Top Film for Each Year of My Life – 1992

The Muppet Christmas Carol

Rizzo the Rat: How do you know what Scrooge is doing'? We're down here and he's up there.
Gonzo: I told you, storytellers are omniscient; I know everything!
Rizzo the Rat: Hoity-toity, Mr. Godlike Smarty-Pants.
I would be kicked out of my family if any other film filled this spot. Everybody has that one film they watch tirelessly around Christmas (aside from the 24 hour A Christmas Story marathon). The Muppet Christmas Carol is that for my family. It helps that the Muppets have been an ever-present force for in my family long before I was born. In fact, the two things I can’t imagine having grown up without are Peanuts and the Muppets.

It goes to show how much a love of the Christmas season has been ingrained in me, what with this is being second A Christmas Carol adaptation to appear in the top spot (it’s starting to sound like my childhood was nothing but my parents brainwashing me into liking what they like). It’s no wonder that I was able to give a 6th grade report of the Dickens’ classic without having ever read the book (I nailed it, incidentally). I’m starting to see numerous connections between my favorite films, as well. The aforementioned adaptations. Tim Burton was a puppeteer for The Muppet Movie. He is a director with a distinctive vision and style, much like Terry Gilliam. It’s like playing Six Degrees of my Favorite Movies.
I find that people either fall into two categories regarding Muppet Christmas Carol (observations validated at past year’s Christmas party): you haven’t seen the movie, or you love the movie. And there is little not to love. As a unrepentant hater of most musicals, I fully give myself over to this film. Only one song doesn’t work (the dreadful “When Love Is Gone,” which my family always skips). The rest are insanely catchy with great lyrics… and they’re sung by MUPPETS! It astounds me that not one of the songs was nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar. Their bad luck for coming out in the year of Aladdin and The Bodyguard.

Michael Caine makes a fantastic Scrooge because he convincingly looks black-hearted when he needs to, but seems genuinely like the nicest man on Earth otherwise. He will always be Scrooge in my mind. And he seems to thoroughly enjoy working with Muppets. Having Gonzo narrate as “Charles Dickens” with Rizzo the Rat (I have a dog named after him) allows the story to step back for bizarre humor and some meta-commentary. Fun times, that. It’s nice to see smaller Muppet players pop up (Sam Eagle, Bunsen and Beaker, who have a fantastic song cut, but it’s on the soundtrack) and Statler and Waldorf do more than just yell stuff from the balcony, though they do that, too.

I acknowledge that Muppet Christmas Carol wouldn’t top most lists. For one, Unforgiven was released in ’92. But this one is purely sentimental for me. Ever since 1993, my family has listened to the soundtrack while going to pick up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. It’s not just a movie. It’s tradition.