The Animated Christmas Song That Was All Over My Social Media And Is Actually Amazing :Later Never Comes (Scrooge)

 The holiday season is upon us and that means movies, episodes of shows, and specials to celebrate the occasion. Watching old classics and trying to find new ones is a tradition of mine and fun to do while decorating, wrapping presents or just relaxing. In 2022 I discovered the animated movie musical that is exclusive to Netflix "Scrooge", a solid animated musical trip through the classic tale with some very enjoyable songs I listen to this time of year, but one song stood out. "Later Never Comes". This was all over social media for a while, which had me asking "Why is this animated Netflix Christmas Carol movie going so hard?". Let's dive into this deep, sad song, and see why it had me and so many others talking about it. 

This ballad is a tragic song about lost love and moving on, sung by Scrooge's fiance as she leaves him, knowing she can never compete with his love of money, Scrooge joins into the song as he watches with the ghost of Christmas past, unable to change anything, only sing his regrets as she leaves, making it a duet that his love is unaware of. Due to the movie being animated all of the time stops, freezing all but Scrooge and his love, leaving the beautiful and quiet moment to play out. 

The lyrics of the song are simple yet powerful, knowing the movie is aimed at families means the words are understandable for younger viewers but still capture a powerful emotion older viewers can resonate with. Whether as the one leaving because the love is no longer there, or the one who was too blind to see what was there until it was gone. 

This song is beautiful in score, and performance, the lyrics pack a punch and capture a real feeling in a genuine way. Starting off soft and quiet then builds into an emotion-packed song of someone letting go and someone who wishes they did not. The ballad soars in a grand scope that brings everything around it both physically and metaphorically to a halt, letting the listener sit at that moment. 

This moment has been done and shown too many times to count, with how often "A Christmas Carol" has seen adaptations, not even the first time it has been done in song. This version still stands on its own with its beautiful and soft melody that grows and soars, hitting the emotion needed to land right on the bullseye and make the impact it is aiming for. 

Even out of the context of the movie this song stands on its own and without the visuals, goes places. A song as stated earlier about letting go from both sides, showing that in some cases later never comes around when things could have easily been so different. Even if you don't watch the movie, which I do recommend as a good adaptation with plenty of good songs on top of this one, this song is worth a listen. It was all over social media because an animated Netflix musical went way harder than it ever needed too, and this song is the prime example. A great song that is worth listening to now, instead of later.