The Muppet Christmas Carol

Wow. One of my favorite things to happen when rewatching a movie I loved as a youth is rewatching it decades later and it being as great as I remembered. As far as this goes, it's even better. I talk up this film like crazy elsewhere, and I knew at some point I was going to have to rereview it (I reviewed it for my livejournal years ago). The problem was I refuse to watch the theatrical version, and while I do own the home video extended version on DVD, it's full-screen, and I dunno, I guess I was waiting for Disney to get off its butt and remaster the crucial deleted sequence that makes it so special and memorable. Is the movie bad without it? No. Is it still great? Probably. Is it still amazing? Sadly, no. But once Disney found a good copy of that deleted scene, and was able to clean it up enough to put a widescreen extended version on Disney+, I knew it was my next major review.

This movie has been very influential to me as a writer in a way most of the other Muppet movies aren't. The omniscient Narrator of Gonzo as Charles Dickens may brush against the fourth wall, but he solidly refuses to break it. And the times he bends it raise interesting questions instead of creating insurmountable plotholes. I like that about the movie. I hope there is some of Charles Dickens in the Narrator to Gilda and Meek. The person he bounces jokes off of is the reader rather than Rizzo, but I believe the effect is the same.

Let's talk about Rizzo early on. I will confess I'm writing this review as it comes to me instead of order of importance (If I were writing based on importance, Caine's Scrooge would be discussed first) but Muppet Studios always tried to make Rizzo pop and happen because he was Steve Whitmire's really only well-known character he himself created and his pet project, and he was Kermit for so dang long, they kept him happy. Mostly, Rizzo doesn't usually work. The Muppet fansite Toughpigs swears by his appearance in The Muppets Take Manhattan, and let me be a contrarian there and suggest that movie sucks. No, Rizzo never really fit in on his own, and later became best known as Gonzo's sidekick. Since Whitmire was fired for essentially destroying all of his professional working relationships over the decades due to his ego, Muppet Studios has tried to substitute Pepe in recent projects like Muppets Haunted Mansion for Gonzo's new sidekick, and it simply doesn't work. Pepe overshadows Gonzo on every level, and since Dave Goelz is the last original Muppeteer still at the company, if you make a project starring Gonzo, he should stay the star. You pair up Pepe with anyone else, that person automatically becomes the straight man. Which makes Pepe the wrong partner for Gonzo.

Out of Gozno and Rizzo's team-ups. I believe their first is the best. There are some actual solid jokes there like when Gonzo sees him slips through the bottom of the bars he says, "You are such an idiot." And yet despite that line this movie STILL remains the most faithful Christmas Carol adaptation of all time.

I also loved Rizzo randomly kissing him on the nose.

A little bit about "When Love Is Gone" next. I have to say I recently rewatched Buffy The Vampire Slayer's "Becoming, Part 2", my last major example of watching a filmed "Good Hurt". I had bawled my eyes out every previous time I watched it. But for this last time, I had seen it so many times before it, I was looking at it in an intellectual level, and gauging my reaction to the quality, not the true emotional impact. Enough distance and viewings made me a bit detached from one of the most dramatic moments that ripped my guts out ever. That concerned me. Because the truth is very little current stuff makes me cry. And when I say "Very Little" I mean "Nothing". When I see a particularly well-done sad scene, I laugh with pleasure because I enjoy the good hurt so much I can't even cry. And I was worried I lost that aspect of me that was so moved by sad fiction.

It's not gone. I was bawling during this scene and most of the rest of the movie. It's actually gutwreching in places, which you don't expect from a Muppet film.

I can't imagine why Disney cut the scene in the first place. That's madness. It's literally the best scene.

The songs are also incredibly strong, especially "It Feels Like Christmas".

Time to talk about Caine and the success of the movie in general. I believe Michael Caine is the finest film version of Scrooge of all time. I believe this is the best adaptation of A Christmas Carol of all time. I believe it is the best Muppet Movie of all time. I even believe it's the best Christmas movie of all time. And as far as my favorite movies ever go, it's almost certainly in the top ten.

