50 Fun Facts About The Muppet Christmas Carol

Who plays Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol?

Michael Caine told the director he would play Scrooge dead straight, as if he were with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and never wink or do anything Muppety.

Who made his feature directing debut with The Muppet Christmas Carol, two years after his father's death?

Brian Henson, who took charge of the family company when his father died in 1990, was 28 when he shot the film as both its director and its producer.

The Muppet Christmas Carol ends with its narrator saying that anyone who liked it should do what?

Read the book. Most of the narration is Dickens's own prose, lifted almost word for word, which is why the film puts the author on screen to deliver it.

Which Muppet narrates The Muppet Christmas Carol in the role of Charles Dickens?

Gonzo. The makers asked themselves which Muppet was the least likely great novelist, then gave him narration taken almost entirely from Dickens's own text.

Which Muppet plays Scrooge's put-upon clerk, Bob Cratchit, in The Muppet Christmas Carol?

Kermit the Frog. In the book the clerk meets the reformed Scrooge back at the office next morning; the film instead sends Scrooge to the Cratchits' door on Christmas Day with a turkey.

Which Muppet plays Tiny Tim, the Cratchits' frail youngest son, in The Muppet Christmas Carol?

Robin the Frog. As Tiny Tim he leads the family in the song Bless Us All, and Scrooge is shaken when the vision of the future shows the Cratchits mourning him.

In The Muppet Christmas Carol, which duo play the ghosts of Scrooge's dead partners, the Marley brothers?

Statler and Waldorf. When Scrooge complains that his old partners were always criticising him, the two ghosts put him right: they were always heckling him.

Which Muppet plays Scrooge's jolly first employer, a character Dickens called Mr. Fezziwig?

Fozzie Bear. The film happily bends the name Dickens wrote into Fozziwig to suit its resident stand-up comedian.

Which pair of Muppets play the charity collectors Scrooge turns away in The Muppet Christmas Carol?

Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker. They were written a song, Room in Your Heart, begging Scrooge to give; it was recorded but never filmed, and survives only on the soundtrack album.

Which Muppet has a wreath hurled at him by Scrooge for singing a carol at his door?

Bean Bunny. Scrooge makes it up to him on Christmas morning, sending the same small rabbit off to fetch the prize turkey, a bird about twice his size.

Which Muppet tags along with the narrator of The Muppet Christmas Carol as his wisecracking sidekick, playing himself?

Rizzo the Rat. The film was his big break: he was paired with its Dickens to tell the story, and the two were teamed again in the Muppets' next two cinema films.

In The Muppet Christmas Carol, as in Dickens, the cheerful Fred who invites Scrooge to Christmas dinner is his what?

His nephew, and his only living relative. Taken to watch Fred's party unseen, Scrooge discovers that he is the punchline of the guests' parlour game.

In The Muppet Christmas Carol, where does the young Scrooge first meet Belle, the fiancée he later loses?

At a Christmas party, the yearly one thrown by his first employer. Belle is a friend of the host's family, and she walks away when Scrooge keeps putting off their wedding for the sake of money.

Which Muppet plays the stern headmaster of Scrooge's schooldays in The Muppet Christmas Carol?

Sam Eagle. His headmaster was written a song, Chairman of the Board, lecturing the boy on hard work; it was recorded but never filmed, so it is heard only on the soundtrack album.

Which Muppet band supplies the music for the dance thrown by the young Scrooge's first employer?

Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. They play but never speak: two of the performers behind the band had died, and for most of the 1990s it was kept to wordless musical cameos.

Which songwriter returned to the Muppets, thirteen years after The Muppet Movie, to write the songs for The Muppet Christmas Carol?

Paul Williams. Newly sober after years of addiction, he called it the first song score he had written clean, and said Scrooge's overnight change was one that had taken him 49 years.

Composer Miles Goodman scored The Muppet Christmas Carol after working on which 1988 Frank Oz comedy, starring the film's future Scrooge?

