Just finished Muppet Christmas Carol and the funniest running gag is omniscient narrator Gonzo and sidekick Russo having to break or sneak into every house in the story
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He did it because he had a seven-year old daughter who had never seen one of his films and he wanted to make something she could see. He also said “I’m going to play this movie like I’m working with the Royal Shakespeare Company” https://www.gq.com/story/michael-caine-muppet-christmas-carol-interview
The last line of that interview is perfect. "My wife would have laughed, and you don’t necessarily always want people to laugh when you’re in bed with them."
I saw him promoting his memoir in 1992! I was 5 and had NO CLUE who he was. He kindly asked me if I was going to see his new movie “The Muppet Christmas Carol”. I told him “…I like Kermit the Frog.” The sickest diss I’ve ever done. And I did it to Sir Michael Caine.
Scrooge: ...and what is customary for Christmas?
Kermit: Why, the whole day!
Bookeeper rats (background chatter): Yes, the whole day, that's right!
Scrooge (in mocking disbelief): The whole day?
Bookeeper rats (background chatter): No, no - that was the frog's idea!
In an interview he said a friend of his saw Jaws 4 and said it was terrible.
Caine said, I've seen the house I bought my mother with the money and it's very nice.
Cain delivering “This is Fozziwig's old rubber chicken factory” with full seriousness and fondness is a theatrical high water mark that few will ever even approach
Gonzo and that rat really do carry. The magic of this movie is if you've read the original Dickens or watched the previous film interpretations, it's pretty clear this one with funny Muppets is easily superior and is the proper way to consume the story!
I have a fully prepared 45 minute monologue ready to go about how this is more faithful to the text than like 90% of the Serious adaptations. They play through the whistle on every snap
My sister and I argue the muppet christmas carol isn't the real version, if you don't include the love is gone song. It really depresses the soul to understand what Ebenezer goes through.
My bf has assigned the movie to students before because it’s the best adaptation! The amount of care and detail that went into it is sort of breathtaking.
The one edge I will give to a non-Muppet adaptation is in Mickey’s Christmas Carol when Scrooge is all “whose lonely grave is this” and Future (Pete) goes “Why, yours, Ebeneezer — the richest man in the cemetery !” and DROPKICKS HIM INTO HELL
My son has been obsessed with Mickey’s Christmas Carol the past two holiday seasons and that bit is way too metal for the rest of that version but it rules
It took me until I was in my thirties to realize why I was so scared of graveyards as a kid. And then I re-watched Mickey’s Christmas Carol and SO many things made sense
I can't be the only one riding hard for Bill Murray's Scrooged as the best adaptation. I mean, Carol Kane kicking his ass, Buxter Poindexter driving the cab and smoking stogies, and Karen Allen (my favorite film love interest ever)
i watched for the first time tonight and i was thinking "are all of scrooge's lines from the text?" then we get to fozzi's party and i was like "probably not"
The movie is so deft about weaving in original dialogue with dialogue that sounds like it could be original but isn’t and what are obviously new jokes. It’s all stitched up so well.
When I saw a YouTube analysis giving them credit for putting Piggy in 1830s fashions as a way of showing she's behind the times because the Cratchits are struggling while also being faithful to Piggy's aesthetic I knew it was a good one
It’s absolutely the best version. My only wish is that they had Want and Ignorance hiding under the Ghost of Christmas Present’s cloak. Muppet studio could have done some freaky shit with them.
Also a great story behind that. His original manuscript didn't clarify Tiny Tim's fate and his editor or publisher demanded to know, so he added the line with "NOT" in all caps.
The use of Gonzo as Dickens narrating it allows it to put so much of the text either word for word or nearly so in the film. It's the best Dickens film imo
Gonzo nails the line: “he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!”
No other version of A Christmas Carol has made me cry over Tiny Tim's death, but when Kermit as Bob comes back from church and talks about Tim's grave, I tear up every time. Robin is the GOAT Tim.
An alternate version where they get trapped in a house and stranded in time resulting in the story suddenly veering into a Doctor Who Christmas Special
We specifically went to a restaurant at Disneyland because they had props from the movie on display and they had Rizzo’s costume. The description was “costume worn by Rizzo the Rat” as if he is a real person, which I loved.
It has Gonzo as the omniscient narrator and Rizzo as the meta-narrator audience surrogate who comments on everything, even the narrator. Rizzo keeps saying "how does he know that?"
I love when they get knocked off a carriage early on and Rizzo is so concerned for Gonzo's well-being that he briefly breaks character and calls him Gonzo before correcting himself. Because he's a professional.
Something I really like is that the opening credits say "GONZO as CHARLES DICKENS" which is all well and good but then it says "RIZZO THE RAT as HIMSELF"
The combination of Paul Williams and brass music carries the film. And, it’s so important to watch the “extra” version on Disney with the restored song, “the love I’ve lost”
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He signed the book to me, bless.
Kermit: Why, the whole day!
Bookeeper rats (background chatter): Yes, the whole day, that's right!
Scrooge (in mocking disbelief): The whole day?
Bookeeper rats (background chatter): No, no - that was the frog's idea!
Caine said, I've seen the house I bought my mother with the money and it's very nice.
"Rizzo!"
"What? AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
“One More Sleep Til Christmas” deserved as much as Mariah’s thing
In top hats.
Presumably bankers and such.
…
…
…
Capitalist pigs
CINEMA!!!
Also the biggest difference is the party in the story is way hornier
You wonder why they put that in there until you look at the book and it turns out it's EXACTLY what the nephew does according to the text.
Clearly that was reason enough.
But Fozzie doesn't wear shoes because he is bear footed.
https://youtu.be/opXFR6ab214?si=cOxyJLeT8qzw2V4z
Muppet Christmas Carol is one of the most true to the book of any of the films.
*whispers*
It is the BRITISH way!
…..hmm?
“Yea.” “… [exasperated] You are such an idiot.” “What?”
"What?"
"You are such an idiot."
Amazing how often these quotes have been just what was needed.
It’s up there with “Luke, I am your father.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_BzSA1Jfkg