The Muppet Christmas Carol: How to Creatively Adapt a Book

The only time having strings attached is a good thing.

Somehow I completely missed this movie growing up. Muppet Treasure Island was a cornerstone of my childhood, so I knew what to expect going into this one, but it surprised me all the same.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Muppets…uh…well, it’s a weird one. The Muppets are puppets, they sing and sorta dance, they break the fourth wall, and everyone just goes with it.

I just read the book, so it’s clear to me that it succeeds where most modern adaptations utterly fail: it makes changes, but completely retains the original story.

Bob Cratchit is a frog? He’s still cowed by Scrooge and he has a family, so we’re all good.

Marley is now two brothers instead of just the one guy? They do that to utilize their Muppet duo, and it works fine because it’s still the same result: Scrooge is visited by a dead business partner, only now they sing a duet.

The songs are really good. I don’t really remember any of them, unlike the Muppet Treasure Island soundtrack, which is seared into my brain. But when the movie was going, I liked the music, though I couldn’t say which song is my favorite.

Something that I did notice is how witty the lyrics are and how cleverly they use the Muppets. From the rats struggling to close the window blinds to the exposition song about Scrooge, it’s wholly unique, cutesy, comforting, and delightfully entertaining. Everyone looks to be having a good time, which is tricky, since most of the cast can’t even blink. There’s a lot of heart and emotion in this adaptation and it’s very in-keeping with the source, so yes, I cried while watching this too. I love the little detail of Scrooge giving a mouse some cheese at the end.

I did, for half a second, contemplate the logistics of a pig and frog having kids, and that was a second too long. Just go with it and do not, DO NOT think about that.

A change I’m not sold on is showing Scrooge to have always been aloof and unfeeling. In the book, Scrooge is partaking in the party in the past and he’s joyful. That’s not the case in the movie and I’d guess they made him that way because it’d be easy for kids to accept that someone could change from mean to nice, instead of nice, to mean, to nice again. I suppose kids kinda deal in absolutes, and showing nuance in Scrooge isn’t something they’ll understand without an adult explaining things and that’s not how kiddie movies should be made. So I get it, but also…no. It’s too sudden of a change when you don’t have that knowledge of who he used to be.

That simplification of the past would maybe work if the movie was about ten minutes longer. I think they gloss over things so it becomes almost a whistle-stop tour of events instead of a deeper immersive experience. And I know what you’re thinking, “Kailani, this is a kid’s movie. Stop being so picky.” I know, okay? I know.

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However. There’s this thing. Let’s call it The Art of the Linger™. That is when you give emotional moments time to breathe and sink in. This is the art of embracing emotions and, instead of immediately bouncing to the next scene, allowing them to fester…but in a good way. The newer Marvel movies/shows are guilty of this: something serious or terrible happens, and someone immediately cracks a joke. That’s not funny. It’s immature and lame.

The Muppets movie does not do the bad joke insertion. But it skips the moment when Lingering™ would be appropriate. Maybe it didn’t need ten extra minutes to do this. Give it five extra minutes to let things relax and settle and really make their mark. Like at the nephew’s party. Scrooge isn’t allowed to participate in the festivities like he does in the book. They go straight into the game where “Scrooge” is the answer, then they go to the next scene. It would’ve served the moment better if Scrooge first had time to play along and really get in the spirit (ha!) of partying before pulling the rug out from under him. He could’ve Lingered™ there, both then and at the finale, and it would’ve smoothed things.

That does sound a bit harsh, but that’s not my view of this movie at all. It’s really very cute, sweet, and inventive, not to mention a faithful rendition of the book.

If you’ve only seen this version and decide to read the book, you won’t be shocked by what the original story is. You might even be pleasantly surprised to recognize some of the dialogue since they took direct quotes from the book.

This is how a creative mind should approach adapting a book, if they don’t want to do a 1:1 recreation. Why not turn a non-musical story into a singing Muppet extravaganza, so long as the core of the story is retained? They stretch it as much as they can, and yet it is undeniably A Christmas Carol, with the same beats, emotions and resolution. I think that’s where modern adaptations fall apart; they add in new troubles and storylines on top of changing the aesthetics, but nothing is done well, so it looks like a rotting skin suit. The skin can be changed in certain ways, but the guts should stay as close as possible; that’s what this movie accomplishes. Nitpickery aside, it’s a good job and I look forward to watching it again next year.

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