In Praise of The Muppet Christmas Carol

“Hey, Oscar-winning actor Michael Caine, do you want to be in our A Christmas Carol movie? The cast is mostly puppets so far, but we think you’d be great for the lead.”

“Oh, absolutely.”

“Terrific! And you’re not going to like… phone it in, right.”

“DAMN STRAIGHT I’m not.”

-How this casting went, presumably. 

The Muppet Christmas Carol is so well made that it should be illegal. Like, everyone does a version of A Christmas Carol. This is a story that hit market saturation before television was invented. And then the Henson Company took a shot, and it was like, wow. Are you maybe the definitive version of this?

A lot of that comes down to Caine. It’s wild that he’s in this movie, and a real testament to his acting chops that he can deliver lines about the poor dying to “decrease the surplus population,” with the same commitment he can say, “It’s old Fozzywig’s rubber chicken factory!” 

Acting!

And he’s the secret to making this a serious movie about greed, suffering, and guilt that children can still actually watch. A kids’ movie today would probably just imply the death of Tiny Tim. But this film shows you a puppet frog and pig mourning their dead son while Michael Caine holds back tears in the background, and none of that feels strange. 

Gosh, this movie is charming. My only knock against it is that most of the songs are pretty forgettable to my ear, but “We’re Marley and Marley” is good fun, and not every family Christmas movie needs to be a sing-a-long. And heck, it’s not like the film leans on the songs anyway. There’s a real sense of pathos from the characters that feels miraculous. And it’s as much a miracle that Scrooge can change as it is that this movie captures the story the way few others can.

And it happens to be available on Disney Plus.