Clint_L
Legend
We watched It's a Wonderful Life two nights ago, and A Muppet Christmas Carol last night. It's funny; I generally dislike holiday music, but I sure love a lot of holiday movies. I don't always make sense.
Anyway, even though I must have seen IAWL as a kid and certainly know it from popular culture, I didn't remember having watched the whole film. I really enjoyed it, despite it being full of things that would absolutely not work for me in a contemporary film. The ideology is sooooo mid-century, New Deal Americana (makes sense in a film made right after WW2), and the social and gender dynamics are cringey but of their time. The religious element is goofy to me, but I just shrugged it off as "magic stuff." But the basic premise works gangbusters, James Stewart is incredibly watchable despite being such a hammy actor (him playing a 20 year old in the beginning is a larf), Donna Reed is both stunning and, IMO, the best actor in the film, Mr. Potter is a suitably scenery-chewing villain (he gets away with it!), the set designs are gorgeous, and that ending got me, 100%. It just delivers.
And AMCC is, for my money, the best film adaptation of Dicken's novella, and that's saying something. I love the Muppets but there is such a thing as too much Muppets, and they work best when paired with actors who counterbalance their wackiness. Enter Michael Caine, one of the best to ever do it. The film only works because he plays it absolutely straight, and man, does it work. Doesn't hurt that the source material is one of the best contructed stories ever written, and the narration, delightfully delivered by Gonzo, makes the most of Dickens' incomparable prose. That man could write a sentence. This is another one that hits me right in the feels at the end.
Both are fantastic.
Anyway, even though I must have seen IAWL as a kid and certainly know it from popular culture, I didn't remember having watched the whole film. I really enjoyed it, despite it being full of things that would absolutely not work for me in a contemporary film. The ideology is sooooo mid-century, New Deal Americana (makes sense in a film made right after WW2), and the social and gender dynamics are cringey but of their time. The religious element is goofy to me, but I just shrugged it off as "magic stuff." But the basic premise works gangbusters, James Stewart is incredibly watchable despite being such a hammy actor (him playing a 20 year old in the beginning is a larf), Donna Reed is both stunning and, IMO, the best actor in the film, Mr. Potter is a suitably scenery-chewing villain (he gets away with it!), the set designs are gorgeous, and that ending got me, 100%. It just delivers.
And AMCC is, for my money, the best film adaptation of Dicken's novella, and that's saying something. I love the Muppets but there is such a thing as too much Muppets, and they work best when paired with actors who counterbalance their wackiness. Enter Michael Caine, one of the best to ever do it. The film only works because he plays it absolutely straight, and man, does it work. Doesn't hurt that the source material is one of the best contructed stories ever written, and the narration, delightfully delivered by Gonzo, makes the most of Dickens' incomparable prose. That man could write a sentence. This is another one that hits me right in the feels at the end.
Both are fantastic.