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Goodman was Frank Oz's regular composer, scoring four of the Muppet veteran's comedies, and Oz was executive producer of the Christmas Carol.

Who wrote the screenplay for The Muppet Christmas Carol?

Jerry Juhl. The veteran Muppet writer wanted Dickens's narration in the film but thought a voiceover would intrude, so he wrote the author in as a character who tells the story on screen.

Which ballad was cut from The Muppet Christmas Carol before it reached cinemas?

When Love Is Gone. Children at test screenings grew restless during Belle's farewell to Scrooge, so it was trimmed for cinemas, then put back for the first home-video release.

Which country singer reprises Belle's ballad over the end credits?

Belle's version in the film was the one that got cut.

Which studio chief talked the director into cutting Belle's ballad from The Muppet Christmas Carol?

Jeffrey Katzenberg. Watching children fidget at a test screening, he argued the song was too grown-up for them; the director gave way, and has said he was persuaded rather than ordered.

What did studio archivists find in 2020 that let The Muppet Christmas Carol's cut ballad be restored?

The original film negative. The director had rung the studio about it month after month for years, and in 2020 staff surprised him by simply screening the missing reel.

Which of the ghosts in The Muppet Christmas Carol was filmed submerged in a tank to make it seem to float?

Christmas Past. The childlike spirit was first shot in a tank of baby oil, which proved costly and hard to keep clean, so the crew finished the job in plain water.

At which studios was The Muppet Christmas Carol filmed?

Shepperton Studios, England. The sets were built raised off the ground so the puppeteers could work beneath the streets, which left the human actors crossing the gaps on planks.

What does Bob Cratchit watch cross the night sky after his solo song in The Muppet Christmas Carol?

A shooting star. It echoes a moment in The Muppet Movie, the troupe's first film, and later Muppet films have kept the tradition going.

After A Christmas Carol, which classic adventure novel did the Muppets turn into their next cinema film?

Treasure Island. The Dickens formula worked well enough to repeat: in 1996 the same director cast Tim Curry as Long John Silver and again filled the parts around him with Muppets.

Before it became a cinema release, The Muppet Christmas Carol was first sold to which US network as a TV film?

ABC. The company's agent suggested the story, then rang back to say he had already sold it as a television film; only once the script was written was it bought for cinemas instead.

Which American comedian was considered for the role of Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol?

George Carlin. In the end the makers went the opposite way: the part went to a dramatic actor who promised to play Scrooge without a single wink at the audience.

The Muppet Christmas Carol's star modelled Scrooge on cheats and embezzlers he saw on CNN, from where?

Wall Street. He took his cue from the financial scandals on the news rather than from Victorian London, saying such men 'represented a very good picture of meanness and greed'.

Which Muppet was first pencilled in to play the Ghost of Christmas Present in The Muppet Christmas Carol?

Miss Piggy. Early drafts were a romping parody with star Muppets as the spirits, until the makers decided new, eerier puppets would keep the ghosts ominous and recast her as Mrs Cratchit.

The Muppet Christmas Carol opens with a dedication 'in loving memory' of which two men?

Jim Henson and Richard Hunt. Hunt, a longtime Muppet performer, died in January 1992, five months before filming began, and his characters were recast, kept silent or left out.

Which film was the Muppets' last big-screen outing before The Muppet Christmas Carol, eight years earlier?

The Muppets Take Manhattan, released in 1984. It was the last Muppet film of their creator's lifetime, and the troupe stayed out of cinemas until his son took up the director's chair.

What set The Muppet Christmas Carol apart from the three Muppet films made before it?

A human is the protagonist. Scrooge carries almost every scene while the Muppets take the supporting parts, and Variety's reviewer grumbled that his role was 'too dominant'.

The Muppet Christmas Carol was the first Muppet film co-produced and released by which studio?

Disney. The partnership outlasted the film: in 2004 the company went on to buy the Muppet characters outright.

