Pop Culture Retrospective # 23 - The Muppet Christmas Carol: an early 90s holiday classic and the first Muppets film following Jim Henson's passing.

Episode #23 - Muppet Christmas Carol

In December of 1992, 2 holiday classics were released in theatres - Home Alone 2:  Lost in New York which would go on to be one of the top films of the year (despite it not being nearly as good as the first one, sorry Mandy) and The Muppet Christmas Carol.  Whenever I think about holiday movies that I grew up watching year after year with my sister, the Muppet Christmas Carol immediately comes to mind.  Between this movie, the Santa Clause with Tim Allen, Christmas Vacation, Jiminy Cricket’s Christmas and a host of others, my sister and I had a lot to choose from.  We would stay up late into the night to watch our favorites, together.  Even as we grew older and went away to college and moved far away from our hometown, when we came home for the holidays, we’d sift through the VHS tapes at my mom’s house and re-live our childhood through the magic of movies.  Movie watching during this time was different than it is now as we were completely focused on the movie and repeating the memorable lines and singing along, we were never distracted by a cell phone- we were present.

So with that being said, on today’s show we will be taking a detailed look back at the under-appreciated, yet cult classic status film that is The Muppet Christmas Carol.  We will discuss what events transpired before the film even went into production, some captivating behind the scenes information and why the film continues to make it into my holiday movie rotation even though it is almost 30 years old.  So grab your favorite holiday pajamas, some popcorn and hot cocoa, here we go!

Hello and thank you so very much for tuning in to the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast, a show inspired by, and in memory of, my big sister Rebecca and her love for all things pop-culture, especially the people, places and things of the 80s, 90s and early 00s.  My name is Amy Lewis and I am your captain aboard this pop culture time machine.  You are tuning in to Episode # 23 - The Muppet Christmas Carol, a beloved holiday film that is near and dear to those of us that were first introduced to it as children.  I believe my sister and I saw the film in theatres, we did not see Home Alone 2 though, in case you were wondering!  Hopefully this episode will be released around the time of my sister’s birthday, she would have been 40 this year.  Since she was born so close to Christmas, her middle name was Noelle. I will always associate her with Christmas.  Since most people are generally familiar with the premise behind the story of a Christmas Carol, we won’t dig too deep into that.  However, In case you do need a quick synopsis, the Christmas Carol tells the story of a character named Ebeneezer Scrooge who is an older gentleman who is a greedy businessman who doesn’t seem to understand how his behavior and choices impact others, including himself.  On Christmas eve he is visited by 3 ghosts who tell him how his past and present life and choices will impact his future.  With that said, we will focus on the behind the scenes secrets which were incredibly amusing to learn about. Let’s get started!

On December 11, 1992, Walt Disney Pictures released The Muppet Christmas Carol which runs for about 86 minutes.  The film is rated G and was directed by Brian Henson who is the son of Jim and Jane Henson. Brian Henson and Martin G. Baker produced the film.  Brian Henson actually made his first Sesame Street appearance in 1969.  He appeared in a short film about the #3. Jim Henson had passed away in 1990 from pneumonia and MCC was the first muppet film to be released following his death.  It was also the first muppet film that did not have Kermit in the lead role.  Coincidentally, Sammy Davis Junior also passed away in 1990.  I was 7 years old in 1990 and in a home video of me and my sister, for some reason I brought that up for a reason that really makes no sense.  Here’s what happened-  me and my sister had recently fixed up my bike (which was my sisters at one point) which had a large pink banana seat on it.  We utilized our non-existent mechanical skills to add a cow pillow, strapped over the said seat with a bungee cord. And for some reason, when we wheeled the bike out I “dedicated” the bike to Jim Henson and Sammy Davis Junior.  I was definitely a huge muppets fan as a child (and an adult) but I don’t think I was really familiar with who Sammy Davis Junior was so that was an interesting dedication.  Nothing says sorry about your loss like a stitched cow pillow strapped over a bicycle seat.  I know if someone did the same for me, I would feel great comfort.  Or not.  My sister, being the supportive older sibling that she often was, didn’t bat an eye at her little sister’s bizarre comment. Anyways, back to the movie.  Brian Henson was just 28 at the time when production on the film started which absolutely blew me away to learn that he was so young as the film is so well done and so mature. Apparently he was terrified to be in charge of the film, he felt like he wasn’t ready. He had been approached by talent agent, Bill Haber, about doing the film. He thought an adaptation starring the Muppets was a great idea and as it turns out, he was right!

