It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002) November 27th, 2023

The Muppet Christmas Carol, the ultimate rendition of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol followed closely by the version starring George C. Scott is my holiday-movie version of Frank’s Red Sauce, I put that shit on every year. Michael Caine’s staunchly straight performance opposite a cast of colorful felt performers is the stuff of Christmas legend. After two or three viewings this season I decided to try a new twist on this familiar favorite… Enter It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie.

It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie is a surreal muppet rendition of It’s a Wonderful Life wherein the financially struggling Muppets risk losing their theater unless the last show of the year is profitable enough to pay their mortgage. Joan Cussack stars in the Mr. Potter role as the heartless financier ready to take the theater from the Muppets and turn it into a German leather sex club (or something like that but PG). With cameos and guest appearances by some of the biggest NBC stars of 2002, It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie is eerily frozen in time. The cast of Scrubs, Carson Daly, Kelly Ripa, Fear Factor’s Joe Rogan, and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog all appear to remind you there’s no better place for entertainment than NBC. It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie hits all the beats you’d expect including David Arquette as an angel intervening to prevent Kermit’s impending suicide (when the frog famous for loving life and rainbows ‘wishes he’d never been born’ it’s the Muppet equivalent of D’Onofrio pulling the trigger in Full Metal Jacket). Arquette shows Kermit what the world would be like without him and its not pretty. Ms. Piggy is a hotline psychic, Fozzie is a pickpocket but Gonzo’s life is far more grim than the rest… living on the street as a busker! *GASP*

It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie was an awkwardly pleasant surprise. While it was fun to see the Muppets take a crack at another Christmas classic the dated references and cameos shortened its shelf life to a year or two before languishing in obscurity. Kermit drinking absinthe in The Moulin Scrooge musical sequence might appeal to someone my age but I suspect it to go over the head of anyone born in the last 25 years. It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie won’t become perennial holiday viewing but it does make a great second billing to a Muppet Christmas Double Feature.