Trivia / The Muppet Christmas Carol

• Acting for Two
  • Dave Goelz plays Gonzo (Charles Dickens), Waldorf (Robert Marley), Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Betina Cratchit.
  • Steve Whitmire portrays Kermit (Bob Cratchit), Rizzo, Beaker, Bean Bunny and Belinda Cratchit.
  • Jerry Nelson not only portrays Robin (Tiny Tim), Lew Zealand, Statler (Jacob Marley) and Ma Bear (Ma Fozziwig), but he also does the face and voice performances of the Ghost of Christmas Present.
  • Miss Piggy (Emily Cratchit), Fozzie (Fozziwig), Sam Eagle, George the Janitor and Animal are all played by Frank Oz.
  • David Rudman plays Peter Cratchit as well as the Swedish Chef. He also was the puppeteer for Old Joe.
  • Most of the Muppeteers also played several minor characters as well.
  • The Japanese dub also does this, with Kōichi Yamadera as Kermit, Sam and Peter Cratchit, Hideyuki Umezu as Gonzo and Miss Piggy, and Ryūsei Nakao as Robin and Bean Bunny.
• Adored By The Studio: Of the six Muppet movies Disney owns the rights to (that they didn't produce themselves), this has been shown over time to be the preferred one. When Disney re-issued the previous four classic Muppet movies to DVD in the mid-2000's, The Muppet Christmas Carol was the only one to have extra features related to the film proper. It was the first of the Muppet movies to be released on Blu-ray after The Muppets (2011) was released, the other three not coming to Blu-ray till nearly a year later. On Disney+, it was the only feature-length Muppet movie to have a 4K transfer from at least November 2019 until August 2022 with the 4K release of the original Muppet Movie (Muppets Haunted Mansion being an hour-long special). Disney coerced Hallmark into releasing a Keepsake Ornament for the film's 25th anniversary, and they also re-released the film in the United States for the 2020 holiday season. This movie gets lots of love from the studio (which is likely related to the love for it that's developed in the zeitgeist since its release).
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Steven Mackintosh (Fred) previously worked with Brian Henson and instantly agreed to be in the film when asked, considering being in a Muppets film "a great honor".
• Celebrity Voice Actor: In the Japanese dub, Rizzo is voiced by veteran actor/singer Shintarō Sonooka.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: The film's description in ''Golden Retriever Video Movie Guide" incorrectly mentions that Paul Williams wrote the songs "Heatwave" and "This is My Island in the Sun", two songs that are only briefly sung in the film and were not written for the film, much less by Williams.
• Creator's Favorite: Michael Caine thoroughly enjoyed his time making the film and counts Scrooge as one of his favorite roles.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Known as Muppet Party (Festa in casa Muppet) in Italy.
  • The French and Latin American title is Christmas with the Muppets (Noël chez les Muppets and Una Navidad con los Muppets).
• Cut Song:
  • "When Love Is Gone" is absent from the original theatrical release, some versions of the DVD, and the Blu-ray, but appeared on the many TV airings (before later Christmas specials supplanted it), the VHS and laserdisc copies, as well as the "Extras" section on the film's Disney+ page. Brian Henson revealed around Christmas 2018 that the reason the song went missing for so long was a post-production issue; he has always been a strong proponent of the song and had wanted to re-insert it into all cuts of the film, but following the VHS print, the original negative of the entire scene was misplaced by the Disney Studio staff of the time and spent nearly two decades lost in their massive film library. There was an attempt made to re-insert it for the Blu-Ray release using a VHS transfer, but it looked poor on high-definition displays and was abandoned. Thankfully in 2020, the original footage of "When Love Is Gone" was finally found by Disney's staff and reworked into the film. This allowed the full version to be shown in 4K for the first time, beginning with limited 2021 theatrical re-releases, on Disney+ on December 9, 2022 — to celebrate the film's 30th anniversary.
  • There's another verse on "Marley and Marley". For many years, you could only hear it on the soundtrack; however it was actually filmed and used in some TV airings:
    We're Marley and Marley,
    And now it's time to part (doot doot)
    To go back where they keep our kind,
    The wretched and the heartless
    The news we've shared has got you scared
    We're glad that we got through
    So make amends (and make some friends!)
    The future's up to you!
    • The way the track is set up on the OST makes it sound like the explanation of the spirits originally came after this part, but in practice it probably ran on a little too long and was cut from the final filmed version.
  • The soundtrack, as mentioned, has the expanded version of "Marley and Marley", along with wholly cut songs for Honeydew and Sam the Eagle (which are not present in any released film cut and were apparently not filmed at all).
• Enforced Method Acting: When filming the sequence where the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come first appears, Brian Henson had Michael Caine turn around when he saw the fog coming towards him.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg forced Brian Henson to cut "When Love Is Gone" from the theatrical cut over the latter's objections because he believed it was too sad and boring for the young children who would be watching in the audience.
  • Invoked positively when the film was at risk of being made on No Budget. Katzenberg sent Marty Katz, head of physical production, to London to monitor progress. After touring the sets, Katz immediately phoned Katzenberg and told him "They’re making $5 million more movie than they’ve even asked for. Give Brian the number he needs because I have no idea how he’s even doing it for that."
