The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), Now Fully Restored, is the Best Adaptation of Dickens' Classic

Happy holidays, readers! Jeremy here. As he likes to do a couple times a year, John Hammontree, unofficial/unpaid editor of this newsletter, has blessed me with a week off and blessed you with some terrific cinematic reading material. I enjoyed this one very much (despite his blatant blasphemy in the opening sentence), and now I’m eager to see this film in all its original glory. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good morning.

With all due respect to Baby Jesus, Charles Dickens is the true reason for the holiday season.

I won’t summarize the plot of The Man Who Invented Christmas here (because that movie doesn’t meet the criteria of this newsletter).* But so many of the holiday trappings we associated with Christmas today were sparked by Dickens’ seminal “A Christmas Carol.”**

Every December, I return to the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge’s overnight revival in various forms. For the past five years, I’ve listened to Tim Curry’s immaculate audiobook recording. I usually seek out whatever new twist on the tale is being released that year.*** I might even pull up that old Honey Nut Cheerios commercial on YouTube. And of course, there are all the derivative takes on the story. What is It’s A Wonderful Life if not just a riff on the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present, but with Bob Cratchit at the center and Mr. Potter taking on the role of Scrooge and/or Marley?

There’s something about this story that just rejuvenates and reorients me this time of year. But the absolute best version of “A Christmas Carol” is The Muppet Christmas Carol, a film that is somehow both laugh-out-loud hysterical and achingly sincere.****

It was the first Muppet film made after the death of Jim Henson, but you can feel his manic presence throughout. The most inspired decision is to place Gonzo in the role of Dickens himself, narrating the film along with Rizzo the rat, who serves as an audience stand-in. It allows the movie to do two things: use and comment on much of the original Dickens text, and keep younger viewers engaged with a story that takes place in 19th century London.

The movie is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year—and Disney+ is finally releasing the full version of the film in 4K today!***** Yes, dear reader, long before the days of such things as Snyder Cuts, there was a studio battle over whether to include a certain song that some (e.g. me) consider the emotional crux of the film. (The songs are all absolute bangers, by the way.)

In the original version of the film, there was a song about midway through called “When Love is Gone.” It features a young Scrooge being dumped by his fiancée. Michael Caine sings, and I cry every time. But during test screenings, Disney boss Jeffrey Katzenberg thought the song was going to bore younger viewers, so he made Brian Henson cut it.******

Brian was understandably aghast. There’s an entire reprise to the song called “The Love We Found” that closes the film…which doesn’t make any sense if the first rendition is gone. Henson asked if the song could at least be included on the home video release version and TV airings of the film, and that was the compromise they eventually reached.

If you are a child of the early 90s like me, there’s a chance that your earliest exposure to the film was watching the full version on the home video release. (Or, in my case, a VCR recording of a TV airing of the film that my aunt gave me one Christmas.)******* But when it came time to restore the film for DVD and Blu-ray releases, Disney and Muppet Studios (somehow) couldn’t find the original cut of the film. So if you grew up watching it on DVD or you’ve enjoyed it in recent years via streaming, you just see an abrupt transition halfway through the film, a swell of music, and a smash cut to a crying Rizzo and Gonzo. It’s probably very confusing if you don’t know what’s missing.

But our story has a happy ending! A few years ago, some hero employee stumbled upon the original cut of the film somewhere in the Disney vault. And now, tonight and evermore, we can all watch it together in its original intended glory.

God bless us, every one. Except Jeffrey Katzenberg.

*It’s a surprisingly fun movie if you’re like me and never get tired of variations on A Christmas Carol. It stars Dan Stevens as Charles Dickens scrambling to put together a little Christmas ghost story to save his family from financial ruin.

**The rest of Christmas was created by Coca-Cola, Norman Rockwell, and Burl Ives. 

***This year it’s Apple’s meta-musical Spirited, starring Will Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds, and Octavia Spencer. It’s…fine.

****Michael Caine has said that he took the role of Scrooge as seriously as if he were acting alongside the Royal Shakespeare Academy and, frankly, it may be his best performance.

*****To watch the full version, you'll have to go through the annoying step of navigating the "Extras" tab on the film's page on Disney+. But it’s worth it, of course.

******Katzenberg also tried to cut “Part of Your World” from Little Mermaid. He was, in short, an idiot.

*******Another fun side effect of the grainy old versions of the film is that it looks a lot like Beaker gives Scrooge the finger when Scrooge refuses to donate money to orphans. Unfortunately, higher quality images reveal he’s just pointing at him.

The Muppet Christmas Carol is now streaming on Disney+, and it is available to rent elsewhere.