A Christmas Carol is a novel that has been adapted, parodied, and visualized countless times and the historic Dickens classic is synonymous with Christmas. After previous movie adaptions featuring George C. Scott and Alastair Sim in the '80s and '50s, 1992 was the time for The Muppets to light the lights on this renowned story in the only way they could.Kermit The Frog once said "More frogs and dogs and bears and chickens and whatever!" and that's just what the Muppets did when they decided to make The Muppet Christmas Carol. Now celebrating its 30th anniversary and quite the juxtaposition to most adaptions, it is time to admit that The Muppet Christmas Carol is the best adaption of the story and quite possibly one of the all-time best Muppets movies.The Muppet Christmas Carol was the first Muppets production since the death of creator Jim Henson in 1990. Henson and his illustrious workshop were the masterminds behind the Muppets who had seen a few movie outings previously with the original 1979 movie being considered the best of the lot. Now with Henson's son Brian at the directing helm and a big Disney budget behind them, the Muppets team produced a visually detailed, musical-centric, and memorable movie. Gonzo would be given the narration helm portraying the role of Dickens with Rizzo the Rat as his comedic sidekick and would begin one of the most hilarious duos of the Muppets' 90s filmography. Despite the vast majority of characters being played by the Muppets, the role of Ebenezer Scrooge would be kept human with movie legend Michael Caine playing the stone-cold role.
Caine played the role exactly how he intended when hired and provided a Shakespearean delivery and didn't highlight his surrounding cast as Muppets. Long-time Muppets writer, Jerry Juhl captured both the spirit and humor of both Dickens and Muppets. Dickens' witty writing and archaic jokes played well with the Muppets' iconic hecklers Statler and Waldorf who cleverly portray the role of two Marleys instead of one. Lines such as "There's more gravy than grave about you" play into their character arc of being presented with poor jokes. The introduction of new Muppets characters to play the ghosts was a fresh feeling to the movie where the writers could have easily selected from a handful of absent Muppets. What the Muppets managed to balance well from the original story and in comparison to previous adaptions was the right level of humor and seriousness when it was required.
The Muppets' charm is all over the movie, but in moments such as the early scenes and Ghost of Christmas Future, the dark tone that is expected of A Christmas Carol is felt. Despite the child audience the Muppets represent, the overall message and clarity of Scrooge's enlightenment are delivered as coldly and boldly as any adaption with a terrifying grim reaper. It feels like their horror element was done better 30 years ago in comparison to now. The Muppet Christmas Carol is by no means the first musical adaptation of the story either, but the songs written are real mood setters, there's a real sense of emotion and joy at times and then woe and loss at others. The tone of the movie switches from uplifting to a descending conclusion such as the Scrooge song, Tiny Tim's piece, and One More Sleep 'Til Christmas even has a solemn feeling towards its end despite the persistent joy of the topic.
Looking at the Muppets who were featured in the movie, Kermit plays the secondary role of characters in the book as Bob Cratchit with Miss Piggy playing Mrs. Cratchit. Using Robin as Tiny Tim somehow created more sympathy than a child, but with an accompanying song it is hard to witness the joy turn to sorrow. Certain Henson characters are given minor roles to fill in those that appear in shaping Scrooge's life. Fozzie Bear is Fezziewig due to the clever name play, Sam the Eagle is Scrooge's old teacher and aforementioned Statler and Waldorf play the role of Jacob Marley.
Whether it was due to the passing of Henson and Steve Whitmore's new roles, memorable Muppets such as Scooter, Rolf the Dog, and Electric Mayhem are either not used or given silent roles. As the story does not feature many characters, it was a necessary decision not to use the entire cast to play speaking roles. The use of human characters for Scrooge's family felt like the right approach as well as no Muppet would have really felt accustomed to playing Scrooge's joyful nephew.
Following on from a successful 80s with The Muppet Show, other movie adaptions such as Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal, and new steps into television with Muppet Babies and Fraggle Rock, Henson had truly left his mark on cinema at the time of his death. It is felt in the movie that there is a sense of justice to keep on the Henson spirit and no effort feels spared when looking at the overall production of the movie. The set design captures the slumming and gritty nature of the book and Victorian Britain presented. The overflow of Muppets gives a claustrophobic feeling, but the studio model and the toy model used for other shots feel believable as if this film had been captured on real British streets. The musical numbers are charming, the jokes are timely and the dissection of a literary classic being consumable for children is admirable in its presentation and understanding.
With the use of The Great Gonzo as the storyteller, it as much feels like the audience is watching a movie as if they were having the story read to them, and though the narrator's role is usually a stern one, Gonzo's desire to tell the story with Rizzo's food-related humor mixed in gives the telling of A Christmas Carol the breath of fresh air it so desperately needed. The way a Muppets movie is written, it feels as though the mixture of songs, humor, and adaptive storytelling really could work with most literary classics. The ratio of Muppets to humans, the catchiness, and overall engagement that the songs sung by the Muppets make telling stories fun for all audiences whether they have grown up with the Muppets or been introduced. The film importantly does capture the spirit of Christmas with subjects of togetherness and looking out for others, it is just a shame that upon its release it was never going to strike out big against titles such as Aladdin and Home Alone 2: Lost In New York.
As it is well known to have an uplifting end, the mixture of gothic horror merging with joyous warmth feels all that more engaging with the overall art style and comfort that comes with the Muppets. What can be appreciated is that the levels of comedy and education along with design, storytelling, music, and more are achieved with great value capturing both the Dickens and Muppets' spirit. Looking back on the writing of the Muppets with this adaption and their later Treasure Island film, it begs the question of why hasn't the studio adapted more classic novels? It's been a long time since their last outing and it's easy to assume some of television's funniest characters could knock it out of the ballpark once again. There will be no humbug when revisiting this Christmas classic.