Review of The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) by Joseph O — 12 Nov 2016

Ebenezer Scrooge (Michael Caine) is a grumpy business man who is an active hater of Christmas, thinking that people shouldn't waste potential working days for leisure time. On the next holiday season, he receives some special visitors who try to show and convince that the true meaning of Christmas is one worth celebrating.

I think the Muppets are very entertaining and can be very funny; I enjoy their comedy shows and I appreciate how diverse the cast is, which helps remember most of them. Their feature length films, though, I feel can be either fairly entertaining and funny (such as "Muppets from Space" or "Muppet Treasure Island") or annoying and weird (like "The Great Muppet Caper").

For this film, I thought the humor was well balanced to be enjoyable for kids while also appealing to adults who might have grown with these characters. Most of the Muppets have their own moments to showcase their talents but they are not annoying. The musical sequences are good. I don't know if I would say amazing, but they work for this Muppet movie.

The human cast also does a fine job. Michael Caine has the characteristics of what you might imagine Ebenezer Scrooge to be like: grouchy, a snob, but also a sad man at his core. I don't know most of the other cast members, nor would I probably recognize them by name, but they did well in their parts by showing their Christmas spirits.

Being an adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel "A Christmas Carol", the movie develops its plot well enough to stand on its own while respecting the original story, for the most part. If anything, the last scene of Christmas Past feels a little bit too rushed to get the full feel of Scrooge's motivation of his dislike for Christmas. I thought his character changes in the movie were well done with the songs because they have at least some time to be good. The theatrical edition of "The Muppet Christmas Carol" was going to have a song also showing Ebenezer's Christmas past, but apparently it was taken out of the final film because the filmmakers thought it was too hard to understand for kids. Thank goodness for the special edition where we actually listen to that song. Such a shame it was taken out.

"The Muppet Christmas Carol" is a mostly beat for beat retelling of the Dickens classic, while having a blend of its Muppet style to go along with it. And honestly, it doesn't need to do anything complex for its story; it should just have good songs, storytelling, and performances to be good. And it is really good.

8/10.