Uknighted Manganime Life is too short to watch bad anime

With a pan of the town where this is all taking place — an impressive setting for the most place — the movie starts off with a melody medley of some of the musical pieces you’ll later hear in The Muppet Christmas Carol, who, true to tradition, features quite a lot of singing and dancing. Well, maybe a bit less dancing than singing, but…. yeah.

Anyway, this Christmas tale by none other than Charles Dickens…

…one of old England’s greatest writers, the original tale being heavy on social campaigning and interesting viewpoints, spearheaded by a cast of interesting and (mostly) lovable characters. Even Charles Dickens himself appears in this movie, except that he looks like this.

I guess that’s from before he had his nose job. ANYway….

“The Marleys were dead to begin with”, the tale solemnly begins (after some prodding from Rizzo, his rat-in-crime.) While that’s not ENTIRELY accurate from the point of the original — from reasons which will be clear later — it sets the mood quite nicely as our main character, Ebenezer Scrooge rounds the corner and lowers the temperature by several degrees. So, how do you counter that? WITH A SONG!

It’s worth noting that The Muppet Christmas Carol features a nice mix of living acters and puppets — Muppets, that is — which IS a bit of a digression from the original TV show that usually never went beyond the invited guest. But I digress.

With the song and dance number over and done with, Scrooge enters his office. He is played by Michael Caine, who certainly does the role credit. Menacing and cruel about anything that isn’t related to making money, ESPECIALLY about anything that stands in the way of making money.

This is also the scene where we’re introduced to Bob Cratchit, played by Kermit the frog, and his office staff, played by Muppet Rats. It’s also the scene where we’re introduced to Scrooge’s nephew Fred and the charity workers, the latter played by Muppet characters Dr. Bunsen and his assistant Beaker. The scene contains some of the best known lines from the movie, including the trademark “Bah, humbug!” and “If they would rather die … they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

If you thought the face on the doorknocker looked familiar, then indeed you are right, and it’s also the reasons for the line “The MARLEYS were dead to begin with”. In The Muppet Christmas Carol, the Marleys — Jacob and Robert — are played by our favorite Muppet box seat hecklers Statler and Waldorf.

True to the original… well, as much as it can be with two Marleys… they warn Scrooge about his inhumane stinginess and how it will earn him chains and hellfire if he keeps it up. Only if he listens to the advice of the three Ghosts of Christmas can he hope to get through the rest of his life without ending up in a very warm place once it ends.

Of the many, many different versions of A Christmas Carol existing, I’ve seen at least three (including this, but NOT including the rather… offbeat version starring Bill Murray.) One of them included a scene where Scrooge actually went to hell, weighed down with the chains he was warned about. One of the versions was animated, though I don’t really remember too much about that one, other than it was fairly light, probably intended for young children.

And then, there’s this. And I’ll say this right now; Charles Dickens and Muppets truly work well together to bring you the real life of 19th century England’s problems with poverty and class differences. By singing.

Is it worth your time? As the general tone of the post so far, I’d say definitely, yes. But then, why turn down two classics turned into one? Starring Michael Caine, no less, together with the entire MUppet cast and then some. And did I mention the singing and the dancing? Yes, I did, so start tracking down some Charles Dickens goodness halfly starring puppets and have yourself a Merry Christmas once again.