"The Muppet Christmas Carol" (1992) is actually a pretty straightforward retelling of the story. It's certainly Muppetized, but stays grounded.
Since they went with a human Scrooge, the producers wisely had some additional human characters in the film, including Scrooge's nephew Fred and his wife, named Clara here, as well as Belle and some assorted extras.
The biggest Muppetization here is having the Great Gonzo appear as Charles Dickens (sort of) while narrating the story, although his pal Rizzo the Rat knows he's not Charles Dickens. It's all very meta as the story appears to have happened already, yet Gonzo and Rizzo are watching it happen and interact a bit with other characters. It's all good fun.
The opening scenes have a few changes that don't disrupt the story, but add some more fun. I don't know if there's another version that gives Bob Cratchit an accounting staff to work with. This staff consists of a whole bunch of rats who provide comic relief.
Scrooge's nephew is still in the office when the charity solicitors come in, so he gets to interact with them a bit. They're played by Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker. This is interesting, as in the book, only one of the gentlemen talks. Beaker doesn't really talk, he squeaks, so is this an homage?
As mentioned previously, Scrooge was partners with the Marley Brothers, Jacob and Robert. Scrooge only sees Jacob's face in the door knocker, but they both come to haunt him. Scrooge says that they always criticized him, but they maintain they were heckling him!
The other three spirits are original Muppet creations for this movie and are effective overall.
The Ghost of Christmas Past looks like a youngish girl floating around. She has a haunting female voice.
The spirit brings Scrooge back to his childhood school and Charles/Gonzo and Rizzo hitch a ride. Rizzo gets mixed up with a cat in the past, which is wacky.
They have a progression of young Ebenezers, which is an effective way of showing him grow up.
Fan never shows up, so the final young Ebenezer gets a pep talk from Sam the Eagle as his headmaster before becoming an apprentice at the rubber chicken factory of Fozziwig and Mom!
The older Scrooge is excited to see Fozziwig's party. The younger Marleys are there to heckle everyone from an upper box.
As so often, Belle is at this party, and Fozziwig introduces her to the young adult Scrooge. I do think this version of young Scrooge here does look like he could grow up to be old Scrooge, which is not often the case!
Then the inevitable breakup scene follows.
The Ghost of Christmas Present appears next and he is definitely how you would expect a Muppet version of this spirit to look. He's quite absent-minded here, which provides some humor and also reminds me of Willie the Giant from "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (1983).
He brings Scrooge to Bob Cratchit's and Fred's houses for their Christmas celebrations and Scrooge is getting the message. The ghost ages as the night goes by and he leaves Scrooge behind.
The mood becomes so ominous that Gonzo and Rizzo leave as the next spirit appears because they're too scared. They should be, as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is pretty scary. I like this representation. The Muppetness works well as for once, it's not just some guy in a cloak!
They see the indifferent businessmen and Old Joe's place as well as finding out that Tiny Tim died.
Scrooge seeing his own tombstone is enough for Scrooge to realize he needs to mend his ways.
After waking up on Christmas morning, Scrooge spreads a lot of joy. It's a lot of fun. He even gets to pat Gonzo and Rizzo on their heads and wish them "Merry Christmas!" Also really fun is that he visits Sam and Fozziwig at the old folks' home!
A novel twist that I don't think I've seen before is that the "boy" (played by Bean Bunny) whom Scrooge engages to get the turkey is the same one who was singing a Christmas carol outside of his office door. I like it!
He distributes quite a few presents, including a big stack to Fred and his wife. As he goes along, he gathers quite a crowd and they all go to Bob Cratchit's house with the turkey and have a big dinner/party. Scrooge does wind up at Bob's house on Christmas Day in a lot of versions, doesn't he?
This whole sequence reminds me most of "Scrooge" (1970), as Albert Finney also bought and gave out lots of presents.
So, we have a solid version of the story with a lot of humor that is actually funny and doesn't distract, as well as some songs that don't bring things to a halt.
They did their job to create a version of "A Christmas Carol" that everyone can enjoy!And Michael Caine stakes his claim as great Scrooge!
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