• Focus Group Ending: "When Love Is Gone" was cut out of the theatrical release after negative audience response. They put it back in for the VHS and Laserdisc release, and fullscreen DVD releases. As such, the 2005 DVD, which contains both the fullscreen and widescreen version, omits the song in the latter, and the 2012 Blu-ray release also lacks the song, making the Laserdisc the only release of the film to feature the song in widescreen until the above-noted 2020 recovery.
• Hilarious Outtakes:
  • Props don't cooperate with the script. Meanwhile, the puppet handlers have the "actors" lounge around and grow increasingly annoyed at the scene not going as planned.
  • Gonzo/Dickens catches the grappling hook he's trying to snag Scrooge with in the face. Rizzo remains in character and immediately calls for a medic.
  • The Ghost of Christmas Present accidentally backhands Michael Caine in the face when they're dancing side by side during "It Feels Like Christmas".
• In Memoriam: A dedication of Jim Henson and Richard Hunt, two of the original Muppet Performers, appears before the opening credits.
• Kids' Meal Toy:
  • Taco Bell sold a set of four ornaments in the 1992 holiday season.
  • Hardee's sold finger puppets of Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie and Gonzo in the 1993 holiday season.
• Looping Lines:
  • David Rudman performed Old Joe, while David Shaw Parker provided the character's voice.
  • Karen Prell and Robert Tygner were the puppeteers of the Ghost of Christmas Past, and Jessica Fox voiced the character in post-production.
• The Original Darrin: Jerry Nelson, who performed Statler in the 1975 Sex and Violence pilot to The Muppet Show, returns to reprise his role following Richard Hunt's death from AIDS.
• Orphaned Reference: The song "When Love Is Gone" was cut from the theatrical version, but several references to it still appear. Most obvious are the reprise "When Love Is Found" and the pop song version during the closing credits. It is also prominently featured in the soundtrack's overture. This applies to the Blu-ray release too, which ported over a behind the scenes extra from the extended cut DVD showing the recording of "When Love Is Gone", even though the song is completely absent from the Blu-ray.
• The Other Darrin:
  • This was the first appearance of Steve Whitmire as Kermit^note although Whitmire previously performed Kermit for the prime time The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson special and Beaker and Dave Goelz as Waldorf. David Rudman also performs another of Henson's characters, the Swedish Chef, for a single line in the film. Unlike the others, he didn't reprise the role and the Chef was performed by Bill Barretta for subsequent appearances.
  • In the film itself, during "The Villain Sucks" Song, the Whatnot who says "Even the vegetables don't like 'im!" is Frank Oz but when the Whatnot turns up during the Christmas Present song as a prisoner, he's got a different performer and has a British accent.
• Produced by Cast Member: Besides being one of the Muppet Performers, Frank Oz was the film's executive producer.
• Production Posse: Even though this was the first major Muppet production without Jim Henson (and Richard Hunt), the core Muppet performers were still together, and veteran Muppet writer Jerry Juhl wrote the screenplay. Bringing Muppet Movie songwriter Paul Williams back also added an extra sense of familiarity to the proceedings.
• Reality Subtext: The Cratchit Christmas after Tiny Tim's death is heartbreaking enough as is, but this being the first Muppet movie without Jim Henson and Richard Hunt makes this speech by Henson's most iconic character especially moving:
  Kermit (as Bob Cratchit): It's all right, children. Life is made up of meetings and partings, that is the way of it. I am sure we shall never forget [Tiny Tim], or this first parting that there was among us...
• Recycled Trailer Music: The Beetlejuice theme is briefly played during the original 1992 trailer.
• Release Date Change: The extended version originally had an announced Disney+ release date of December 11, 2022. Since this would've resulted in a rare instance of the streamer posting something new on a Sunday, they pushed its release up to the preceding Friday, December 9.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: Ray Coulthard makes an incredibly convincing version of a younger Scrooge/Michael Caine.
• So My Kids Can Watch: Michael Caine took the role of Scrooge because his daughter Natasha was too young to see any of his films at the time. He wound up having a blast making the film and considers it one of his favorites.
• Throw It In!: Allegedly, Rizzo's kiss on Gonzo's nose was improvised by puppeteer Steve Whitmire, as a private Call-Back to a scene in the Fraggle Rock episode "Scared Silly" where Boober (performed by Dave Goelz, Gonzo's puppeteer) gives a nose kiss to an annoyed Wembley (performed by Whitmire).
• What Could Have Been:
  • George Carlin, Ron Moody, Peter O'Toole and David Warner were considered for Ebenezer Scrooge before the casting of Michael Caine. Warner previously played Bob Cratchit in A Christmas Carol (1984).
  • The original idea for the film was more of a parody of the original story, until Jerry Juhl convinced the rest of the Muppet veterans to go with the straightforward approach using Gonzo as the narrator as seen in the final film.
  • Originally, the three ghosts that visit Scrooge were to have been played by Miss Piggy, Scooter, and Gonzo (the last of the three as "The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come" - with only his nose sticking out of his dark hood). But the writers wanted to use those Muppets far more in the story than simply using them as the Ghosts would have allowed for, so new Muppets were created to represent each of the Ghosts. Unfortunately, they could not find a way to put Scooter in the film, so he is left out entirely.

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