Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

It’s Christmas time! 🙂 And as part of our Christmas celebrations this year on ‘Bradley’s Basement’ for its 10th anniversary, let’s check out one of the most well-loved and popular Christmas films ever made – ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’, which was released in 1992.

I’m surprised I’ve not reviewed this film before until now. This is a Christmas film I used to enjoy seeing as a kid when growing up in the 1990s. I used to watch it every year on VHS. It was also one of my early introductions to ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens.

As well as ‘Mickey’s Christmas Carol’ (which I saw first, I believe), ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ made me aware of Charles Dickens’ timeless Christmas story before I saw the others. This includes the 1951 film ‘Scrooge’ with Alistair Sim, which I consider a very good adaptation.

With that said, it’s amazing to find how ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ takes a lot of dialogue and text from ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Dickens. It makes it more in keeping with the original story, and it wasn’t played for laughs as you might expect with the Muppets. 🙂

There are some enjoyably entertaining moments featured in the film with the Muppets, but that doesn’t distract from the main story involving Scrooge and his journey to redeem himself at Christmas time, which I hugely appreciate. It’s why it’s very endearing to many.

Whilst watching the film recently on Disney+, I couldn’t believe I found myself in tears over certain moments in the story, particularly when Scrooge is experiencing his past as well as his future. The scene where Scrooge saw his tombstone definitely had me in tears.

Mind you, it helped that I was watching the full-length version of the film on Disney+ and not the actual official version. The full-length version of the film includes the deleted song ‘When Love is Gone’, which is something that really baffles me concerning the official version.

When I saw ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ on VHS back in the 1990s, the ‘When Love is Gone’ song was always there. So, I’m quite surprised that the song wasn’t included in the theatrical release at cinemas and that it was taken out again for the DVD release. It’s odd.

As far as I’m concerned, the song is essential to the film in depicting the loss Scrooge has when he and Belle broke up because of his interest in wealth more than her. Mind you, there’s more of Scrooge’s past shown in 1951’s ‘Scrooge’ than in ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’.

The film’s cast is very good throughout. Michael Caine stars as Ebenezer Scrooge. I found his performance as Scrooge very compelling, and it’s nice that he took things seriously when he played the character amidst the antics occurring by the Muppets around him. 🙂

There’s Kermit the Frog as Bob Cratchitt and Miss Piggy as Emily Cratchit. There’s the Great Gonzo as Charles Dickens and Rizzo the Rat at himself. I found it amusing when Gonzo as Dickens narrated the film along with Rizzo whilst they journeyed through the story.

Fozzie Bear plays Fozziwig in the film. Yes! Even that’s funny when you find Fezziwig is now Fozziwig in ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’! 😀 There’s Statler and Waldorf as the Marley brothers – Robert and Jacob. That scene where they appeared to Scrooge is spooky.

Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker play the charity collectors in the film, and Dr. Teeth and his band, including Animal, Floyd, Janice, Zoot, Lips and Rowlf, are Fozziwig’s party entertainers. The Swedish Chef is Fozziwig’s party cook and is joined by some singing grapes. 😀

There’s Bean Bunny as the boy who collects Scrooge’s turkey at the film’s end. I’m not sure if I’ve seen Bean Bunny in anything else. 😀 There’s Sam the Eagle as Scrooge’s schoolmaster. I found it funny when Gonzo corrected Sam to say ‘the British way’, not ‘the American way’.

There’s the Cratchit family, including Robin the Frog as Tiny Tim as well as Peter, Belinda and Betina. I find it very amusing that on Kermit (Bob Cratchit)’s side of the family, the boys happen to be frogs, whilst on Miss Piggy (Emily)’s side of the family, the girls are pigs. 😀

For the rest of the human cast, there’s Steven Mackintosh as Fred, Ebenezer Scrooge’s nephew. Steven Mackintosh has been in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘Timelash’. He went on to be in another Charles Dickens production – the 1998 TV adaptation of ‘Our Mutual Friend’.

There’s Meredith Braun as Belle, Scrooge’s former love interest and Robin Weaver as Clara, Fred’s wife and Ebenezer Scrooge’s niece-in-law. It’s amazing to find how there are more Muppets playing characters in ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ than humans, isn’t it? 😀

This film happens to be the directorial debut of Brain Henson, the son of Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets. The film is dedicated to the memory of Jim Henson and Muppet performer Richard Hunt, as they both sadly passed away before the film’s release in 1992.

As well as ‘When Love is Gone’, there’s also the song ‘It Feels Like Christmas’, performed by the Ghost of Christmas Present. I like that song and I like it’s also performed in the end credits along with a pop version of ‘When Love is Gone’ performed by Martina McBride. 🙂

It’s been lovely to revisit ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ in its full-length version (which includes the ‘When Love is Gone’ song) on Disney+ recently. It’s a very heartwarming film and a very good adaptation of Charles Dickens’ story ‘A Christmas Carol’ featuring the Muppets in it.

It’s not difficult to see how popular ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ has become over the years, as it’s seen by many people, whether it’s via TV, DVD, Blu-ray or at cinemas for limited re-releases. 😀 I’m sure I’ll be revisiting the film again for future Christmases to come.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