The Muppet Christmas Carol is NOT the Greatest Christmas Movie of All Time

*Edit December 21: others have brought to my intention that part of the reason for Disney being unable to include the song again is due to the original negative being lost. Disney also intend to restore the song in 2022’s 4K 30th anniversary release. This is great! But it doesn’t excuse the original atrocious decision…next year I will rename the article in honour of good decisions being made.

- Dom

I realise I may be about to break many hearts with this article, but I feel the world needs to know just what Disney has done. If for no other reason than I can’t bear the think-pieces that comes up year in year out telling us what a wonderful film this is. I am unfortunately about to give you incontrovertible proof that it is fundamentally flawed, and, in fact, is humbug of the highest order. Bah!

Firstly let me be clear: until 2012 I was this film’s biggest fan. I love how the actual lines from Dickens are woven through the film, the original book’s message is perfectly presented in all its adult glory, alongside music that is genuinely wonderful. Michael Caine and the rest of the cast defy the industry adage to never work with children or muppets, with Caine in particular perhaps delivering his most nuanced and emotional performance to date. A giant amongst Christmas films that was rightly loved by adult and child alike. Until 2012.

This destruction of a classic boils down to one thing: the removal of the duet between Michael Caine’s older Scrooge and Belle, his childhood sweetheart. When I was a child we owned this on VHS; to be specific my younger brother owned this on VHS - these property matters are important in a family of 6, especially to a 9 year old. The VHS release had the film in it’s entirety, as did various later DVD versions, but this was gradually phased out until, after 2012, the film no longer exists as that original version.

So what happened?

In the final editing process before the original 1992 theatrical release, against the wishes of director Brian Henson, Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg decided to remove the song ‘The Love Has Gone’ believing it was too sad and wouldn’t work for the children in the audience.

Given that the story includes the death of a child due to the actions of Scrooge, and given every successful children’s story ever made involves death, heartbreak, betrayal, or a plethora of so-called adult themes, this seems like an odd decision to make. The team on the film fought for the song to remain, but lost out to the bureaucrat.

Whether it was the executives projecting their own discomfort about an older man duetting with a much younger woman about love, or they disliked Michael Caine’s singing, or there wasn’t enough muppet, we shall never know. What is curious though is that, as 13 year old me’s have become 40 year old me’s, the original has not been restored. Given the relatively poor performance at the box office (up against Home Alone 2 and Aladdin) many people’s exposure to this film would’ve originally been on VHS, complete and un-Katz’d. As we age and go on to show our children this film, we have to consider that the film as it exists now not only is not the version we are likely to have seen, it completely misses the point of what Dickens was saying in the original novel.

So what is the problem? It’s just one soppy song.

Now, I agree the song is a bit meh. As children we would always roll our eyes as the song approached and fast forward through it, so Katzenberg wasn’t entirely wrong about children, at least in our household. I will also ignore the clear structural necessity to any piece of comedy/entertainment for the emotional break necessary to keep the humour and excitement flowing naturally.

Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ is a book about how anyone can achieve redemption at any time. How, no matter what you have done in your past, whatever missteps taken, if you truly seek forgiveness and are willing to seek change in yourself, you can. It’s a wonderful message, and the whole story hinges on Scrooge’s love for Belle.

Belle is his first and only love; his last true human connection before he chose the pursuit of money. All his life he believed he chose correctly and that she was at fault for not supporting him, not being willing to similarly devote her life to the accumulation of wealth. I’m sure this is a scenario we have all found ourselves in at points in our lives; I know I have. We put our work first and before our families because we believe that we need to succeed to secure their future, all the while ignoring the needs of the present. Unlike Scrooge, we can’t easily count on a direct spirit-guided revelation, so revelations on how we treat people have to come from within, helped by cautionary tales such as ‘A Christmas Carol’.

In ‘The Muppets Christmas Carol’, Scrooge’s revelation about Belle is only revealed as she sings the song ‘The Love Is Gone’. Through the eyes of older Scrooge, as he follows her walking away from young Scrooge, we see his realisation of what happened. No, she didn’t leave him because she didn’t share his ambitions, she left him because he pushed her away. The love he had for her had gone, not the other way around. By seeing his treatment of her, and seeing how he gave her no choice but to walk away, he has his first and most important revelation: he has treated people as things, commodities, throughout his life, and so has paupered himself of the only commodity that ultimately matters - love.

Ok, it’s beautiful. But why is the song necessary?

The song is where older Scrooge actually realises why it was his fault she had to leave, and what a terrible mistake he made. Without the song we are just left with dialogue which, were Scrooge to only revisit that, would do nothing to make him regret his acts. It would actually reinforce his thinking that she left him because she was unwilling to think of the stability for their future.

The removal also means Scrooge doesn’t have a true revelation. His subsequent revelations should be seen through the prism of his own lost love: the pain of losing a child, the pain of no one caring for you because you couldn’t care for them All that then happens by the end of the tale is ‘phew thank God I dodged that bullet’ rather than ‘oh hell, what a terrible person I am I cannot do enough to change.’

Why would he suddenly care about Tiny Tim? He hasn’t understood the true nature of love, and so now in the death of Tim he sees only how he could save himself from having that one death on his own conscience. In the song-less version he doesn’t see how he can save Bob and family from the tragedy of losing a child, or what drives Bob to come into work everyday for a man who is terrible to him, because he can’t see the love.

Perhaps the biggest issue is that the removal of the song ruins the whole story arc. The film ends with muppets, Scrooge and family sat round a table singing a reprise of ‘The Love Is Gone’ changing the words to ‘The Love We’ve Found’. With the original song still in the movie we see Scrooge’s full redemption. This is a man who has not only learned to love, but has FOUND love. That love has always been there, but Scrooge had lost it through his own mistakes. But, and this is true for all of us, if we are willing to change and work at ourselves, we will realise that not only are we worthy of love, but that the love we thought was gone was never gone at all. Look, there it is. You weren’t looking properly because you weren’t properly you.

Instead of this, we get a random song thrown in at the end, doing nothing for the structure of the movie. Scrooge singing about ‘The Love We Found’ is now saying to us that it’s ok to act as we wish throughout our lives because people will love us and allow us into their lives as long as we can paint on some social graces. It teaches us that revelation coming from a threat is fine and stable, and that as long as we’re willing to change to save our skin then all is right with the world.

Oh...so...the film has a terrible message and Dickens is turning in his grave?

Yes. I have little comfort to give on this front. Unless Disney choose to redress this travesty and give us the directors cut of ‘The Muppets Christmas Carol’ (far more important than Zac Snyder’s Justice League people!) we will continue to teach children that it’s ok to be terrible to others as long as you’re shocked into action eventually.

One fix that I do - and elicits groans all round from my family, but dammit they will have the Henson version! - is to pause the streaming version, pull up the song on YouTube, then return to our movie. But, as you can tell, I’m overly passionate about this so maybe it’s not the fix I imagine.

It is a wonderful film which has brought me much joy. Maybe, just maybe, this Christmas a certain Jeffrey Katzenberg will get a visit from a few spirits and mend his ways for the good of mankind.

And, God bless us. Everyone.