The holiday season is the perfect time to revisit classic films that bring a sense of nostalgia and joy. The Muppet Christmas Carol is one such film that has garnered attention over the years. If you’re wondering whether this adaptation is worth your time, check out our The Muppet Christmas Carol movie review to find out if it’s a notable entry in your holiday cinema.

THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL (1992)
DIRECTOR: Brian Henson
STARRING: Michael Caine and The Muppets
PLOT: The Muppets perform the classic Dickens holiday tale of Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.

WATCHABLE BUT DISAPPOINTING
I’m rather comfortable in saying A CHRISTMAS CAROL is probably the most filmed Christmas story of all time, and countless television shows have at least used the general backbone of Dickens’ novel for their holiday-themed episodes.
So how does THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL stack up to the rest? I’m heartbroken to say not as well as I had hoped.
Let me say upfront that I love the Muppets. I mean – I LOVE the Muppets. I believed for decades that they truly existed and that they lived and breathed like the rest of us. And no one has been able to convince me otherwise. Perhaps that is why my disappointment was so great!
That’s not to say that THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL is terrible. It’s certainly watchable with a couple catchy tunes and the inevitable good will of Dickens’ source material. But “watchable” is the last adjective I want to use in describing a movie featuring my Jim Henson friends. Younger kids less familiar with Scrooge and company may find a bit more originality in this film.

GET RID OF CAINE AND BRING IN THE PIG
I suppose what bothered me the most is the missed opportunity – this could have been a Christmas classic. This is a Muppet movie, so why make a human the lead character? Michael Caine is a wonderful actor (having two Oscars to prove it), but this is a role he could do in his sleep.
I totally would have made one of the Muppets the lead Scrooge character and had a ball coming up with some inventive choices of human actors for the three ghosts that visit Ebeneezer on Christmas Eve. Why not throw caution to the wind and let Miss Piggy play a female Scrooge? Her classic temper and sarcasm would have been ideal, especially for the first third of the movie.
A WASTED OPPORTUNITY TO DO SOMETHING FRESH
And why not make it a comedy? There are a couple very small moments of levity, but the filmmakers have basically taken the exact same story that has been filmed a jillion times and replaced it with Muppets. Put humans back in, and there would be absolutely nothing special or memorable about the film.
Perhaps the filmmakers wanted to introduce the Dickens story to a new generation. Perhaps they felt it unthinkable to tweek too much of an undisputed classic. The Bill Murray film SCROOGED, which came out four years earlier, while not a great film, took pains to modernize and try breathing new life into the story.

MISSING JIM HENSON
It should be noted that Jim Henson, the original creative genius behind the Muppets, passed away two years before the film’s release, so I imagine this was probably the first Muppet film without Henson at the fore. It was probably a difficult endeavor in that regard for all involved, and I wish the result would have been more worthy of previous Muppet successes.
All this being said, if you have kids who have shown interest in the Muppets, it’s probably still a worthwhile film for them or for a family movie night. Let’s face it, mediocre Muppets is certainly better than no Muppets at all.
But, oh, what could have been…

RATING: *** out of *****
So, what do you think? Was I too hard on our Muppet friends, or do you agree that the creators should have been a bit more adventurous and original? Share your thoughts below.

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