not to worry, though; Henson and crew sneak plenty of Muppet family fun into the mix as well, making The Muppet Christmas Carol the best of both worlds.
Do I even need a synopsis for this story?
Well, maybe for this version I do.
It’s Christmas Eve, and, with author Charles Dickens (The Great Gonzo) and his faithful sidekick Rizzo the Rat (playing himself) as our guides, we are introduced to the most miserly landlord in all of England: Ebeneezer Scrooge (Caine). As the whole of London is celebrating Christmas, Scrooge is where he always is: at work, finalizing foreclosures, so that anyone late with the rent will be out on the street come Christmas morning.
A cruel taskmaster to employee Bob Cratchit (Kermit the Frog) and his team of rat assistants, Scrooge finds himself beset on all sides by the one thing he despises the most: Christmas! From his nephew Fred (Steven Mackintosh) inviting him to a party to a pair of good Samaritans (Professor Bunson Honeydew and Beeker) collecting for charity, Scrooge is reminded at every turn that it is the Christmas season.
After reluctantly agreeing to give Bob Cratchit the next day off to spend time with his wife (Miss Piggy) and kids, Scrooge heads home, ready to put the entire holiday behind him.
Alas, fate has other plans for Ebeneezer Scrooge.
Haunted by the ghosts of his dead partners, Jacob and Robert Marley (the always cantankerous Statler and Waldorf), Scrooge is informed he will be visited that night by three spirits, all of whom will expose the skinflint to the true meaning of Christmas.
I went into The Muppet Christmas Carol wondering which of the traditional Muppets would portray the three spirits: Christmas past, present, and future. But mirroring Caine’s insistence to play Scrooge as close to Dickens’ conception as possible, the spirits, though puppets, adhere to the original novel’s descriptions of them, with the Ghost of Christmas Past depicted as an angel-like girl, and Christmas Present as a boisterous, overly friendly man with a short-term memory problem. Keeping these spirits so close to the original work brought some weight to a story that, inherently, has its share of dark moments and intense situations, especially during the Christmas Yet to Be segment (I laughed when Gonzo and Rizzo, who had been taking us through the story to that point, announced that this segment was far too scary for them and checked out, saying we wouldn’t see them again until the finale).
Natrurally, The Muppet Christmas Carol is not all grim and serious. Henson and company pack the film with loads of Muppet goodness, including cameos by Fozzie Bear (as Scrooge’s old boss Fozziwig), Sam the Eagle (as Scrooge’s childhood schoolmaster), and Animal (doing what he does best: playing drums at Fozziwig’s holiday party). Even Miss Piggy, reduced to the minor role of Bob Cratchit’s wife, gets a few moments to shine in the final act.
Gonzo and Rizzo also give us plenty to laugh about as narrators, doing their best to keep up with the action (their funniest moment has them clinging to a rope, flying through the air with Scrooge and the Spirit of Christmas Past).
As with most Muppet movies, there’s music as well, written by the great Paul Williams. Each tune has its charms, though my favorites come right at the beginning: “Scrooge”, which introduced the character; and “One More Sleep Til Christmas”, performed by Kermit’s Bob Cratchit and the rats as they close up shop for the night.
The Muppet Christmas Carol was the first Muppet movie released after the death of founder Jim Henson, who passed away in May of 1990. But with his son Brian at the helm and the usual cast of voice actors (Dave Goetz, Frank Oz, Steve Whitmire) and puppeteers continuing their fine work, The Muppet Christmas Carol proved an absolute delight, a mostly faithful adaptation of Dickens’ time-honored Christmas tale that remains, at all times, a truly Muppet affair.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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