On that note, I thought I'd share my top three favorite feature-length Christmas films. In reverse order they are:
3. Eloise at Christmastime
2. A Christmas Carol (1984)
This was the first adaptation of Dickens' classic holiday novel I saw that did not feature anthropomorphic animal characters, and it's the only straightforward adaptation of A Christmas Carol I could ever imagine watching. I think the tone and George C. Scott's portrayal of Scrooge are just perfect, and the soundtrack with its mix of original melodies and old English Christmas carols is just lovely.
1. The Muppet Christmas Carol
As much as I love the above adaptation of A Christmas Carol, the Muppet version will always hold first place in my heart. It's not Christmas Eve for me until I hear the opening overture, and entering the Muppets' version of Dickensian London is always something like coming home. Beautiful visual details abound, and the some of the performances are deeply touching to a surprising degree considering that the vast majority of the cast are Muppets.
Those are my top three picks--in fact, I would have been hard-pressed to list more than three feature-length favorites, since I mostly watch shorter television specials at Christmas. Perhaps I'll do a list of my top three favorites of those in a future Blogmas post!
Your description of The Muppet Christmas Carol is perfect. Now that you mention it, coming home is exactly what that movie feels like!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you agree!
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