Monday, December 30, 2019

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) - Part 3



So, we have a great Scrooge in Michael Caine for "The Muppet Christmas Carol" (1992), but since we have "Muppet" in the title, we must have Muppets!



Kermit the Frog co-stars as Bob Cratchit. This befits his status as the de facto head Muppet, similar to Mickey Mouse in "Mickey's Christmas Carol," although Kermit couldn't get his name in the title!

Miss Piggy gets her dream role as Mrs Cratchit and is given the first name of Emily here. Both Miss Piggy and Kermit do a good job and act as you may expect.

Kermit has one of those convenient nephews, in this case Robin, and he plays Tiny Tim. No joke when I say that he's one of the best TTs ever! He's actually tiny for a change!

An unbilled member of the Frog family plays Peter and twin pigs play the Cratchit daughters, Belinda and Betina. Good casting!



This version is perhaps unique in that Scrooge's former partners are brothers - the Marleys, Jacob and Robert (get it?). They're played by Statler and Waldorf, the master hecklers, who are in good form. Interestingly, we see rare younger versions of them in the Christmas Past sequence.

The other spirits that visit Scrooge are not traditional members of the Muppet family, but are effective. We'll talk about them more when we go over the plot.



The Christmas Past sequence also feature Sam the Eagle as young Ebenezer's headmaster and Fozzie Bear plays Fozziwig, along with his mother as Fozziwig's mom.



The most, um, interesting casting is the Great Gonzo as Charles Dickens. He narrates the story and is pretty funny exchanging banter with his sidekick Rizzo the Rat.

Various other Muppets pop up here and there to add to the fun!

So, we have a solid Scrooge and supporting cast. Did they stick to the original story?

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