Whenever you’re dealing with Muppets, there are sure to be surprises, and the start of “The Muppet Christmas Carol” panel on Friday at 1PM in the Marriott Imperial Ballroom was no exception. Before panelists Bonnie Erickson, Dave Goelz, and Cheralyn Lambeth, along with moderator Bill Baretta, were introduced, four performers in Dickensian dress and their puppet counterparts took the stage to sing “It Feels Like Christmas” from the film. The puppets included Kermit, Rizzo the Rat, and Stadler and Waldorf as ghost Jacob and Robert Marley. The audience didn’t miss a beat and immediately started singing along. Even the fifth performer, dressed as Ebeneezer Scrooge, who insisted that it was only August, could not dampen the warm Christmas spirit.
While the panel mostly focused on the making and creating of The Muppet Christmas Carol, the experience of the panelists was deep and varied. Erickson was the costume designer for Jim Henson when he did The Frog Prince (1971) and also built a lot of the classic Muppets for Henson, including Miss Piggy. Goelz initially also built puppets but wanted to be a performer. Henson told him that they had a need for someone to work in the shop but that he would mentor him in puppeteering, which he would do one on one just for Goelz.
Of the three panelists, Lambeth was the only one who hadn’t met Henson before he passed away. She worked in the shop when The Muppet Christmas Carol was being built and got there just a few months after Henson’s passing. She also worked for several years on Sesame St. Live and has created costumes for film, television, and theater. Of note, she also holds the Guinness world record for the largest collection of finger puppets.
Erickson noted that the memorial for Henson was one of the most moving events she’d ever attended. The shop created butterfly puppets for everyone attending, so there was just a sea of flapping butterflies during the memorial service. The mourners spilled out onto the street because there was no room for everyone inside. She gave a lot of credit to Henson’s children, especially Brian Henson, for picking up with an ongoing project during a time that must have been very difficult for them.
The Muppet Christmas Carol was Brian Henson’s directorial debut, and Steve Whitmire, who stepped in as the voice of Kermit, had never done it before though he had worked closely with Henson. Goelz told us that Whitmire wasn’t sure if he would be able to do it justice, so when he received the puppet, he just left it in the box for several months. When he finally did get it out, the puppet smelled like Henson. The experience of making a film without Henson, Goelz noted, was a sobering one, but he also noted that they had a lot of veterans on the project, as well as Frank Oz—long-time friend and collaborator with Henson and voice of Miss Piggy—as executive producer.
The Muppet Christmas Carol filmed in England, which was a particular favorite location of Henson’s, according to Erickson. He loved shooting there in part because of the amazing craftsmen who could make anything. Goelz noted that they use almost exclusively plaster of Paris, from which they could create whatever Henson needed, including cobblestone streets. The film itself took approximately five months to shoot, which allowed for that level of ultimate craftsmanship. However, Erickson was working at the shop in New York City, where all the costumes and creatures were actually being built. They had to be shipped to England, so they were literally stuffing puppets into laundry carts and running them down the street to be sent out.
Between answering questions, Goelz indulged in some antics with his fellow panelists, which he said was part and parcel of working with the puppeteers. He said that one of the greatest puppeteer pastimes was to try to get each other to break. He later remarked that Oz is an inveterate prankster but also very deep and warm. Lambeth agreed, noting that the common perception was that Jim Henson and Company are out to amuse themselves and the rest of us are just along for the ride.
One of the hallmarks of a Muppet movie is that most of the characters are puppets along with one main character who is human. In the case of The Muppet Christmas Carol, the human was Michael Caine as Ebeneezer Scrooge. Goelz said that when Caine was first cast that he was unsure how Caine would approach the character because he seemed like such a round and gentle person. But as Caine got into it, Goelz realized that part of what made his performance effective was that he had chosen to play it totally straight. There was no winking and nudging about playing opposite puppets. He played it just as if he was playing opposite human people. Goelz said that it was absolutely the right thing.
Lambeth talked a lot about what goes into creating costumes for a creature and the considerations about how one or more puppeteers are actually going to work the creature, whether there were strings or poles and if the puppeteer would need to rely on a monitor to be able to see what they are doing. She said that in particular the Ghost of Christmas Future had a very large understructure that could accommodate all of the equipment needed for several people to operate it, including animatronic hands that were operated by radio controllers from behind the cameras.
Hearing these memories about a movie that means so much to me personally was a delight. Like many others, I have a ritual of watching The Muppet Christmas Carol every year at Christmas time. And having these additional details and insights into the process will make it even more meaningful.
