The Muppet Christmas Carol: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

The film largely follows the story of the book with the typical Muppet humor thrown in. The film was praised for using specially created Muppets to portray the ghosts, instead of established Muppets, in order to keep true to Dicken's descriptions, and sticks remarkably close to the original story, with even most of the dialogue intact - it's just that it's spoken by Muppets.

''[daughters gasp]'' }}

* [[Boisterous Bruiser]]/[[Large Ham]]: The Ghost of Christmas Present.

* [[Canon Foreigner]]: The character of Jacob Marley is given a brother named Robert, strictly for the purposes of being able to put [[Statler and Waldorf]] in the roles (as well as a [[Stealth Pun]]). It works.

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Gonzo, of course, in this film [[Interactive Narrator|narrating]] as Charles Dickens.

* [[Disneyfication]]: Subverted. While this starts out being lighthearted, when Scrooge appears, it's clear it's not really pulling that many punches. Many Dickens fans believe this to be one of the better adaptations, mostly due to the inclusion of Gonzo as Dickens himself, which basically amounts to Gonzo reading the non-speaking parts of the book. Much of the dialogue in the movie is simply lifted directly from the book, albeit with the standard Muppet humor added here and there.

* [[Epic Tracking Shot]]: The introductory shot of London.

* [[Gender Equals Breed]]: All of Kermit and Piggy's children are frog boys and pig girls. (This is one of the films [[Trope Codifier|which led to the trope's creation]].)

* [[Genius Bonus]]: Look very closely in one of the crowd sequences. One of the background Muppets is a lobster hanging out of a basement window. This is a reference to the line, "like bad lobster in a dark cellar," one of Charles Dickens' weirder turns of phrase.

* [[Match Cut]]: The movie uses several of these very well to put Scrooge back in his room following a ghost visit; probably the most famous one is his sitting on the bridge following the "When Love Is Gone" sequence, in which he sits on the railing of the small bridge, and the entire scene dissolves back to his bedchamber, with Scrooge sitting on his bed, having seemingly not moved an inch, reinforcing the book's question of [[Or Was It a Dream?|just how real it all is]].

* [[Muppet]]: Logically.

* [[The Other Darrin]]: This was the first appearance <ref> In film. Whitmire previously voiced Kermit for the prime time "The Muppets Remember Jim Henson" special</ref> of Steve Whitmire as Kermit and Beaker, Jerry Nelson as Statler, and Dave Goelz as Waldorf.

* [[Parental Bonus]]: Loads (it ''is'' a Muppet movie, after all), such as the [[Stealth Pun]] below, or the following exchange:

'''Young Ebenezer''': Yes, Headmaster.<br />

'''Sam the Eagle''': Hmm. ''(looks around, confused)'' }}

* [[We Could Have Avoided All This]]: Gonzo and Rizzo don't make it into Scrooge's house before he closes the door because Rizzo is searching for his bag of jelly beans. Later, while Gonzo is narrating, Rizzo offers him a jelly bean, saying, "I had them in my pocket all along."

** Just after that scene, they have to get past a gate. Gonzo makes it, but Rizzo is left standing atop it, afraid to jump. After Gonzo comically fails to catch him, Rizzo realizes he's left his jellybeans behind and takes the fastest route back: through the bars.

'''Gonzo''': (''turns and walks away'') You are such an idiot.<br />

'''Rizzo''': What? ''What?'' Hey, what? }}

* [[The Wonka]]: Gonzo. Or is it Charles Dickens?

* [[You Just Told Me]]: How Scrooge knows the Ghost of Christmas Present took him to the Cratchits'.