Construction Complete

thahalfrican:

Congrats if you survived this year because what the fuck was that

(via musicalhell)

vanessagillings:

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Happy Christmas Eve!

abinitioart:

Merry DL6mas!

fuckyeahcoelacanths:

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Very randomly found on Facebook of all places, but definitely a Christmas miracle.

hacash:

The thing I love about Fred in the Muppet Christmas Carol in particular is that other media tend to hype up the angst in the relationship between Scrooge and his nephew

but ‘this jolly old gentleman here is very generous to charities’ and that shit-eating grin shows that this Fred, at least, actively enjoys giving his uncle shit and coming over just to get a rise out of him and to deliberately argue with him

and it adds a little something to their relationship: it gives a bit of bite and adds layers to Fred dicking on his uncle during the ‘Yes and No’ game. It also explains why Fred keeps going back year after year beyond just Victorian family obligation - he likes the crusty old git’s company, he has fun needling him! (It also gives Scrooge and Fred’s post-reformation relationship some slightly bickery bones to rest on after the story finishes). And I just think that’s a more interesting and nicer relationship than ‘Fred asks Uncle Scrooge to dinner because he’s his Uncle’ thing that some films go for.

highly-important:

Muppet Christmas Carol Observation

Ok I don’t have a screencap of this but at the very beginning after the opening titles there is the cart of vegetables yelling “I’m being stolen! Help me, help me!”

Then during the “Scrooge” song he is selling the stolen vegetables.

Then during “It feels like Christmas” he is in JAIL for stealing the vegetables

malspinningyarns:

The Muppet Christmas Carol is now considered a holiday classic and probably one of the best of the Muppets’ filmography, but when you look at it, it is such a departure from all the previous Muppet media. It’s much darker- both in terms of tone and color palette. There’s no celebrity cameos. A human is the central character instead of one of the Muppets. There are many new Muppets instead of relying on regular Muppets for some of the roles and some the Muppets are in roles you wouldn’t expect.

A lot of this makes much more sense with the context that this is the first Muppet project after Jim Henson’s sudden death and Muppeteer Richard Hunt was incredibly sick due to complications from AIDS that he was unable to participate (he would die during production). It’s a film created by a lot of people actively in the grieving process. You can feel that grief in scenes like the ones in the Cratchit home. It also explains why certain Muppets appear and some don’t. They really only use Jim and Richard’s characters when they have to. You can’t have a Muppet movie without Kermit, so Kermit is in. Statler and Waldorf are both perfect for Jacob Marley, so they both had to be recast because they were performed by Richard and Jim (which makes the fact they are ghosts kind of sad). Beaker is one of Richard’s characters and because you can’t have Bunsen without Beaker, Beaker was recast. Of Jim’s other major characters, Dr. Teeth and Rowlf are present but silent and the Swedish Chef has a more active cameo. Of Richard’s regular characters, only Janice is present. Scooter and Sweetums are not in the film. Frank Oz was busy with other jobs, so he really only does his main four of Miss Piggy, Animal, Fozzie, and Sam the Eagle. Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, and Jerry Nelson did a lot of the main characters, except the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Future. Jerry Nelson did the face puppeteering and voice of the Ghost of Christmas Present. I think it speaks to Jerry Juhl’s skill as a writer that he was able to not only adapt to these casting considerations, but also write one of the most faithful adaptations of A Christmas Carol.

abbycadoodle:

peak cinema 🕯️🐀🔥

cafenervosa:

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What if I was Charles Dickens and you were a rat… and we were both muppets 😳😳

Drawing for Gonzo week on Instagram!

[ID in alt text]

cluelessrebel1988:

“If he’s going to die, he’d better do it and decrease the surplus population.”

We’re all familiar with that line, when the Ghost of Christmas Present throws Scrooge’s own words of callous indifference back at him when he shows concern about Tiny Tim. It’s a line that appears in nearly every version of A Christmas Carol…but I want to talk about probably my favorite use of it in any adaptation, and it comes from what is arguably the best adaptation: A Muppets’ Christmas Carol.

Because here’s the thing about that movie’s version of the Ghost of Christmas Present – he’s genuinely friendly to Scrooge throughout their entire interaction. In many adaptations – and in Dickens’ original book – the ghost is more harsh with Scrooge. It’s in a well-intentioned way, but it’s clear that the ghost dislikes Scrooge’s attitude toward his fellow man and has no problem letting him know that. Some movie versions have him being more sassy with Scrooge than Dickens did, but there’s definitely tension between them.

Then the Muppets have this guy

Originally posted by toughpigs

He sings and dances and is genuinely happy to meet Scrooge. I defy you to show me a version where “Come in and know me better, man!” is said with more genuine good will and spirit of friendship than how this guy says it. He doesn’t speak harshly to Scrooge or criticizes him – they even share a genuine laugh when Scrooge makes a joke about him having more than 1800 brothers, and he also jokes about being “a *large* absent-minded spirit.” Before they leave Scrooge’s house, he promises that “before the day is over, you *will* understand” what Christmas is truly about, and you know he means it. Hell, he almost sounds excited about the prospect of it.

And when they get to Bob Cratchit’s house, the story plays out as it does in nearly every version (with the occasional added Muppet-related shenanigan), and more light-hearted humor is exchanged between Scrooge and The Ghost (“This is Bob Cratchit’s house?” “How did you know that?” “You just told me” “Hmm. Well, I’m usually trustworthy”). They enter the house after Bob and Tiny Tim return home and we get another song, this one from Tiny Tim and the Cratchits before Scrooge asks whether Tiny Tim will live (and Michael Caine fucking nails the delivery, because of course he fucking does)

And then, The Ghost, who again has been nothing but genuinely nice to Scrooge up to this point, pulls out the haymaker

“If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, I believe the child will die. But what then? If he’s going to die, he’d better do it and decrease the surplus population.”

And it fucking lands. Because it’s the first time that The Ghost has actively been critical of Scrooge and his actions prior to the night of their visit. Hell, it’s the first time he’s ever directly addressed anything from Scrooge’s life before all of this started. And to me, it hits harder because of The Ghost’s almost exclusively jovial and genial nature up to that point.

It’s not said in an exceptionally harsh way, either. There’s a bit of an edge to his tone, but other versions have definitely been more pointed about how they deliver it (the 2009 Jim Carrey version, for example, has the Ghost’s face and voice morph into Scrooge’s own for that line and lets the line linger for a moment before shifting back which is an incredible way to do it, imo), and almost immediately after, when he tells Scrooge it’s time to leave, he is calmer and seems almost remorseful that they don’t have more time together. Even their final exchange, when he tells Scrooge he will be leaving and begins to fade away, is full of what seems to be a genuine care for Scrooge’s well-being – as well as a call back that genuinely chokes me up a little

Now, obviously this movie is generally geared toward being more family-friendly than other versions, so they toned some things down from the book, but to have made The Ghost so genuinely friendly and still have him deliver the one line that makes direct use of Scrooge’s own words and actions as a criticism of his mindset is just another reason I think this is one of the best, if not the best, adaptations of A Christmas Carol ever put to film.