The Muppet Christmas Carol - Movie Review
iliekpiez The Muppets have had so many good and strong outings. They are phenomenal and despite being controlled by a hand - feel like real characters due to their unique personalities, strong humour and masterful puppeteering. One of their beloved - and Christmas Productions in general as well is the Muppet Christmas Carol - a movie which was made the Muppets to do. And it is considered one of the best Christmas movies - based off of the most well known Christmas Story in general - the classic novel A Christmas Carol which many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many adaptations. Which this movie being one and if not - the most popular out of them. Did it deserve it though? Was it better than the others?I do not need to go over the story itself as Christmas Carol is such a strong and classic tale. Which will never get old and will be told for generations upon generations upon generations. So I'm going over the story itself. No point. I'm going to type about that - but how The Muppets mix with the movie itself. And they do mix. The elements they add like a bigger role for Bob Cratchit - which does that add something to his character. The humour mixes in and the songs also are necessary and a unique take on the picture - being one of the musical adaptations of the story along with Scrooge (1970). It mixes in by adding the extra elements where they do not feel out of place - when Scrooge sometimes does not get attention - making it add more to the story and ultimately a more memorable film.
The Muppets also have a massive talent in their comedy. We do not get much of it here due to it wanting to be a Christmas Carol adaptation true to the tale. I will type about that later. The comedy itself here is really strong. I was laughing at the open credits. The example I am going to use is "Rito the Rat - himself." And considering that most movie credits would also have an actor - the parody works as is playing with the viewer's expectations meaning that the parody succeeds - and is much better than this. With the slapstick and the Muppets themselves at times being their typical selves. And the Ghost of Christmas Present having memory loss because he's always in the past also creates knee slapping funny comedy - something that 99/100 happens with The Muppets.
The movie does want to be a legit Christmas Carol Movie with lots of the common Christmas Carol lists - it clearly showed the affection for Christmas Carol. And in terms of Christmas Carol movies - it does such good things right. It explores ideas that others have not - making it its own unique Christmas Carol much different to any other. The addition of narration also creates funny moments and also some extra detail that did avoid unnecessary dialogue from Scrooge. The way that the movie handles Tiny Tim - a very important character in the story of Christmas Carol is handled the best out of any Carol story - including the book. They do show the paleness of the family and it is a tragic death considering how hard Cratchit tried to get a day off and now feels dread at Christmas time almost is shown through mostly visuals and the puppeteering on Kermit during the scenes is genius. As all puppeteering in Muppet productions. And this movie definitely adds moments that others did not have and the ideas explored makes it a good Christmas Carol Tale.
Another thing The Muppets always deliver 100% on is the soundtrack. Paul Williams - not be confused with John Williams does such good soundtracks for this franchise in general. The Rainbow Connection probably being the best out of them all together. My favourite song was Scrooge in this movie. Not only did I fail to keep it out of my head - but also that the song itself was pretty good - getting across the emotions the feelings towards Scrooge and how much words they thought of him as at that time - not of them being positive. Showing the contribution of them. Along with making scenes more powerful, the song has really catchy lyrics that as just as memorable as the DuckTales theme song.
The character choices the Muppets have - much like Treasure Island four years later the character choices click. Kermit as Cratchit, Statler and Wolf as Jacob and Roger - the ghosts of Scrooge's old partners in this case, Miss Piggy as Mrs Cratchit. These choices work as they mash them up to mix in with the characters with not one feeling out of place and therefore all the Muppets would mostly remain their typical selves but doing different things. So it avoids distractions as a result of this. Therefore having the story benefit as a result of this.
The characters themselves are pretty good. Scrooge is a good Scrooge - probably one of the best but definitely not my favourite character. He has an unique redemption and does deliver some funny lines and his redemption itself is very unique and interesting and does deliver a pretty good one showing how his actions have effected others and he being shocked at it creates extra depth which means the character is therefore more interesting as an another layer is added to him making his character more interesting. The character development they do add is pretty strong as well and some of the best in Christmas Carol in general. The character of Cratchit and the nail they hid on the head with all aspects of his character. Fred is good as always - pretty basic. The narrators Gonzo and Rito - are funny and have such funny interactions with each other as well.
They are lots of Christmasey moments in there as well. With lots of Christmas Style Music giving off festive cheer. And they are nice moments like the redemption which reminds but that is a Christmas movie - but not a bad one. You can tell I like this movie very much. With lots of family moments which also makes it for a lot of people - and at the time as well - considering it led to Muppet Treasure Island as well. The moments do feel like Christmas Carol and the dialogue has so much Christmas Movie elements it definitely has the Christmas feel to it.
However, they are lots of awkward moments. Not the comedy - but the acting and pacing can be really creepy. When Fred's girlfriend laughs it happens with no one else laughing and it is really creepy and awkward. Caine can really phone it in sometimes - few, not a lot - I do like him as Scrooge, just some moments do not deliver on Caine's behalf. When he is dancing - phones it in. It's few - but still a flaw overall. It's definitely it's own unique Christmas Carol Adaptation indeed.
I of course do see this as one of the best Christmas Carol Movies of all time. Probably one of the best Christmas Movies as well. It had the typical Muppet Humour and Songs and always feeling they are in the right place at the right time. With Michael Caine also delivering a good performance as Scrooge - for the most part. The character casting on whether what characters the Muppets should be is pitch perfect. It adds elements to the Christmas Carol and explores plenty of new ideas and it also has very good elements of the story itself (the novel) in here and is done really well in this. It is a movie I do watch every Christmas and I am one of the many others who do so. However, some of the moments and acting are awkward and pretty poor in comparison to the rest of the movie and can be pretty awkward and bad. Caine does not try his hardest a few times, but other than that it is a great adaptation and a great standalone movie as well.
Score: 9/10
Comments
Hey, um, can you turn on messages for me? - Universa
9/10 Post, hopefully the next one won't be as long as DC's reviews. - visitor