Maybe today you took some time between opening presents and sipping some ‘not to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol on Disney +, and if you’d seen it at the theater or on VHS as a kid, you might have remember a song that was not present in the version currently being streamed. “ When Love Is Gone, ” a series previously included in some versions of the film but removed from others at the behest of a former Disney director, but luckily for purists, Muppet fans and frankly audiences everywhere, it will full track debut in a recently restored version of the Christmas classic.
Director Brian Henson (son of Jim) revealed the news in a new interview with BBC Radio 2, where he revealed that both the video master and the original camera negative for the song had been lost for some time. However, they were both found in a Christmas miracle as the team prepared to put together the remastered version for 4K. Henseon revealed that he was asked to check the new copy of the movie to make sure it looked okay, where it became apparent to him that they had restored the sequence and put it back in the movie.
‘I was so excited. They actually hid it … so I went downstairs and they said, ‘But before we show it to you, we’ve got something else we want to show you,’ Henson revealed. And they put on role four of Christmas Carol with When Love Is Gone. I was like, ‘No you didn’t!’ and they said, “Yes, we did! We found it!” I was so happy, I was so happy. “
He continued, “They’re all done with the full version again. I don’t know if they’ll get it on Disney Plus in time for Christmas because they have all these processes, but it’s coming back, the full-length version is coming back. . “
Henson went on to explain that the reason the song was removed from the theatrical release was that executive producer Jeffrey Katzenberg (now famous for Quibi’s implosion) believed the song was “ emotionally refined ” and that kids in the audience didn’t like it. would find. The director “reluctantly agreed” and struck a deal to put it back for the television and home media versions.
However, the inclusion of “When Love Is Gone” was not in every version of The Muppet Christmas Carol. VHS and Laserdisc copies did include it, but when it came to DVDs, the song was only played in full screen and eventually ended with no DVDs or Blu-rays, including it in the main cut. “When Love Is Gone” was featured in many bonus features for these releases, and can even be seen on Disney + in the Extras tab. It’s unclear when the version of the movie that includes the song in the runtime will be available for purchase or streaming, but so Cinema Blend theorizes that a 2022 release seems likely as that would mark the 30th anniversary of the film’s release.