The Muppet Christmas Carol had both human characters playing roles in the film as well as the most well-known puppets of all time primarily created by the creative genius, Jim Henson.  Scrooge was played by Michael Caine who is an Academy Award Winning Actor.  Sir Michael Caine as he is now known, considers his role in the MCC to be one of his most memorable. He really did an incredible job.  When he signed on to play Scrooge, Caine said he would play the role in a dramatic fashion, as if the smile-enducing Muppets were not around.  He once said quote:  “I’m going to play this movie like I’m working with the Royal Shakespeare company.  I will never wink, I will never do anything muppety.  I am going to play Scrooge as if it is an utterly dramatic role and there are no puppets around me.”  End quote.  Kermit the Frog played the role of Bob Cratchett.  Kermit was voiced by Steve Whitmire who also provided the voices of Rizzo the Rat who played Gonzo’s sidekick in the movie, as well as Beaker, Bean, and Belinda Cratchett (one of Bob Cratchett’s daughters), among others.  During filming, Whitmire had an absolutely incredible mullet.  I’m talking Andre Agassi style.  Whitmire was very nervous to play the role of Kermit the Frog, after all he was taking over from the most beloved puppeteer the world has ever known.  As a result, he had a lot of anxiety about taking on the role.  He was worried because his character voice didn’t sound the same as Henson.  

Whitmire said that just prior to his role in the film, Henson came to him in a dream.  In the dream, Whitmire was in a building that was all white.  As he was standing there, all of a sudden Henson quickly walked by him.  Whitmire said to him: “Im nervous about taking over Kermit.”  Henson had a thoughtful look on his face and replied  back:  “It will pass.”  This dream gave him the confidence to take it on. When I think of Kermit the frog, I am reminded of a talent show that my high school used to host called Mr. DGN.  I can’t remember how to do anything useful I learned in high school like Geometry or Algebra, but I do remember stupid stuff like this.  Anyways, Mr. DGN was essentially a male-only talent show where young men could showcase their various talents like dancing, telling jokes or playing music.  One guy who I believe was in my grade level decided to show off his singing skills and the buzz around school was that his voice was absolutely incredible.  So when he came onto the stage, I was really excited.  He picked a popular song to sing at the time - “God must have spent a little more time on you” which was done by N’Sync. I was a huge N’Sync fan when I was a teenager, I saw them in the concert 3 times. I feel like I remember my sister and I using that as an insult sometimes for people, we’d say something along the lines of- “God must have spent no extra time on you!”  Anyways, he came out onto the stage to the sound of loud cheers in our auditorium.  He then started to sing and this is what it sounded like:  “Can this be true, tell me can this be re-heal, how can I put into words what I feel-heal.” Dear God, that was awful. I am not an expert on singing, but man, he sucked.  I instantly thought I was listening to the sound of Kermit the Frog being strangled.  But anyways.  I guess what I’m trying to say is the voice of Kermit is permanently etched in my brain and has been since childhood, so Whitmire’s anxiety was definitely understandable.  The Great Gonzo played the role of Charles Dickens, he was voiced by Dave Goelz.  Goelz also did the voice of Betina Cratchett, Robert Marley (played by Waldorf), Bunsen Honeydew and several others.  Jerry Nelson voiced Robin (Kermit’s nephew) who played the role of Tiny Tim, as well as Jacob Marley (played by Statler), the Ghost of Christmas present, Ma Bear, and many others. Frank Oz (a genius) provided the voices for Miss Piggy who played Emily Cratchett, Fozzy the Bear who played Fozziwig,  Sam the Eagle who played the headmaster, Animal and several others. In total, there were 280 puppets in the film as well as multiple human characters played by some lesser known actors and actresses.  There are just too many to list but for full details, check out IMDB.  

