20 Best Muppet Christmas Carol Moments

(Image via Walt Disney Pictures/Jim Henson Productions)

6. The movie is Actually Pretty Spooky

So, yes, levity is necessary in a Muppets movie. However, I’m also a big fan of how spooky this film can get. There’s not much reason to completely sanitize a kid’s film. I’m not saying there should be gore, certainly, but a little bit of eeriness is good for children.

The Muppet Christmas Carol certainly doesn’t shy away from the horror. Don’t forget that the original A Christmas Carol is a ghost story, after all. Scrooge is haunted like crazy all night, according to Charles Dickens. Victorians went nuts over a good Christmas ghost story. In fact, it’s still a British tradition; tune into the BBC around Christmastime, and you’ll see that it’s still going strong.

It starts off with a howling, screaming doorknocker, a sequence that is only barely lightened by the fact that it uses Muppets. Scrooge is rightfully freaked out, but continues on into his home. The movie does a surprisingly effective job at increasing the tension before the appearance of the ghosts Marley and Marley. Lights dim, fires flicker, clocks chime, perspectives begin to skew. It’s enough to bring on an unearthly chill.

Things only get spookier near the end of the story, thanks to the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. However, we’ll get to that in just a few minutes. That particular character deserves a section all of its own.