Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Awww.  This is a sweet movie, with a few weaknesses.

Casting Gonzo and Rizzo as tag-team narrators was the main stroke of genius here.  It worked so well that they were asked to carry the next few movies as well.  Their comedy is pretty great, and as a fan I appreciate that their personalities are consistent, not drastically changed to play "Dickens".  Without them, this could have been pretty dour.

Also it gives surprising gravitas to Dickens' words to hear them coming out of Gonzo.  Or maybe that's just me.

Erin appreciated that Michael Caine could be playing Scrooge in any version of A Christmas Carol.  He resists the temptation to ham it up for the Muppets and plays it just as straight as could be.  Erin didn't much like the music, though. I like the songs: I think they're sweet, but that could easily be due to long familiarity.

Also, the TV edit we saw cut "When Love is Gone", the most boring song in the movie, but that did put a hiccup in the emotional momentum of the film.

Now, it's not a flooring, amazing film.  The Muppet troupe was trying something new here, and it feels like the performers' hearts aren't all the way in it, not compared to things like The Muppet Movie, Fraggle Rock, etc.  It's not their best work.

I'm not too impressed with the ghosts designed specifically for this, but all the Muppet casting is pretty fantastic.  I particularly like that young Scrooge works at "Fozziewig's" Rubber Chicken Factory.

It is plenty of fun, and for a version of A Christmas Carol, it's pretty great.  This is to be expected, it's the Muppets, after all.  But it's not my favorite Muppet Christmas movie.  We'll be getting to that later in the month.