The Muppet Christmas Carol gets extended cut for 30th anniversary

You’re probably going with the mouse, the Jedi, or the Avengers when you think Disney. But the D23 Expo this past weekend made room for Kermit and his friends. Major announcements and trailers were unveiled for tentpole titles, but the expo wasn’t exactly light on holiday movie news. Besides the first teaser for the upcoming Disney+ series The Santa Clauses, we also got a retrospective of the beloved classic The Muppet Christmas Carol, with news of a new cut featuring a fan favorite song.

During the panel, which featured director Brian Henson, songwriter Paul Williams, puppeteer Dave Goelz, and costume designer Polly Smith, the participants revealed that a cut song would be included back in The Muppet Christmas Carol for a restored version later this year.

The song “When Love Is Gone” is a fan favorite of Muppet fanatics. Its storied history involves Jeffrey Katzenberg reportedly cutting it out of fear children would be bored and the original negative being lost and thus impossible to include on any proper home video release. Now that the negative has been found, “When Love Is Gone” will be rightly included in The Muppet Christmas Carol.

“When Love Is Gone” would mark one of the most touching moments of The Muppet Christmas Carol, in which Scrooge’s love, Belle (Meredith Braun), laments the miser’s misplaced affection. As the song progresses, the older Scrooge (Michael Caine) enters the frame, accompanies her, and is quickly brought to tears.

If the song sounds familiar, that probably means you sat through the end credits of The Muppet Christmas Carol, in which a pop version by Martina McBride is played. While the song has been available online and as a bonus feature, its actual inclusion in the upcoming re-edit of The Muppet Christmas Carol is a major win for fans.

Disney has really been trying to make the Muppets happen, with 2020’s Muppets Now sitting in renewal purgatory and the upcoming musical series The Muppet Mayhem greenlit. There, too, was last year’s Muppets Haunted Mansion, which has pushed itself into the kid-friendly Halloween movie marathon.

The restored Muppet Christmas Carol will stream on Disney+ beginning December 11.