The Muppet Christmas Carol. 1992. USA/UK. Directed by Brian Henson. Screenplay by Jerry Juhl, based on “A Christmas Story” by Charles Dickens. With Michael Caine. DCP courtesy Sony Pictures Entertainment. 85 min.
Produced by Miss Piggy, “or as he likes to be called, Frank Oz,” Michael Caine affectionately notes, The Muppet Christmas Carol is the most charming and funny of the Jim Henson spinoffs, affording Caine, as Ebenezer Scrooge—“the only adult human actor in the film”—the pleasure of performing Dickens on screen: “Over the years I watched as all my friends had appeared on The Muppet Show and I tried not to mind that I was never invited—but of course in the end I got the big part…and I had a wonderful time doing it, although I found it a very long process because the continuity is a nightmare. I loved working with the Muppeteers who are all very gentle souls and really do inhabit their characters and I found that I didn’t have to change my style as an actor at all: working with the Muppets was just like working with real people.”