YMMV / The Muppet Christmas Carol

• Adorkable: Scrooge of all people during the song "It Feels Like Christmas," when he finally starts loosening up and enjoying himself. After facing the tragedy of his past, he starts to smile and laugh with Christmas Present, who shows him the joys of the holiday. Then he tries to imitate Christmas Present's swinging dance, but he is so stiff that it looks silly and misses that Christmas Present stops.
• Awesome Music: Honestly, the entire score, is fondly remembered as some of Paul Williams's best Muppets work.
• Broken Base: "When Love Is Gone". The opinions about this song and whether or not it should be in the movie at all vary wildly.
  • Some fans love the song for its Tear Jerker quality and as a hauntingly tragic sum-up of how Scrooge's life has essentially lost all semblance of happiness and humanity at this point. It shows Scrooge's grief and pain even decades later, and finally leaves him open to hearing what the spirits are saying. Plus, without it, the crying reactions of everyone else and "The Love We've Found" reprise seem out of place.
  • Others think the movie is better off for not including it, at least partly because Belle is such an underdeveloped character and her relationship with Scrooge has been entirely off-screen and so it feels a little like overkill to dedicating a four-minute song to lamenting its end. The website Tough Pigs summed it up thusly when they talked about the movie:
    "When Love Is Gone" is everything that's wrong with this movie. What made them think that I wanted to see a character who we just met one scene ago singing a slow song about the end of a relationship we haven't seen? I don't even know this girl.
  • It's even pretty common to find people who concede both points, that the song's a slow, boring pace-killer but because it sets up the reprise and represents a look into Scrooge's humanity, the film is still poorer without it.
• Can't Un-Hear It:
  • Michael Caine's performance in this film is widely considered to be one of the most iconic cinematic portrayals of Scrooge.
  • If the Behind the Voice Actors voice compare section is to be believed, Jerry Nelson IS The Ghost of Christmas Present, hands down!
• Creepy Awesome: The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. Viewers can be forgiven for wondering what The Witch-King of Angmar is doing in a Muppet movie.
• Critic-Proof: It wasn't panned on release, but it got mixed reviews from critics. Talk to most Muppets and/or Dickens fans today, though, and they'll almost certainly tell you that the movie was very good and stands among the best adaptations of the story. This article details how much the film's reputation has grown in the years since its release - and even that is from 2009!
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Jacob and Robert Marley reminiscing about the time they shut down an orphanage, joyfully recalling the poor children and their frostbitten teddy bears. And then even they realize that they've gone too far.
  • When Bob Cratchit protests about having to evict tenants on Christmas Day, Scrooge responds by telling him to giftwrap the eviction notices.
  • The Bad Future has two moments: one is that several ladies went into Scrooge's house after he died and robbed his stuff. One lady got his bedsheets. The pawnbroker feels them and says, "Still warm! I don't pay extra for warmth, you know." To make it a Brick Joke, Scrooge wakes up in his room and checks that his bedsheets and curtains are in place.
  • Christmas Future also takes Scrooge to his grave. Scrooge is having Tears of Remorse and trying to deny whose name is on the grave, trying to go to another one. Christmas Future points decisively as if saying, "Nice try, buddy." It's a nice bit of Mood Whiplash before Scrooge wipes the snow away from the tombstone.
• Even Better Sequel: A unique and debatable case. This is widely considered the Muppet movie that can come the closest to rivaling The Muppet Movie as the best.
• Genius Bonus: Look very closely in one of the crowd sequences. One of the background Muppets is a lobster hanging out of a basement window. This is a reference to the line, "like bad lobster in a dark cellar," one of Charles Dickens' weirder turns of phrase^note The phrase refers to glowing in the dark, as lobster would glow if not treated properly due to the algae on it.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: This is the Christmas movie in the United Kingdom. During its original release, it topped the box office for two weeks in a row. Its popularity endures in the country to this day - until it was bought out by cable network Sky in 2019, Channel 4 aired the film every Christmas^note Traditionally on Christmas Eve, although occasionally on the day itself in the morning or early afternoon, and ever since 2012, the uncut version of the film is released into theaters every Christmas in a select number of theaters, alongside Frozen beginning in 2014.