In The Muppet Christmas Carol, Bob Cratchit's fellow bookkeepers in Scrooge's office are what kind of animal?

Rats. When they complain of the cold and Scrooge threatens to sack them, they switch straight into beachwear and start singing Island in the Sun.

Which two family hits was The Muppet Christmas Carol up against in cinemas at Christmas 1992?

Home Alone 2 and Aladdin. Both were weeks old yet still out-earned it the weekend it opened in sixth place, though it was playing on nearly twice as many screens as Aladdin.

Dickens gave Scrooge one dead partner, Jacob Marley; what first name does the Muppet film give his invented brother?

Robert, which makes him Bob Marley, the name the director uses for him. The brother was written in so that the haunting could be played by a double act.

Which newspaper's 2023 ranking called The Muppet Christmas Carol 'the greatest Christmas film ever made'?

The Guardian. Reviews in 1992 had been cooler: the Los Angeles Times felt the magic had 'fallen out of the story', and Variety found it less enchanting than earlier Muppet films.

In 2023 The Muppet Christmas Carol won a British TV magazine's poll for best Christmas film, dethroning which perennial winner?

It's a Wonderful Life. The 1946 classic had topped the annual readers' poll year after year, with the Muppets its runner-up the year before, until the two swapped places.

In The Muppet Christmas Carol, what kind of business does the young Scrooge's first employer run?

A rubber chicken factory. In the book the young Scrooge is simply old Fezziwig's apprentice; the film keeps the jolly boss but decides that his trade ought to be comedy poultry.

In The Muppet Christmas Carol's vision of the future, who buys the dead man's stolen belongings?

Old Joe. The sequence is grim enough that the film's two narrators announce they are leaving, and they stay away until the story turns cheerful again.

Which song in The Muppet Christmas Carol is Bob Cratchit's big solo number?

One More Sleep 'Til Christmas. The tune comes back later in the film as Christmas Scat, a few seconds of wordless singing that he shares with Tiny Tim.

Dickens gives old Fezziwig a wife to dance with; who takes her place at his side in The Muppet Christmas Carol?

His mother. The film turns Mrs Fezziwig into Ma, a genial old lady who presides over the firm's yearly celebration at her son's side.

Which song does the reformed Scrooge lead through London's streets on Christmas morning in The Muppet Christmas Carol?

Thankful Heart. Its Scrooge had feared making a fool of himself as a singer; one reviewer praised him for staying in character rather than belting it out Broadway-style.

What recognition did a story album of The Muppet Christmas Carol earn in 1994?

A Grammy nomination, for Best Spoken Word Album for Children. It lost to a set of fairy tales read by Audrey Hepburn, who had died the year before.

At the end of The Muppet Christmas Carol, Scrooge tells Bob Cratchit he will raise his salary and pay off what?

His mortgage. It closes a circle: the film opens with Scrooge the moneylender relishing Christmas as 'foreclosure season', when people fall behind on their payments.

Which Muppet Show regular is missing from The Muppet Christmas Carol altogether?

Scooter. His performer had died that January, and rather than recast him straight away the Muppets rested the character, who was not seen again until a cameo in 1999.

Which performer took over Kermit from Jim Henson, making The Muppet Christmas Carol his first film in the role?

Steve Whitmire. Shortly before he began work on the film he dreamed that Jim Henson listened to his worries about the part and told him simply that the nerves would pass.

Which Muppet performer handles Gonzo, Waldorf and Bunsen Honeydew in The Muppet Christmas Carol?

Dave Goelz. Waldorf was new to him: he inherited the old heckler after Jim Henson's death, and has said he played him for years feeling like a placeholder.

A shop called Micklewhite's appears in the finale of The Muppet Christmas Carol; whose birth surname is it?

Its leading man. The actor behind Scrooge was born Maurice Micklewhite, and the set builders slipped his birth name onto a shopfront in the closing scenes.