At one point, the movie was going to be cast a bit differently.  Originally, Robin the Frog was going to play the Ghost of Christmas past, Miss Piggy was going to be the Ghost of Christmas present and Animal (of all people!) was going to play the Ghost of Christmas yet to come.  The movie was going to be more a parody but thankfully they decided to create all new puppets for the ghosts which I think was a wise decision.  Regardless of those changes though, the goal of the film was to focus on the original prose from Charles Dickens.  As a matter of fact, despite a plethora of adaptations of the book, up until that point, The Muppet Christmas Carol was the most accurate and true to the original story including the use of direct quotes.

As a matter of fact, Gonzo, who played Charles Dickens in the movie, has dialogue that mostly consists of lines taken directly from the book.  The screenplay was written by Jerry Juhl.  Juhl was heavily involved with the Muppets for several decades, he wrote for the Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock.  He was also a talented puppeteer.  

The Muppet Christmas Carol was filmed in the United Kingdom.  

The film features a beautiful soundtrack, the original score was composed by Miles Goodman, with songs by Paul Williams.  It includes several heart-string pulling songs including:

Overture - score

Scrooge - Cast

Room in Your Heart - Bunsen & Beaker

Good King Wenceslas - score

One More Sleep 'til Christmas - Kermit

Marley and Marley - Statler and Waldorf

Christmas Past - score

Chairman of the Board - Sam the Eagle

Fozziwig's Party - Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem

When Love Is Gone - Belle

It Feels Like Christmas - Ghost of Christmas Present

Christmas Scat - Kermit & Robin

Bless Us All - Robin & Cast

Christmas Future - score

Christmas Morning - score

Thankful Heart - Scrooge

Finale - When Love Is Found/It Feels Like Christmas - Cast

When Love Is Gone - Martina McBride

One of the most memorable songs in the original movie is called “When Love is Gone” which is performed by the character of Belle who is Scrooge’s love interest in the story.  As Scrooge gets older and more greedy and distant, she decides it’s time to end the relationships and she sings this hauntingly beautiful song.  The song was not included with the theatrical release of the film as the chairman of Disney at the time, Jeffrey Katzenberg felt it was too sad of a song for children and was a bit upsetting to test audiences.  So, despite Brian Henson being very upset about this decision, the song was cut.  Henson felt like the song was sad, but that it was okay for children to be exposed to emotional moments, even if in a movie theatre.  And to that Mr. Henson I say, Amen.  I sobbed through Titanic (which I saw in the theatre twice) and also Moulin Rouge.  Don’t judge.  However, the song did make it onto the VHS and laserdisc versions of the film which is how I became so familiar with it and emotionally moved by it.  Here are the lyrics to this song:

There was a time when I was sure

That you and I were truly one

That our future was forever

And would never come undone

And we came so close to being close

And though you cared for me

There's distance in your eyes tonight

So we're not meant to be

The love is gone

The love is gone

The sweetest dream

That we have ever known

The love is gone

The love is gone

I wish you well

But I must leave you now alone

There comes a moment in your life

Like a window and you see

Your future is there before you

And how perfect life can be

But adventure calls with unknown voices

Pulling you away

Be careful or you may regret

The choice you made someday

When love is gone

When love is gone

The sweetest dream

That we have ever known

When love is gone

When love is gone

I wish you well

But I must leave you now alone

It was almost love

It was almost always

It was like a fairytale we'd live out you and I

And yes, some dreams come true

And yes, some dreams fall through

And yes, the time has come for us to say goodbye

Yes, some dreams come true

And yes, some dreams fall through

Yes, the time has come for us to say goodbye

So, certainly it’s not exactly a children’s song per se, but like Henson said, it’s okay for children to be exposed to emotional music - hard situations are inevitable.  Nonetheless the soundtrack is fantastic, if you have not heard it in a while, you can download the whole collection of songs on iTunes.  

