Susana Polo: Oh, to the contrary. Though it was cut from the theatrical version, “When Love is Gone” was included haphazardly in home video versions. All the copies my family happened to own, from VHS to modern day, included the scene. It’s always been there for me. And yeah, I think it suuuuuuuuu— I mean, uh, I think it’s the weakest part of the film. But how did it hit you, fresh to the glory of Muppet Christmas Carol? Ghost of Christmas Present (Tiny Tim, Scrooge, The Muppet Cast) – Finale – “When Love Is Found/It Feels Like Christmas” Tasha Robinson: OK, let’s clarify one thing: I saw The Muppet Christmas Carol for the very first time a week ago, thanks to friends who were appalled that I’d never watched it before and set up a group viewing online. (They actually found out last year at our group semi-hate-watch of White Christmas, and insisted on setting up this week’s screening nearly a year in advance. That’s dedication!) Kermit's 50th Anniversary Editions: Muppet Treasure Island (1996) • The Muppet Movie (1979) • The Great Muppet Caper (1981)

with funny 10-year retrospection from the three participants. With an irreverent tone and genuine insider insight (including some footage of the Muppeteers performing under the specially-built planks), this was a great and memorable featurette. It would have been a better and more relevant inclusion than the new Pepe Profiles piece and most Muppet fans would surely rather have this ported over than yet another cropped presentation of the movie. It's also disappointing that the film's original theatrical trailer wasn't included this time around either, because obviously it's sitting in Disney vaults and is free from any rights issues that might plague trailers for the Disney-acquired Muppet films. I did a lot of searching to find this, since it seems there's only one DVD version out there that has the full, uncut version of this movie - the one with both full-screen and wide screen options. In the other versions, Disney cut the song "When Love is Gone", apparently because they thought that small children "wouldn't be able to handle it." (And yet they had no problems with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, which honest to God looks like a dementor...) Well, I have to say, when I was a small child "When Love is Gone" didn't upset me at all; it went right over my head. Now that I'm in my 20s, I can appreciate it as a beautiful piece of music, a pivotal moment in the movie and Scrooge's growth, and a melody that ties the plot together. So I am very happy that this version includes this wonderful song. But none of this is what I was expecting a longtime Muppet Christmas Carol fan to object to — here I thought most people who wanted this song gone would just feel like it was out of place in a movie full of Muppets to have a dramatic, melancholy, Muppet-less number, with two humans navigating their extremely rudimentary love story, and not a puppet in sight. Is that in your calculus at all when you think about cutting this scene? What are your big objections here? Bear in the Big Blue House: Visiting the Doctor with Bear • Early to Bed, Early to Rise • Storytelling with Bear • Sense-sational!

In This Article

A Charlie Brown Christmas (Peanuts Deluxe Holiday Collection) • A Chipmunk Christmas (Alvin and the Chipmunks Classic Holiday Gift Set)

Dinosaurs: The Complete First and Second Seasons • Dinosaurs: The Complete Third and Fourth Seasons Theatrical Release: December 11, 1992 / Running Time: 86 Minutes (theatrical cut), 89 Minutes (extended cut) / Rating: G If you enjoyed the Muppet Show in the 1980's or any of the Muppet movies that have been released like "Muppets from Space" or "Muppet Treasure Island", you will thoroughly enjoy this adaptation. Guaranteed, the children will. Read full review Many fans have found new reasons to complain about this DVD release. First, there was the inaccurate press release Disney issued claiming the four films would be presented exclusively in fullscreen. Once that was corrected and the discs' specifications clarified, a new issue arose. For all of Muppet Christmas Carol's previous home video releases, an extended cut of the film was presented. This included the 3-minute musical number "When Love is Gone", performed by Belle to Scrooge as a young man (with the elderly miser listening in).

Songs: "Scrooge", "Good King Wenceslas", "One More Sleep 'Til Christmas", "Marley and Marley", When Love is Gone", "It Feels Like Christmas", "Christmas Scat", "Bless Us All", "Thankful Heart", "When Love is Found/It Feels Like Christmas" Tasha: It’s only a few minutes! It isn’t that long! And it’s just about our last touchpoint for young, emotional Scrooge before his heart hardened. So he’s the focus here, not his minimally developed love interest! Disney Princess: A Christmas of Enchantment • A Very Playhouse Disney Holiday • Disney Channel Holiday It’s just also that I object to “When Love Is Gone” on the grounds of what makes a good musical. The song itself isn’t all that good, is performed stiffly, and is staged uncreatively, but more than that, it takes the viewer on an overlong detour with a character we barely know and who is about to leave the narrative entirely — marking it as a real outlier in a field of absolute banger musical sequences. Susana: See, now this is an interesting flip. I’ve basically never seen the movie without that scene, given that I was in elementary school when it was in theaters. It was not actually clear to me until just now that Katzenberg excised the entirety of that character beat. That was an extremely dumbass thing of him to do. And it makes me doubly glad that Disney Plus has restored it.