The Muppet Christmas Carol ★★★☆☆

I believe that I watched this last year as part of a movie night thing and trashed it. I was feeling extremely cynical about it and just couldn’t get over the idea of someone who talks about getting rid of the “surplus population” being so easily convinced towards being the most generous man in the world (and even at the end of the movie he still indulges in playing with the power he holds over the Cratchits before being nice to them).

This year I watched it with my partner who is a bit more into sentimental Christmas movies than I am and let the politics melt aside to enjoy it and had a genuinely lovely time. I don’t think I need to sing the praises too much, that the puppetry is great and that Michael Caine’s Scrooge being a perfect foil for it is a given. The songs are fun and yes of course I cried at Tiny Tim dying.

But to put on my cynic hat one last time the framing device with Rizzo and Gonzo could really be cut it consistently fails to be funny.