The Muppet Christmas Carol Is The Best Christmas Film Of All Time
“…a talky, plodding film that seems likely to bore children and adults in equal measure.” — Dave Kehr, The Chicago Tribune
“…the forgettable songs (…) offer both clumsy word construction and dire music that eats away at the aesthetic quality of the movie.” — Almar Haflidason, BBC
“Thumbs Down” — Gene Siskel, Siskel & Ebert At The Movies
In December 1992, Disney released the Jim Henson Company’s The Muppet Christmas Carol, its live-action adaptation of Charles Dickens classic 1964 novella A Christmas Carol. It did OK critically at the time of release and kind of OK at the box office (doubling its £12m budget domestically but getting nowhere near Home Alone 2’s $136m.) It’s regarded well enough now, remembered fondly by many, and regularly makes those “Top Christmas Movies” lists, whilst rarely topping them.
And I don’t think that’s good enough. Because A Muppet Christmas Carol is the best Christmas movie of all time.
And whilst I understand that art is subjective, I’m fairly certain this is the one exception. I could wax on about the various wonderful qualities of this perfect film until Christmas Yet To Come, but I’ll boil the argument down to two main points.
It’s Actually About Christmas
Think about the majority of Christmas films. They’re all set at Christmas. They all have a sentimental message that’s somewhat related to an aspect of Christmas (family, belief, consumerism etc…) but almost none of them are about Christmas itself.
Home Alone is about family (and the hilarity of home invasion.) Miracle On 34th Street is about the value of belief vs empirical truth. The Nightmare Before Christmas is about (and kind of “yikes”, when you think about it) staying in your lane and not trying anything new(?) Even It’s A Wonderful Life is way less about Christmas than how, like, you probably shouldn’t kill yourself.
I’m being deliberately reductive. These are all wonderful films. The point is that you could (with a few changes) set them at another time of year and still tell the same story. “The Nightmare Before Easter” would suck but the story would still function. Most Christmas movies quite reasonably and effectively borrow themes and sentiments attached to Christmas to underline the themes of their own stories but that’s not the same as being about Christmas.
The Muppet Christmas Carol is about Christmas. It’s about how Christmas embodies all the better elements of human nature (charity, family, friendship, open-heartedness etc) and how if you embody Christmas, then you embody all these things. It’s not just good story set at Christmas time; it’s about what Christmas is (or, at least, what it should be.)
And I know what you’re thinking: “You’re not talking about The Muppet Christmas Carol. You’re just talking about A Christmas Carol; the book that essentially invented the modern view of Christmas. Of course, a film based on it will be about Christmas.” And you’re right. Bringing me to my second point.
It’s A Perfectly Judged Adaptation Of A Christmas Carol (and possibly the only one.)
There have been endless live-action adaptations of A Christmas Carol (seriously, check out IMDb.) Apart from The Muppet Christmas Carol (with one offbeat exception), none of them tend to come up when we’re talking holiday classics. And that’s weird, right? It’s the quintessential Christmas story; why aren’t more of its adaptations more beloved?
It’s because Christmas films are family films, and A Christmas Carol does not naturally lend itself to being made into a family film.
As positively as it ends, it’s a story about a geriatric Victorian money-lender being shown tragic scenes of heartbreak and poverty from the past, present and future, by one ghost who’s pretty dour, another who’s a bit more upbeat, and a third who is essentially Death. It’s a work of true genius but it’s not inherently kid-friendly. Whereas other adaptations have tried to solve this problem by going either in a super-kiddy direction or adding in a bunch of CGI spectacle, none of them have managed to preserve the power and message of the original, whilst making a movie for the whole family.
Apart from A Muppet Christmas Carol.
This movie keeps everything that works about the source material — often verbatim — adding just enough of the Muppets’ signature sophisticated silliness to draw in the little ones and stop everything from overly getting mired in the serious elements of the source material. It’s funny when it needs to be, sentimental when it needs to be, and scary when it needs to be. The overall balance of humour and drama is perfect.
This balance is typified by the beyond-inspired decision to not have the three ghosts be played by any of the established Muppet troupe. This choice shows such a heroic level of taste and restraint that it honestly makes me want to stand up and applaud every time I think about it. Despite being primarily a comedy-musical, the film takes its supernatural elements completely seriously. It singularly pulls off the feat of making the Christmas story (y’know, apart from the other one) broadly entertaining without losing any of its emotional or thematic impact.
And that’s my whole case. It’s the perfect adaptation of the best Christmas story of all time. That’s it.
Oh, and also the songs are funny and catchy and evocative and drive the plot forward.
And, in a just universe, Michael Caine would have been given the Oscar (seriously, the man is so committed to the part that he manages to say “This is Fozziwig’s old rubber chicken factory!” whilst keeping 100% of his dignity.)
OK, that’s my whole case.
So, as Tiny Tim observed:
“God bless The Muppet Christmas Carol. It’s a masterpiece. Don’t @ me :)”
