The Muppet Christmas Carol – Picture Disc

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DC: Finally I’m gonna chose a song. Why? Because its Christmas and what’s Christmas with out a good Christmas song? Especially when it’s presented to you by the fabulous Bec Hill. All of a sudden I was waking up in the morning with no cravings. I'd found my tribe. I was comfortable and grateful in this world in a way I'd never experienced before," declares Williams. "That's when I was asked to write a score about Scrooge, who is experiencing a spiritual awakening and a changed outlook. It was a perfect fit." You can see why it never made it to air, but still the laughter is so infectious that it has you crying with them! Michael Caine’s straight performance is so, so, wonderful and the songs (Marley & Marley, especially) are enough to melt my humbug heart. We watch it every year and even went to a Singalonga- at The Prince Charles Cinema, where Dan ‘accidentally’ entered a kids’ Christmas jumper competition.

I didn't want to do it," Henson admits to BBC Culture. He had good reason, too. Not only was this his feature film debut as a director, but he was stepping into the shoes of his father Jim Henson, the puppeteer and filmmaker who had created the Muppets and turned them into pop culture icons, before tragically dying at the age of 53 in May 1990. We'd lost Jim. We were all really still mourning," says Steve Whitmire, who, like Brian, was tasked with replacing Jim Henson in The Muppet Christmas Carol, this time by voicing and puppeteering Kermit the Frog. "We were also just trying to move forward. We were not completely sure whether we would. That's one of the most interesting things about the film on the inside, it was really a bit of a test. Could we continue without Jim?" Unfortunately, when Disney saw the finished film, they asked for When Love Is Gone to be cut out. "Evidently the head of the studio thought it was too sad for kids. Or too boring," remarks Williams. "I'm not going to try to pretend that I understand what he was thinking." I walked into the recording studio and went straight up to Caine and said, 'It's so wonderful to meet you'," recalls Williams. "He turned to me and said, 'You know, we spent a whole weekend together.' I just went, 'Oh my God! You're right.'"The Muppet Christmas Carol's popularity is so immense that it has become a focal point of the festive season for many friends and families, who insist that Christmas hasn't really begun until they've belted out, "There goes Mr Humbug, There goes Mr Grim," in unison at full volume.

JT: This is by far and away my favourite Christmas film. I was a Muppet fan already, but working with Dan for so long has made me even more so, as he loves them easily as much. Love film and TV? Join BBC Culture Film and TV Club on Facebook, a community for cinephiles all over the world.So here is Jonnie Common and Bec Hill with Yippie Ki-Yay Father Christmas –in my ongoing quest that this could one day be our Christmas number one! A lot of fans talk about it being their favourite holiday film. They watch it with their families every year," says Whitmire, who insists that its legacy is more important than one film, though. "We were all very motivated on Muppet Christmas Carol. We wanted it to work. Everything came together and it introduced a new generation to the Muppets. It started a new chapter for us."

Hiring Williams to work on the songs for The Muppet Christmas Carol proved to be a masterstroke, as he used his own recent spiritual awakening as a parallel for Scrooge's journey. Henson believed that Frank Oz, the voice of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and Animal, as well as the director of The Dark Crystal, Little Shop of Horrors and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, should have been overseeing The Muppet Christmas Carol instead of him. However, Shane isn't just a movie guy. He also loves video games. Super Mario Sunshine, The Last of Us Part 1 and 2, and Batman: Arkham City are some of his favorites. Music plays a big part in his life as well. Given that Shane's a big horror fan, you might be surprised to learn that he's a pop guy. Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Dua Lipa, The Jonas Brothers, and Demi Lovato play on repeat while he's writing.The song in itself is wonderful but add Bec Hill’s uniquely brilliant flip charts and you have comedy Christmas gold!
I’ve known Bec for many years since we were paired together on a radio show in Australia to promote our shows at the Adelaide Fringe, and I think I’ve been in total awe of what she does since. The song is Yippie Ki-Yay Father Christmas by Jonnie Common and as the title suggests it takes us through the greatest Christmas move of all time Die Hard (It’s a Christmas film fact, I will fight to the death on this one.) One of Williams's most cherished memories of this process was the song When Love Is Gone, sung by Meredith Braun. "I felt like my greatest success as a songwriter for The Muppet Christmas Carol was When Love Is Gone. Because, emotionally, you see what grief and loss did to Scrooge and his behaviour." In his free time, Shane loves going for runs and playing with his 16-year-old beagle Butterscotch. Butters for short, she has been the greatest love of his and inspires him everyday, both creatively and emtionally. On top of that, he's now a huge collector. He loves Funko Pop, McFarlane Toys, and Neca's huge line of horror figures. In the last two years he has been going to a lot of conversations to buy an unhealthy amount of figures. This has also allowed him to meet some of his favorite filmmakers/actors like Mike Flanagan, Matthew Lillard, John Carpenter, Grace Caroline Curry, Steve Burns and Kathryn Newton. In their heyday their Christmas specials scored one of the highest ever audiences in British television history withmore than 20 million viewers –almost a half of the country tuning in on Christmas day to see them, just unheard of today!