I mentioned elsewhere why Caine is such a refreshing Scrooge, but I've never really delved into one of his most appealing aspects to me, that is absent in other version of the story I've seen. Scrooge instantly loves the Ghost Of Christmas Present. Scrooge's allegiance to the The White is instantly decided upon seeing Present giggle in the undersized room. How big of an influence is this character on Scrooge? It is not lost on me that when Present is all "Don't you just love Christmas?" a tiny bashful smile appears on Scrooge's face and he says apologetically "To be honest, Spirit, no." He's ashamed to be letting the guy down after knowing him for all of two minutes. I have to admit I've not read the book, so maybe the Muppets didn't make it up. But it's fascinating. As is the part where Scrooge asks if Tiny Tim must truly die, and Present says, "Better he do it and decrease the surplus population." Scrooge is not just abashed in that moment because he's ashamed he used to think that way about people like Tim. He's ashamed that this guy he's come to love and respect actually heard him say that ugly thing and had the entire time he knew him. And it is not lost on me that Present is the one Spirit who tugs on Scrooge's arm and comforts him when he's having a hard time. I appreciate Caine and Present so much because I don't feel like Scrooge's reformation is based entitely on self-interest because of their friendship. Jerry Nelson also killed it as the character.

And we finally get to The Graveyard Scene. I have talked the HELL out of how amazeballs this scene is elsewhere, but it turns out I'm STILL underselling the awesomeness of Caine's Scrooge. But the gist of my previous praise was that Caine chose to play the scene unlike any other previous Scrooge. He plays the scene as if he already knows it's his name on the gravestone. He does the bargaining stage of grief, and insists the future CAN be changed, otherwise what's the point of all this, but he knows the actual ending. It's all led up to this and Scrooge cannily knows it. And I said it before and I'll say it again. A more truthful Scrooge story would have this be a common reaction instead of the surprise it invariably always is. Frankly, I think Dickens should have written the scene that way himself. I mean, Scrooge is a loathsome butthole, but we are never made to believe he's actually stupid. Him taking so long to cotton onto the lessons of the night doesn't track. And if it's actually a surprise, it makes Scrooge's actual reformation feel a bit false, and the viewer / reader can imagine it happens for the wrong reasons. Dickens' Narration also helped a hell of a lot in the story (as Gonzo proved) to state Scrooge's true reformation status once and for all. The problem is most other adaptations don't have that luxury. And The Muppet Christmas Carol not only has and uses the luxury of a Narrator being present to inform the viewer that Scrooge has truly changed, but they fixed the one part of the book that would make the reader question it if those lines weren't actually present.

But I still didn't give either Caine or the movie enough credit there. Just based on his reactions in some much earlier future scenes, Scrooge also already knows the hated man in the pauper's grave is probably him, and is spooked enough to try and get Future to decline to confirm his worst fear. "I get it. That could be ME if I hadn't changed," means, yeah, he DOES get it. For the first Christmas Carol ever.

I love Fred's human wife Clara. Her reaction to Scrooge delivering the gifts is priceless. The way she guesses "Ebenezer Scrooge!" at the party game is delightful as well.

Something I feel very strongly about is that all great movies should have flaws. If they don't, I usually don't like them as much. But Robin the Frog makes a piss-poor Tiny Tim. It's an unfortunate situation because Robin is literally all they have for that role, but it is my opinion that out of all the Muppets on The Muppet Show, Robin was the worst, most indefensible Muppet. Why? I have leveled this exact complaint against Summer Penguin in my Muppet Babies reviews. The Muppets are all memorable and great characters because each one is given a very noticeable, sometimes endearing, usually obsessive, often alarming, character flaw. Summer's personality was perfection incarnate and made a boring-ass Muppet Baby. Robin is the most boring-assed Muppet for literally existing to supposedly make the audience feel good. FAIL. And damn it, I wish the Muppets had a decent kid frog character at the time, but Robin is all they've got. And suddenly the perfect movie simply isn't. Which is fine by me. I distrust perfect movies. I question the sincerity of the people who make them. Are they works of art or simply a super-talented person cynically showing off? Robin in this movie means the Muppets aren't showing off. They're sincerely awesome and imperfect. Which is good.

This go-round I noticed all of the story details and set details the movie put in it. It's one of those movies that you see something new in it every time you watch it. And I'm thinking this is probably my new Christmas habit (assuming Disney keeps the extended version on Disney+). I'm glad.

One of my favorite movies, and my pick for best Christmas Carol, Muppet, and Christmas movies ever too. *****.