20 Best Muppet Christmas Carol Moments

Horse Muppets from The Muppet Christmas Carol (Image via Walt Disney Pictures/Jim Henson Productions)

3. The Horse Muppets

Who decides what’s going to be a Muppet and what isn’t? During some scenes, you see actual live animals parading through the background. And yet, you also get some frankly weird Muppets, like the previously mentioned Singing Vegetables.

And then there are the horses.

These are some seriously goofy Muppets. I mean, all the Muppets are goofy on an endearing level, but the horses really take the cake. Their mouths move sideways, somehow, and they’re full of giant, horsey teeth. They also have the standard goofy horse voiceovers, which sounds like it’s somewhere between a whinny and a yodel. They move around as if their joints are somehow made of rubber bands and silly putty. It’s fantastic.

Before I wrote this, I didn’t know that the horses actually have names, not to mention their own articles (however brief) on the Muppet wiki. Yes, I also consulted a Muppet wiki while writing this. They have names like Belmont, Marian, Pferd, Old Skyball Paint, and Paul Revere. The horses in this film include Richmond the Horse and another unnamed gray Muppet horse.

The horses also dance during the “It Feels Like Christmas” song sequence. I am forever ashamed to say that a couple of horse Muppets have infinitely better moves than I ever will.