You may have taken some time out of your schedule today between opening presents and grabbing something to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol at Disney +, and if you’ve seen it in the theater or on VHS as a kid, you might remember a song that wasn’t present at the currently playing version “When Love Is Gone”, a sequence previously included in some versions of the film, but removed from others by order of a former Disney executive, but fortunately for purists, fans of Muppet and the audience frankly everywhere, the full song will be released in a recently restored version of the Christmas classic.
Director Brian Henson (Jim’s son) revealed the news in a new interview with BBC Radio 2, where he revealed that both the main video and the negative of the original camera of the song had been allegedly lost for some time. In a Christmas miracle, however, the two met when the team was preparing to mount the remastered version for 4K. Henseon revealed that he was asked to check the new copy of the film to make sure it looked good, where he was pointed out that they had retrieved the sequence and put it back in the film.
“I was really excited. They actually hid it … so I went down and they said, ‘But before I show it to you, we have something else we want to show you,'” Henson revealed. reel four of the Christmas song with When Love Is Gone. I would say, “No, you didn’t!” And they said, “Yes, we did! We found it!” I was very happy, I was so happy. “
He continued, “They’re all ready with the full version. I don’t know if they’ll make it to Disney Plus in time for Christmas because they have all these processes, but it’s coming back, the full length version is back.”
Henson went on to explain that the reason the song was cut from the theatrical version was executive producer Jeffrey Katzenberg (now famous for Quibi’s implosion) who believed the song was “emotionally sophisticated” and that children in the audience they would not like it. The director “reluctantly accepted” and made a deal to put it back on television and in the domestic media versions.
However, the inclusion of “When Love Is Gone” did not appear in all versions of The Muppet Christmas Carol. The VHS and Laserdisc copies did present it, but when it came to DVD only the full screen version of the film featured the song and eventually ended up without a DVD or Blu-ray to include it in the main cut. . “When Love Is Gone” can be found in many additional feature sections for these versions, and can even be seen on Disney + on the Extras tab. It is unclear when the version of the movie that includes the song during its run time will be available for purchase or playback in real time. Cinema Blend theorizes that the 2022 release seems likely as this will mark the 30th anniversary of the film’s release.