The Muppet Christmas Carol

My Favorite Scene: The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) “Marley and Marley”

When I was a kid, and during my marriage before my wife passed, it was a RITUAL ABSOLUTE that we watched The Muppet Christmas Carol.  Every family celebrates the holidays differently, and this is probably the only one the crossed over from my childhood to my adulthood….but I’m really glad it did.  The Muppet Christmas Carol was made in 1992, three years after the tragic and untimely death of Muppet founder Jim Henson.  Despite a dozen attempts to do other things with the core group of characters over the years under their stewardship at Disney, The Muppet Christmas Carol-to me-is the last thing that carried the Henson magic with it.


Not only is it a great Muppet film, it’s a fairly faithful (with pigs and frogs and whatever Gonzo is) adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Christmas masterpiece.  It pushed the boundary, as all of Henson’s films did, of what was possible with puppets, and while it’s all-ages appropriate, both the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Future scared the willies out of me when I was a kid.  I still find the floating doll face of Christmas Past creepy.  But it has wonderful songs (my favorite obviously being Statler and Waldorf’s Marley Brothers duet), funny moments, and unlike a lot of the humans who find their way into Muppetland, Michael Caine put in an extremely good performance as Scrooge.  It’s clever, joyous, a little weird, and endlessly inventive.  That was the Henson magic.  The magic that took a piece of felt and turned it into a universe of characters that would and will entertain and educate adults and children alike for decades.  So if you’re wondering what to do on Christmas Eve as a family…you could do a lot worse for traditions than adopt my family’s.

Michael Caine in The Muppet Christmas Carol

12 thoughts on “My Favorite Scene: The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) “Marley and Marley””

  1. This movie actually takes the source material seriously, and is my favorite adaptation of the novel, just ahead of the made for TV version with George C Scott.


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  2. Oh, I love this section, too. I love this whole movie and catch myself watching this Christmas movie more than any other.

    I even had to buy the soundtrack just so I could listen to the songs and sing along (and especially to “Marley and Marley” on a bad day). Fun to belt out in a traffic jam while others around you wonder why the hell you’re in such a good mood.


    Liked by 1 person

    1. I did my wrapping earlier today while listening to the soundtrack, myself! It is extremely fun to sit in traffic with Muppet songs turned up as loud as my stereo will allow while other driver look futilely for children in my back seat. Thanks for commenting and merry Christmas!

      Liked by 1 person

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