The Adventure of The Christmas Carol

It feels like some unknown enemy has engaged in biological warfare against me. I only recovered from Covid about six weeks ago and my sense of smell remains largely absent yet this week I was infected with what turned out to be one of most unpleasant stomach bugs I've ever had. My body has really taken a battering this Autumn.

It has long been a tradition when I've been ill in December to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol. I've literally done it for longer than I can remember, through infant and junior school, secondary school, university and work. In the years I've remained illness free it instead becomes a celebration of the start of the Christmas holidays. 

I maintain that The Muppet Christmas Carol (TMCC henceforth) is not just one the greatest Christmas films ever made, but one of the greatest films ever made full stop. It's not simply nostalgia for a film I loved during childhood because the film actually gets better as you age. Why is it so fantastic?

Well, firstly I think A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is one of the best stories ever written. The best stories see a hero defeat a villain but in Ebenezer Scrooge the hero and the villain are rolled into one; Scrooge has to defeat his own demons. The idea of giving a villain a sympathetic backstory has only really become common in 21st century storytelling but Dickens did it with Scrooge in 1843. When I first read the novella I thought it would be something of a battle but actually it's by far the most readable Dickens work to a modern audience, plus it's actually really short. 

The story has been adapted well over a hundred times for the screen and yet TMCC is unexpectedly one of the most faithful versions. The actual plot is unchanged and Scrooge's dialogue is largely lifted straight from what Dickens. The brilliance of Charles Dickens is then interspersed with the lunacy of the Muppets. The jokes are genuinely funny and the film uses it's Muppet cast perfectly, not least the master stroke of having Kermit the Frog as the honest family-man Bob Cratchit. Scrooge had to be played by a human and somehow they got the incredible Michael Caine who wisely took the role seriously and really loved making the film, saying that he had "never worked with a cast where every single person was lovely". 

Then there are the song. The New York Times said upon the film's release that "the music is seldom memorable" and rarely has a reviewer been more wrong. The songs are bangers and fit perfectly into the story, none more so than 'Feels Like Christmas'. Sung by the jovial Ghost of Christmas Present, this masterpiece contains the lyric "wherever you find love, it feels like Christmas". I am not a very Christmassy person (I'm not even going to put up any decorations this year) and this song speaks to me. For me, Christmas is exactly as described in that song, a time for coming together and sharing your love for other people. 

There's also the lyric "the message if we hear it/is make it last all year". For me that's the joy of TMCC. It's not really about Christmas, Christmas is just the tool used to explore how to live your life in a loving and kind way. It's a message that never stops being relevant. People attempting to stop the RNLI from saving lives in the channel feel extremely similar to Scrooge saying "if they would rather die they better do it and decrease the surplus population". A lot of people could really do with a visit from three festive ghosts. 

As it has done for the best part of thirty years, The Muppet Christmas Carol once again had something of a healing effect on me. It's not a cure, but it certainly made me feel better.

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