It took over a year to put together a movie and once I dug in a bit deeper to what went on behind the scenes, it started to make a lot of sense.  As I mentioned earlier in the show, there were over 280 puppets used in the movie, including several that were not only original to the film but also incredibly complicated.  First, the ghost of Christmas past, if you remember, was a ghost that resembled a sort of creepy looking doll who appeared to only have a head, which was draped with a white, silk robe.  She doesn’t ever walk in the movie, but instead she floats.  To create the appearance of floating, the ghost’s scenes were filmed in a tank of water and then layered over a green screen. After weeks and weeks of filming the water started to deteriorate the puppet which just adds to the overall creepiness of it’s appearance.  Apparently they had to film her scenes pretty quick before she became completely unusable.  Even after seeing this movie dozens and dozens of times, the puppet still looks like something out of a nightmare or a horror movie.  The special effects are incredibly well done though.  It’s just the thought of a soaking wet ghost of Christmas past that keeps me up at night.

The Ghost of Christmas present was the most complicated puppet used in the film.  In case you have forgotten, he is the larger than life cheerful gentleman that Scrooge becomes attached to.  The facial expressions were controlled remotely, but a male actor was inside of the large costume to make it move.  

For the first time in a Muppet movie, in one scene, Kermit (aka Bob Cratchett) is walking and singing with Robin (aka Tiny Tim) on his shoulder.  It took at least 10 puppeteers to make this happen, including someone rolling an artificial snow-covered cylinder that Kermit’s feet moved on to give the appearance of movement.  

Michael Caine who played Scrooge, felt like the Muppets were real and looked incredibly realistic.  He often forgot that they were controlled by humans.

Blending human actors and actresses, with puppets was certainly no easy task.  The set was incredibly detailed with many buildings and city streets to represent earlier times in England.  The buildings in all of the London scenes were built by hand.  Further, the human characters had to walk on wooden planks that were only about 2 feet wide so that the puppets could walk alongside them.  The puppeteers were on the floor about 4 feet down. 

So, not only did human actors like Sir Michael Caine have to play their role, they also had to walk and move along without looking down or showing any concern that they could easily fall and break their ankle.    

The film was dedicated to Jim Heson and Richard Hunt who was a performer.  In one scene in the movie, Kermit (aka Bob Cratchett) is looking out into the night sky and a shooting star moves across the screen.  Apparently, this was an homage to Henson and likely Hunt.  

In one of the later scenes of the film, Kermit (Bob Cratchett) is at his table on Christmas surrounded by his family after Tiny Tim has passed away.  He says “life is made of meetings and partings.”  I think I can really relate to this comment and I think this applies so much to this time of the year.  It’s hard to not think back to holidays of the past and who is no longer with us.  We remember our Grandparents who always made Christmas so special, like my Grandfather who spent hours making sure my dad’s model train was up and running around the tree, my Grandmother who always made a delicious polish soup every Christmas Eve.  We remember our childhood and how sharing it with a sibling, made Christmas all the more special.  I was always up first and I would run into my sister’s room to wake her up with excitement for what awaited us downstairs.  Life really is made up of meetings and partings and it’s pretty profound that the Muppets made us reflect on what being selfless and compassionate was all about through the adaptation of a classic story.

I hope you have enjoyed this look back at the Muppet Christmas Carol, a holiday classic that is almost 30 years old but still timeless.  The film was a moderate success, with a budget of 12 million dollars and box office earnings of just over 27 million dollars.  I can’t think back to holidays of the past without thinking of this movie and watching it with my sister.  If it’s been a while since you last saw it, or maybe if you haven’t, definitely check it out as it holds up incredibly well.  My sister often quoted this movie and would insert various lines from it, into daily conversations.  For example, there is a scene in MCC where some characters took items from Scrooge’s house after he passed away and they each shared what they had stolen. So, if someone asked my sister a question about something she had, she’d say in a British accent:  “Well, I’ve got his blankets, it’s the only warmth he’s ever had.”  I can still hear her saying this in my head.

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I hope you will join me for my next show, which will definitely be a bit after the new year, where we will discuss the life and career of Kathy Griffin.  Until then, BK, BS and HOTYM.