The Muppet Christmas Carol [DVD] [1992] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] [2005]

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Susana: I’d honestly never really thought about it that way — for a long time it’s just been the place in the movie that I’d get up to pee or grab another cookie and a hot chocolate refill, so I’m really enjoying this alternative perspective. But none of this is what I was expecting a longtime Muppet Christmas Carol fan to object to — here I thought most people who wanted this song gone would just feel like it was out of place in a movie full of Muppets to have a dramatic, melancholy, Muppet-less number, with two humans navigating their extremely rudimentary love story, and not a puppet in sight. Is that in your calculus at all when you think about cutting this scene? What are your big objections here?

Tasha: Yeah, I’m sure not going to try to fight you on Muppet love songs in general. I’m entirely on board with the take that the Muppets are at their best when they’re wholly sincere, and my favorite Muppets songs tend to be the kind of achy melancholy songs Williams writes, including the ones I mentioned above and “When the River Meets the Sea,” a sweet holiday song about death.If you enjoyed the Muppet Show in the 1980's or any of the Muppet movies that have been released like "Muppets from Space" or "Muppet Treasure Island", you will thoroughly enjoy this adaptation. Guaranteed, the children will. Read full review

Dinosaurs: The Complete First and Second Seasons • Dinosaurs: The Complete Third and Fourth Seasons Mostly what this means is that I’m not coming into this conversation with any long-standing nostalgia for the movie, or any internal meter about what constitutes the “right” version. It doesn’t feel weird and out of place to my ears the way, say, the lost Wizard of Oz musical number “ The Jitterbug” did when the preservationists first found and released the footage. You’re much more of a Muppet Christmas Carol vet than I am, Susana — did that affect your opinion here? For this 50th Anniversary DVD, Disney has recycled the animated menus from the studio's initial DVD release of The Muppet Christmas Carol. That's just fine because they're quite inspired and much more fun than your typical DVD menu. Kermit hosts the screen and tries to get you to make a selection if you begin waiting. Of course, his antics are more likely to encourage you to NOT make a selection and instead watch him grow mildly frustrated. That's the point. Aside from the new EasyFind menu icons, different highlighting cursors, and the obvious menu revisions/additions, they're exactly like the previous DVD, which for once, is a good thing. Only one supplement from the film's first DVD release has not been presented here, but it's a substantial one. "Frogs, Pigs, and Humbug: Unwrapping a New Holiday Classic" was a (then) newly-produced 22-minute making-of featurette hosted by Brian Henson, Gonzo, and Rizzo. It combined on-set interview clips with Michael Caine and some of the Muppet performers Maybe the other half of this situation is just that Muppets musicians have historically struggled to fit the genre-mandatory earnest romance song into a Muppet movie. The examples range from the forgettable (“ He’ll Make Me Happy,” The Muppets Take Manhattan) to the cloyingly saccharine and not really supported by the plot (“ Love Led Us Here,” Muppet Treasure Island) to campy bombast (“ Never Before, Never Again!,” The Muppet Movie; “ The First Time It Happens,” The Great Muppet Caper). I think the nicest romance song in a Muppet movie might be “ Couldn’t We Ride” from The Great Muppet Caper, and it’s really just a little ditty about how nice it is to ride a bike with your sweetie in the park, as well as a complicated feat of puppeteering pulled off with sublime ease.Theatrical Release: December 11, 1992 / Running Time: 86 Minutes (theatrical cut), 89 Minutes (extended cut) / Rating: G Kermit's 50th Anniversary Editions: Muppet Treasure Island (1996) • The Muppet Movie (1979) • The Great Muppet Caper (1981) Ghost of Christmas Present (Tiny Tim, Scrooge, The Muppet Cast) – Finale – “When Love Is Found/It Feels Like Christmas”