There are many commendable adaptations of Charles Dickens‘s 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, but if your family is anything like mine, The Muppet Christmas Carol is the version that gets watched by the entire extended family every year.
It’s the little things that make the Muppet version a crowd favorite. Everyone has their favorite scene. I’m partial to one early on when Bob Cratchit (played by Kermit the Frog) and his bookkeeper rat colleagues are trying to convince Ebenezer Scrooge (Michael Caine) to put more coal on the office fire, with some of the rats saying, “We can’t do the bookkeeping … All of our pens have turned to ink-cicles … Our assets are frozen!”
However, the rats’ attitude changes in a flash after Scrooge shouts at them, “How would the bookkeepers like to be suddenly unemployed?” At this point, the rats yell, “Heatwave!” and dance around in tropical clothing.
My sister likes a scene near the end of the movie when a chorus of young Muppets breaks into a fight, with one Muppet head-butting another. Like I said, it’s the little things.
There is one scene, however, that almost nobody in the family enjoys, which was not actually in the movie when it was released in theaters in 1992. It is the song “When Love is Gone,” sung by Belle (Meredith Braun) when Scrooge visits his past Christmases. The song is slow and depressing, and there are no Muppets in it, which is probably why Disney executives cut it from the theatrical release.
The movie’s director, Brian Henson, thought the song was needed to pair with the ending song, “When Love is Found,” so it was put back into the first DVD and VHS releases of the movie, which is where most people first encountered it. It turns out the Disney executives were right though, most people did not like the song, and it has been pulled from the most recent versions of the movie, including the one currently streaming on Disney+.
As unnecessary as the song is to the plot, the scene before it between Scrooge and Belle is not only essential to the movie but should also serve as a warning to many Americans today. Belle is pleading with Scrooge to stop putting off their wedding so they can get married, but Scrooge prioritizes his career over their love.
“How could we marry now?” Scrooge asks. “There’s not even enough for a decent home. The investments haven’t grown as they should.”
“So you said last year,” Belle responds. “You’re a partner in your own firm now. You said the partnership was the goal.”
“This is for you,” Scrooge replies. “I love you.”
“You did once,” Belle retorts, ending the relationship.
In this scene, the audience is supposed to side with Belle over Scrooge, but according to recent polling, we have become a nation of Scrooges. The Pew Research Center released a poll last year showing that while 88% of parents said it was important for their children to have a career they enjoyed, just 21% said it was important for their children to get married.
Similarly, a Wall Street Journal poll found that between 1998 and 2023, the percentage of Americans who said “having children” was “very important” to them fell from 60% to 25%. Meanwhile, over that same time frame, the percentage of Americans who said “money” was “very important” to them almost doubled from 25% to 45%.
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Becoming an adult who can financially support themselves is important. It should be a goal for all Americans. However, so should getting married, and it turns out the two are not in conflict. Married people, even those who marry young, become more financially successful than their single counterparts.
Too many Americans have become Scrooges, putting off love and emotional intimacy until their professional lives are perfect. The problem is that your career and career goals will always be changing. None of us ever stop growing professionally or emotionally, which is why it is so important to find a good spouse to enjoy the journey with you.