This is the telling of the Charles Dickens classic The Christmas Carol. The only difference is that it is told by The Muppets (with a few humans thrown in for good measure, notably Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge).

On Christmas Eve, he is as crotchety as ever, and his employees – rats mostly, led by Kermit the Frog as Bob Kratchit – ask for the next day off, and reluctantly, Scrooge agrees. That night, however, he is visited by five ghosts. This differs slightly from the Dickens telling, because The Muppets needed to fit in Statler and Waldorf (Jacob and Robert Marley, respectively – only Jacob was in the original). Marley and Marley come to tell Scrooge that he will be visited by three ghosts this night. They also deliver one of the best songs in the show.

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Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) returns in this sequal to the 1985 smash Back to the Future.

Though four years have elapsed since the original, little has changed in the movie, and in fact it starts right where the first one left off – in the driveway of Marty’s house, right after Doc (Christopher Lloyd) has dropped him off after their adventures in time.

The only major difference is that Jennifer, Marty’s girlfriend, is no longer played by Claudia Wells – instead, Elisabeth Shue takes over.

Other than that, it’s pretty much business as usual – except that Doc has returned from the future, and he’s got some bad news. It seems that Marty’s kids (and Jennifer’s – they are married in the future) are getting into trouble, and they need to make sure that they can save them. Thus begins the second episode of the trilogy. What happens when they get there sets the stage not only for this installment, but the next one as well.

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Nick (Steve Guttenberg) has finally met the woman of his dreams. Beth (Crystal Bernard) is everything that he has ever wanted. And what’s more is that even though she has been divorced and has a son from a prior marriage, that’s okay. She is perfect.

Nick even managed to convince her of what he most feared she wouldn’t believe. She really, truly understands that he is Santa Claus, and that when they get married, they will all go to live at the North Pole. They just need to do it by Christmas Eve, or everything will fall apart. It seems that Christmas can’t happen without a Mrs. Claus.

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This is an interesting movie. On one hand, I have no doubt that it will likely end up in the stable of films that are rerun endlessly at this time of year, simply because it’s a pretty decent tale, and that’s what films like this do at this time of year. But on the other, it’s rather creepy. The animation is good, and if it were ten years ago, I’m sure we would all be amazed at how lifelike the characters are. Let’s face it – it isn’t ten years ago.

While there are some pretty amazing reproductions of life here, they just don’t quite make the final step. The hair doesn’t move. It’s like a plastic wig. And while the eyes are okay, the mouth is just a bottomless pit into oblivion. Ignore those things and you’re okay. Younger kids might be able to do so, but some will undoubtedly be spooked by these aspects of the film.

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Roy (Nicolas Cage) is a con man with an issue. He is an obsessive compulsive (among other things). He has to open and close doors three times (each – although there are a few times that he forgets, which indicates that perhaps it’s all in his head).

Luckily, he has a caring partner in Frank (Sam Rockwell), who helps him remember to take his medicine when he needs to do so, and manages to set up plenty of short cons, where Roy can just walk in and help clean up the mess so that they can rake in some easy, if small, money. Frank just wants to get Roy to make a big hit.

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David Callaway (Robert De Niro) takes his daughter, Emily (Dakota Fanning) and moves out of the city after the death of his wife. Presumably this is so that they can start over, to get away from those things that will bring them memories that will be harmful.

Of course, at such a time, those things that bring familiarity may be just what you need, because being somewhere that you have nothing and everything seems strange is probably not where you want to be. In this case they could have certainly done with more of the familiar and less of the unknown, for shortly after they arrive in their new home, things start to go horribly awry.

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Jane (Whoopi Goldberg) is a singer in New York City, and she’s apparently been doing it for some time – but it looks like her luck has finally run out, because she’s got to find a new job, or at the very least a new place to do it. So she decides to head to Los Angeles to see if she’ll have any better luck there.

While she’s packing her things, her eyes settle on an advertisement that offers to pay someone to help drive to the West Coast. Answering the ad, she meets Robin (Mary-Louise Parker), who is headed West for her own reasons. On the way, they stop in Pittsburgh to pick up Holly (Drew Barrymore), who is an abusive relationship with her drug dealing boyfriend. That’s when things get interesting.

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Kate (Jennifer Aniston) leads a generally happy life – there is just one problem. She has contributed over and over to her job, but she just can’t seem to get ahead. Most recently she saved the Gulden’s mustard account at the last minute with a creative approach, but now she’s not even on the team that will be handling their advertising.

When she confronts her boss, she is told to dress not for the job she has, but for the job she wants – which perhaps isn’t completely appropriate, since it has nothing to do with the way Kate dresses, and everything to do with the fact that she has no ties to the company.

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Life in a small town isn’t easy, but Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) has settled in just fine. Until one night when a couple guys show up at his diner and want a little more than pie and coffee (though that’s what they order). When they start to cause trouble, Tom shifts into a different gear, and quickly kills both of the men.

This turns him into an instant hero, but it also brings unwanted attention to him in the form of constant media coverage on the television and in the paper. Before long, people he hasn’t seen in a number of years show up on his doorstep wanting to take him back to a life he thought he had left behind.

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One of the more unlikely war heroes you are ever likely to meet is Captain John Boyd (Guy Pearce). This is because Captain Boyd is only a war hero because he is a coward. When he went to battle, he was so scared he played dead, and was carried into a pile of bodies. Later, he managed to pull himself out from the pile of bodies and found himself behind enemy lines, which allowed him to capture the enemy fort. Instant war hero.

Alas, the General knows that something is amiss, and he doesn’t like it, so he sends the intrepid Captain Boyd to Fort Spencer in California, and because it is the middle of the winter, this fort nestled high in the Sierras isn’t likely to see much action at all. It’s the perfect place to get rid of him. But that’s not likely to happen to someone like Captain Boyd.

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