Oh, there goes Mr. Humbug! There goes Mr. Grim!
While there are about a thousand different flavors of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, only one of them has a big-nosed weirdo narrating the story.
Yes, “The Muppet Christmas Carol” is the best “Christmas Carol” because of Gonzo the Great. Okay? Cool. No reason to even have a podcast about it then. BUT if you need some convincing, let Old Millennials Remember Movies explain how Gonzo and his rat partner-in-storytelling, Rizzo manage to inject so much humor into a faithful and satisfying rendition of the story we all know way too well by now.
“The Muppet Christmas Carol” has another obvious gambit (Mon ami!) in the form of Michael Caine, playing it absolutely straight as famed cheapskate Ebenezer Scrooge, despite almost everyone around him being a puppet. For instance, he never says ONE SINGLE THING about the whole Cratchit kid situation. Look, either Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy had children from previous same-species relationships, or we’re all supposed to just accept that when a pig and a frog bang, the boy children come out as frogs and the girl children come out as pigs. No frogs with with pig noses; no pigs with webbed feet. OKAY. SURE, MOVIE.
Anyway, Old Millennials hosts Tyler and Angela discuss why “The Muppet Christmas Carol” rules, despite the relatively slim screen time for Fozzie, Beaker and the Swedish Chef. They also discuss the movie’s music… the soundtrack starts out so promising: The opening number is awesome and those old coots Statler and Waldorf make a BANGER out of “Marley and Marley.” Then the rest of the songs are about as weepy as “Marley & Me,” and, well, the movie still rules despite the lackluster songs, okay? (alas, no Pepe the King Prawn in 1992, either).
And, in a diabolical move, Angela forces Tyler to recast the entire movie with all the Muppets being forced to play different characters. What madness!
Also discussed on this episode of Old Millennials Remember Movies
- 8-Bit Christmas (2021)
- The Power of the Dog (2021)
- Belfast (2021)
- The Humans (2021)
- Silent Night (2021)
Check out these related past episodes of OMRM:
- Labyrinth – 1986 – episode 116
- The Dark Crystal – 1982 – episode 58
- Scrooged – 1988 – episode 24
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer – 1964 – episode 93
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:16:41 — 115.6MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Spotify | Amazon Music | Pandora | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | TuneIn | RSS | More