Hello all. Today I am doing two movie reviews that are very related and will probably be relatively short—in fact I had planned to combined them into one blog post but I’m not sure yet I want to do that. The movies I am reviewing are the two musical versions of A Christmas Carol. The 1970 version called Scrooge, which is my dad’s favorite version, and The Muppet Christmas Carol.
Scrooge:
I just watched this, this morning on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fLB0vmCoPU)
I have fallen in love with this version. Why can’t life be like a musical where everyone just breaks out into song and dance any time anything happens or needs to be explained?
As I said, this is my dad’s favorite version and I can see why. This version does have a few minute differences such as little things happening in different orders, things like that. It is around two hours long but since it is a musical that is understandable. All the actors play their characters to the letter and are all convincing as well as highly accurate portrayals of those characters. I particularly love this version’s Ghost of Christmas Present, but then again he was always my favorite spirit. The actor who plays Marley seems to also have some background as a dancer—I am basing this off how he moves on screen. The movie took some creative liberties as well such as, while on the subjects of ghosts, the Ghost of Christmas Past is female in this version as if usually, however, she does not resemble the angel that she is usually depicted as. She is more dressed like someone’s wealthy great aunt. The movie even jokes about its own creative decisions by giving Scrooge the line “you don’t look like a ghost”
In addition, The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come has one of the greatest scenes. First off, the song “Thank You Very Much” is great. But also, the movie real plays with the idea of this spirit being the Grim Reaper. We never see what he looks like under the cloak except for the hands which several times are also wearing black gloves, but here we actually at one point see the skeletal face of Death. This is also the version in which Scrooge is sent to Hell as part of his possible future. This is the only version I have ever seen this in. There is a reference to this scene in the Disney Characters version of A Christmas Carol that my girlfriend saw a few weeks ago but other than that, this scene is rare. I really enjoyed this scene for its entire creativeness. Also, at first while watching this movie I had low expectations—i thought that turning this story into a musical would take a great deal of the seriousness away from it bur my skepticism quickly vanished and was replaced by giddiness—that is the best way I can describe the feeling. After watching this, I was humming and skipping my way thru the morning!
I really recommend this version—I cannot really compare it to the others since it is a different type of film but I love it and thus far, my least favorite version—but still good film, is the 1951 version. The musical version gets 5 out of 5 for a musical (there was not one song I didn’t enjoy), 4.9 for A Christmas Carol adaptation, 5 out of 5 for a Christmas movie, and 4.75 out of 5 for a film in general.
There is less to say about the Muppet version. It came out not to long after the unfortunate end to Jim Henson’s death at a relatively young age. Now I love the Muppets, I really do, in fact, I am going to see the newest movie tonight and I might do a blog post on it.
I like most of the songs in this but frankly, I feel that for once the Muppets kind of take away from the actual plot. Don’t get me wrong, I mean the message of A Christmas Carol is still delivered effectively, but for me it is slightly too silly—I like silly and I like the Muppets but I don’t think it worked as well as Muppet Treasure Island or The Great Muppet Caper. However, this version way better than the Muppet Wizard of Oz.
Scrooge is played by the great Michael Caine, which does give the movie points; however, it is not the greatest interpretation of Scrooge I have ever seen. I know this is meant to be a fun version and it is. I mean I still like the movie and think it is entertaining. There are some really funny moments in it such as Sam the Eagle playing young Scrooge’s headmaster and great puns abound.
Most of the Muppets performances in this however, do not live up to the characters they are portraying except of course for Kermit. Kermit plays Cratchit and does a wonderful version—I mean fantastic! He actually, in my opinion, steals the show even from Michael Caine.
There is really nothing more to say and I have to get ready to head out for dinner early so we can get to the movie. Here is my rating:
As a Muppet Movie: 3 out 5
As a Musical: 3.5 out of 5
As a Christmas Carol: 2 out of 5
As a Christmas film: 3.25 out of 5
As a Film in general: 3 out of 5
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