• He Really Can Act:
  • Many doubted how anyone could replace Jim Henson as Kermit—but after the film, most people agreed that he was in good hands with Steve Whitmire, though not quite as good as Henson.
  • Dave Goelz shows far more range than Gonzo had before, as half his role is essentially an audiobook of A Christmas Carol.
  • Although he already had a prolific career as an actor, try finding anyone who believes there to be a better portrayal of Ebenezer Scrooge than Michael Caine. Despite the film's comedic tone, Caine plays the part completely straight, and when only watching his scenes, you'd never suspect that he was acting opposite a cast that was mainly comprised of the Muppets.
    Michael Caine: I'm going to play this movie like I'm working with the Royal Shakespeare Company. I will never wink, I will never do anything Muppety. I am going to play Scrooge as if it is an utterly dramatic role and there are no puppets around me.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In Quills, Michael Caine wears an almost identical outfit to his Scrooge clothing here, which if you've seen this film first, distracts you a bit from fully accepting his monster portrayal of Dr. Royer-Collard.
• Ho Yay: Rizzo kisses Gonzo's nose after it's crushed for the sake of Rizzo's jelly beans.
• Jerkass Woobie: Double subverted with Scrooge. Some old women theorize that he is a lonely and sad person, only to deny it shortly after, it eventually turns out that Scrooge is indeed a lonely and sad person.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Captioned screenshots from the "One More Sleep 'til Christmas" sequence have been frequently used on Tumblr to express excitement over an upcoming release date.
    "There's only one more sleep till (insert thing being hyped here)..."
    [screams internally]
  • "And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die..." ^Explanation Gonzo's blunt delivery of this narration towards the end of the movie (which actually matches the emphasis used in the original story) has become its Signature Line over time, especially in the 2020s, and gets referenced and joked about around the holidays as a result,
• Narm: The way Scrooge says his own name as he reads it off his grave; while effective, there's just the vaguest undertone of "Gosh darn it!"
• Newer Than They Think: A lot of people assume that Statler and Waldorf always said "dohohohoho" when laughing. However, that specific laugh started with this film after Dave Goelz and Jerry Nelson took over the characters. Prior to that on The Muppet Show their laugh was closer to "ehehehehe"
• Nightmare Retardant: When the doorknob turns into Jacob Marley and yells Scrooge's name, Rizzo and Gonzo fall off their carriage screaming when their horse gets spooked by it. The transformation itself is also rather silly, if only because it's Statler.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Several years prior, a Muppet-based adaptation of A Christmas Carol appeared in comic form in an issue of Muppet Magazine. Although it was an all-Muppet-character cast (including Sam the Eagle as Scrooge and Animal as Jacob Marley), it did cast Kermit as Bob Cratchit, Miss Piggy as his wife, and Robin as Tiny Tim; and Gonzo as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (he didn't say anything because he forgot his lines).
  • Many fans took issue with Belle's ballad, "When Love is Gone" getting cut from the Blu-Ray and Disney Plus versions of the film, later restored after outcry. Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol had a similar tumultuous history with their Belle ballad, "Winter was Warm", which was cut from broadcast television airings starting in the late 80s but was added back for the DVD release.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Fred's wife Clara only appears in one prominent scene, besides a cameo in "Thankful Heart". But Robin Weaver is such a delightful Genki Girl, and has such an adorable smile when she gets a present from Scrooge.
  • And of course Meredith Braun as Belle, whose emotional performance of "When Love Is Gone" sticks in memory. Even without the song, the way she responds to Scrooge's "I love you" with "you did once" still makes the scene.
• Questionable Casting:
  • "Oh, sweet, they're going to do a version of Christmas Carol with Muppets. Fun! Wait, with Michael Caine?!" It worked, however, and Caine is one of the most memorable actors in the role; he's completely serious and crotchety. Caine went on record as saying he had a ball with the production, adding that the best way to interact with the Muppets is to treat them all as though they're members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Smart guy.
