#MyrtleMondays Featuring “The Muppet Christmas Carol!” (Part 1)

Christmas is the summer of the soul in December —The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

Charles Dickens might not have written those splendid words that songwriter Paul Williams put in his characters’ mouths almost 150 years later. But Dickens would undoubtedly have appreciated the sentiment in this and the more than 100 other versions of his holiday classic that have appeared on film over the years. 2022 marked the 30th anniversary of this holiday classic—but better late than never, this week we’re taking a closer look at The Best Christmas Movie Ever.

It should be no surprise that my alltime favorite Christmas movie is a version of that Exceptionally Victorian tale A Christmas Carol.  And you’ll never convince me that The Muppet Christmas Carol isn’t the best of the best. From the genius casting of Jim Henson’s Muppets in the various roles—Gonzo as Charles Dickens! Statler and Waldorf as the Marley Bros.! Fozzie Bear as Fezziwig!—to the irreverent humor, to the emotional soundtrack that evokes Dickens’s sentimentality without ever becoming sappy… the film is a technical and artistic triumph. And for me, the holiday season isn’t in full swing without at least one annual screening.

Never has there been a better on-screen Scrooge than Michael Caine. (Or a better on-screen dressing gown!)

A Christmas Carol hit the Victorian presses in 1843, just when Christmas festivities were seeing a resurgence, thanks in part to the Royal Family. Read more about Queen Victoria, Charles Dickens, and the Victorian Christmas Renaissance here.

The Muppets seem an obvious choice to us now, but that wasn’t necessarily the case at the time. It had been 8 years since their last big-screen appearance, and this time they’d be forging ahead without creator Jim Henson, who died in 1990. But crew and cast rallied, embracing everything Dickens and everything Muppets, to create a lasting masterpiece.

Statler and Waldorf as the Marley Bros (you’ll recall Dickens only had Jacob) are unsurpassed in the cinematic universe.

A magnificent musical soundtrack by the legendary Paul Williams is half of the film’s success. Lyrics that could well have come from Dickens’s pen are set to delightful and catchy tunes you can’t help but sing along to. “Wherever you find love, it feels like Christmas!”

We all love the Muppets—Kermit the Frog as the put-upon clerk Bob Cratchit is an obvious choice, but Gonzo as Charles Dickens is as left-field and Muppety as it gets, yet it works, adding a lighthearted tour guide to a dark tale. Yet it’s the human cast and their absolute conviction that they are performing with other actors, and not puppets, that makes it all truly magical.

Ah, Nephew Fred… (Scottish actor Steven Mackintosh), little did you know you’d be reincarnated one day as a young fictional solicitor…

From his very first “Humbug” to “I will keep Christmas,” Caine inhabits the role of Scrooge with his whole being, somehow being simultaneously loathsome and lovable, just as Dickens hoped. His secret was approaching his role, and his Muppet co-stars, as if they were all members of the Royal Shakespeare Company—a level of gravity new to the consummately silly Muppets that has set the standard for Muppetdom ever since.

The Muppet Christmas Carol was at least the twentieth time Dickens’s tale had made it to the big screen (and that doesn’t include countless small screen and stage productions). The first version we know of is 1901’s “Scrooge, or Marley’s Ghost” by British filmmaker Walter R. Booth. Originally running around six minutes long, only three minutes of the silent film have survived—but they tell the tale so familiar to viewers then and now. Watch for the masterful special effects, like the appearance of Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present at the Cratchits’ holiday feast:

Just like today, Victorian audiences and filmmakers loved seeing—and putting–Christmas on film. Pioneering French filmmaker Georges Méliès made his own holiday movie, The Christmas Dream, in 1900. And Clement Clark Moore’s The Night Before Christmas made it to film for the first time in 1905, thanks to the Edison Company.

But possibly the very first depiction of the wonder of Christmas on film is 1898’s Santa Claus by British filmmaker George Albert Smith, in which two children are visited by Father Christmas himself. Watch the onscreen magic unfold:

This and many other classic early British films are available at the British Film Institute.

The Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries are set in the 1890s—a bit too early for motion pictures. But I have a good feeling Myrtle would appreciate the humor, festivity, and faithful adaptation of The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Hoity-toity, Mr. Godlike Smartypants! (Dickens wishes he wrote that.)

The Muppet Christmas Carol is now streaming on Disney+ by subscription, or check your local TV listings for upcoming air dates. But if you want my advice, just pick up a copy to watch all year. Even Scrooge would think that a worthwhile expense, if it means honoring Christmas and keeping it in your heart.

Stay tuned next week for still more Muppet Christmas Carol fun! (Remember that glorious dressing gown? Yeah.) I will expect you to have watched the film several times and be prepared, because there will be a quiz. (There won’t. But go forth and know it better anyway.)