The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Retro Review #30: Kermit and friends deliver delightful Dickensian Dark Whimsy.
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) — Kermit and friends deliver delightful Dickensian Dark Whimsy.
+ Feature film, /¶ 1h 25m
A+^
Family Suitability
+ ✅4️⃣ OK for younger kids. (Grades K+) | G
Alignment with Judeo-Christian Values
+ ❎2️⃣ Good/Moderately Favorable
+ Based on TV series The Muppet Show ⭐ by Jim Henson ⭐
+ Based on literature (novella) A Christmas Carol.❗🔙🔜⭐ by Charles Dickens ⭐
+ 4️⃣/8 films in Muppet series ⏮️⭐
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Grade: A+^ (20.0) / HOF: 60
EQ 👍A+ | 📖A+ 👥A+ 📽️A+ 🎼A-
DW 😎😎11.9 | 🌚11 🌝13
POPCAP 💯n/a 🍿n/a 🧢n/a
L-R ☮️n/a ◀️n/a ▶️n/a 🛐n/a
Having recently watched and reviewed the earliest film adaptations of A Christmas Carol. by Charles Dickens, I’ve skipped over several, returning to the story to watch one of the most popular adaptations of the novella ever put to celluloid, The Muppet Christmas Carol.
I expected to enjoy it and give a high grade. It was unanimously included on the best Christmas movie lists I checked, so that had to mean something. And Christmas Carol plus the Muppets virtually guaranteed scoring high on both scales of the Dark Whimsy meter, so I was not surprised that it did live up to that promise also. The big surprise for me was that the Muppets’ go-around might have been more faithful to the original novella than any other version I’ve seen up until now.
Yes, they Muppetized it, changing a few details to fit the Muppet cast. But like a few of those other versions I’ve watched, they included a considerable amount of dialogue verbatim from Dickens. Unlike those other adaptations though, they included a narrator character telling the story as Dickens, allowing them to also lift some of the best narrative prose straight from the novella. Impressive!
Of course, not everything was straight from good ol’ C.D. The narration scenes also interjected some of the best jokes and sight gags into the movie. Watching it for the first time, the laughs in those scenes, and even in some of the non-narration scenes, were almost non-stop. Even though that was non-Dickens content, I have a feeling he’d approve with a twinkle in his eye.
Michael Caine played the live-action role of Scrooge. He didn’t have the twinkle that Reginald Owen captured in the 1938 adaptation. But he still played the role well, and the Muppet cast gave us all the twinkle we needed.
And oh, the Muppet cast! All the right Muppets in all the right roles. The casting of the Cratchit family is hilarious even before the funny Muppet antics enter their scenes.
To be sure, when characters spontaneously burst, not into flames, but into song, that always adds to the Whimsy in a film. (Just imagine if they simultaneously spontaneously burst into flames and song. But I digress.) So musicals are often found on lists of good Dark Whimsy films, packing particular punch when they include Dark Whimsy songs with dark but funny lyrics. When those songs are sung in funny Muppet voices, the Whimsy gets even better.
Paul Williams wrote all of the songs in this film. It’s a shame that not all of them were as good as a couple of the ones brimming over with Dark Whimsy.
You see, funny Muppet voices are great for funny songs. Not so much for serious songs. For those, you kinda want, um, well, really good singers would be nice. There are exceptions. Truly great songs can be a pleasure to listen to even sung by Muppets. “Rainbow Connection” written by Williams for the first Muppet movie is one such song. (It still might sound better covered by a professional singer, but there’s something to be said for the original artist of a song’s debut recording, even when that’s Kermit the Frog.)
The best serious song in the film, “When Love Is Gone”, was sung by Meredith Braun, a beautiful actress with a beautiful voice and a live-action role in the film.
Unfortunately, the song was cut from the theatrical version of the film. It was added back in for early home video releases, but has since been cut again from Blu Ray releases and most streaming releases. I watched it afterwards as a special feature after watching the movie. If you want to see the extended version with it added back in (and that’s the director’s preferred version—mine too) you can choose that option if you stream via Disney+.
Last but not least, the finale song was the worst song in the movie. Like the Scrooged finale it undercuts the Christian redemption message somewhat, but only a little, not nearly as much as the former.
Musical flaws notwithstanding, The Muppet Christmas Carol should be near the top of every list of Best Christmas Movies. Way up high with the Christmas star and the mistletoe.
Onwards!
+ last viewed (2) 2025-12-19, HDX7, 1.85v, 2M
+ first viewed 2024-12-17, HDX7, 1.85v, 2M
+ ⏳👻👨👩👧👦🎈⛄🎄🎅🎶🦄🧙🥸🐾🐾🐀🐸🐸🐷🐷🐻🐦🦅🕸️
Family Suitability Detail
+ ✅4️⃣ OK for younger kids. (Grades K+) | G
+ 😡+4 😵💫+3^ 🤬+4 🫢+4 🫣+4
Judeo-Christian Values Detail
+ ❎2️⃣ Good/Moderately Favorable
+ ✝️ +4 ➕✝️✝️🎁😇😇❤️❤️❤️💒🩸🩸🩸 ➖😍😍
+ ✡️ +4 ➕✡️✡️✡️🌗🌗🌗💎💎💎(🤍) ➖😍😍
+ 🗽 -2 ➕(🏦⬜) ➖😍😍(💻)💲💲💲
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I've forgotten if I've seen this one. Will have to watch it some day
Nice review! I recently reviewed this movie as well. It's my personal favourite movie adaptation of A Christmas Carol mainly because of the songs.