  • Averted with most of the Muppet characters, who fit their roles like a glove. Highlights include Kermit as the put-upon Bob Cratchit, Robin the Frog as Tiny Tim, and Gonzo narrating the movie as Charles Dickens himself.
• Retroactive Recognition: While you wouldn't know it unless you checked the end credits, Christmas Past is voiced by Jessica Fox. A few years later, she'd play Enid Nightshade in The Worst Witch and more famously, Nancy in Hollyoaks.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • While the green-screen compositing is otherwise done excellently throughout, there's a shot in "Marley and Marley" ^note Specifically, during the lines "Doomed, Scrooge, you're doomed for all time!/Your future is a horror story written by your crime..." where it's a little too obvious that Statler and Waldorf have been superimposed over the footage of Michael Caine, rather than actually existing in the same space as him. Unfortunate and noticeable, because the "ghost" effect is otherwise flawless throughout.
  • The Ghost of Christmas Past is otherwise well-portrayed with eerie effects that still hold up years later, but the close-up shot of Scrooge grasping her hand makes it very obvious that Michael Caine is grabbing on to a piece of plastic.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Without "When Love is Gone", the scene of Scrooge and Belle's breakup is incredibly short and lacks emotional weight, even though Scrooge's pleading with the Spirit of Christmas Past suggests it's a massively painful moment in his life, and it makes the crying at the end (both Scrooge's and Rizzo's) feel a bit overdone. In the scene, Belle sings passionately about how much she believed in their love. She now sees he has chosen a path she can't follow but genuinely wishes him well. Young Scrooge tries a half-hearted effort to stop her before choosing to walk away. Belle briefly turns to see he is gone as she expected, and Present Day Scrooge joins in song at first with her, then gradually breaks into silent tears as he recalls she is a shadow of the past and nothing he can do will stop her from walking away again.
• Uncertain Audience: The movie's relatively low box office success was partly blamed on the fact that while the typical Muppet antics appealed to a very young audience, the often relatively straight adaptation of Dickens' novel was probably too wordy and at times too dark for small children. Conversely, adults and even older kids looking for a straight adaptation of the novel might have avoided it expecting nothing but Muppet silliness.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Only a little, and he doesn't let the joke carry on for too long, but even post-redemption Scrooge fails to see the problem with showing up at the Cratchits' house on Christmas morning and briefly making Bob think he's been fired. At least in the book he waits to do it until Bob comes back to the office the next day, without interrupting the family's holiday. (Granted, he's intentionally trying to Make A Funny in-universe by playing on his reputation and mask a surprise gift of turkey, but it's still a bit of a dick move to stress out Bob like that for a hot minute.)
• Vindicated by History: Achieving only modest box office when it was first released, likely due to Home Alone 2: Lost in New York taking away a majority of its family audience and after Disney's platform release system at the time got crushed by Aladdin rather quickly, the film now has a cult following among Muppet fans and people who find it a great Christmas movie, and it's become a holiday institution among Muppet and Charles Dickens fans in particular, especially in the UK.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • The film's green screen allows for a tremendously beautiful blue nighttime flight scene.
  • Christmas Present is one of the largest Muppets ever employed, even taller than Scrooge, and he is amazing. Even today, you can believe he's a giant full of laughter as he transports Scrooge to Christmas morning.
• Win Back the Crowd: People were very skeptical about how well Muppet projects could work without Jim Henson to guide them. This film proved there was still plenty of life in the franchise.
• The Woobie: Poor Bean Bunny. He has the door slammed in his face, a wreath is hurled at him, and to top it all off, we see him shiver in a pile of newspapers on the street - a reminder of the well-meaning gentlemen's points regarding the poor and homeless - and how, even though "There's Only One More Sleep 'til Christmas", there are still those on the street without food, shelter or family.

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