Service: Prime Video
Show Title: Emmet Otter’s Family Jug-Band Christmas
I like Christmas movies as much as anyone else, but I have seen “Elf” far too many times. I have more of the “Santa Claus” trilogy memorized than I do the Bible. As we get ready for the holiday season, consider taking a quick 52 minutes this month to appreciate a Christmas movie which gets less attention than it deserves year after year: “Jim Henson’s Emmet Otter’s Family Jug-Band Christmas.”
Jim Henson, the creative force behind the Muppet’s franchise, was born in Greenville, Mississippi. While “Emmet Otter” does not technically fall under the Muppet main canon, I think the species name for any puppets that Henson made is “Muppet.” Further, I believe if this film had been marketed as a Muppets movie it would get the attention it deserves, but instead, it has become everyone’s mom’s favorite Christmas movie, like something which was once really good. Incorrect. It is currently very good.
The film opens in Waterville, a rural town with a river running through it, days out from Christmas. Emmet Otter and his mother, known only as Ma, do laundry and odd repairmen jobs to get by after Emmet’s dad dies. The movie has a cast of lovable characters: porcupines with quills popping through their clothes, foxes in top hats and frogs in glasses. When the town organizes a talent show with a $50 prize, Emmett and Ma both make sacrifices to enter with hopes to buy the other a Christmas gift.
“Emmet Otter” is such a refreshing Christmas movie because it has so little to do with any of the famous iconography associated with the holiday. There is no mention of Santa or the Christmas spirit. It is more about music than Christmas and about playing together with your friends and family. The acts in the talent show are not holiday songs, but songs about coming together and using music to connect and demonstrate love and friendship. Henson makes effort to both respect the music from his home, jug band music and the contemporary music from the time, rock and roll. Do not let anyone deceive you, Jim Henson was cool.
“Emmet Otter’s Family Jug-Band Christmas” is short, sweet and nostalgic. This year, take a break between viewings of “Die Hard,” sit down with your family and enjoy the work of Mississippi’s greatest puppeteer.
