The fuzzy cast ofThe Muppet Christmas Carolcelebrated the beloved festive movie’s upcoming 30th anniversary at D23 Expo, where it was also revealed that for the first time ever, the movie will be coming to Disney+ in its original uncut format featuringthe long-lost additional song, ‘When Love Is Gone.‘Widely regarded as one of the best adaptations of the classic Dickens story of Ebenezer Scrooge, and it has taken a long time for the movie to be released as originally intended.
The Muppet Christmas Carolwas released in 1992 and became an immediate holiday classic, thanks in part toMichael Caine’s completely straight and dramatic performance as Scrooge amid so much Muppet mayhem. While the movie is good as it is, until three years ago there was one song that had never been seen after it was cut from the original theatrical release and lost. The song, ‘When Love Is Gone,’ takes place when Caine’s Scrooge visits his past and is sung by his lost lover Belle, played by Meredith Braun.
As a central part of Scrooge’s journey, it is still not really known why the song was cut from the film, especially when the final song in the movie, ‘When Love is Found’, acts as a direct callback to the earlier song, and will now have an even more poignant meaning. As of December 11, the actually 30th anniversary of the film’s release, fans will be able to see the entire restored version on Disney+.
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The Muppet Christmas CarolHas Never Been Matched By Jim Henson’s Creations
As one of the first major projects released featuring The Muppets following the death of creator Jim Henson in 1990,The Muppet Christmas Carol hit all the right notesin delivering a unique and rarely matched version of Dickens’s novella. In many ways, the film also stands as the best movie released in The Muppets history, especially in recent years when Disney seems to have struggled to work out exactly how to keep The Muppets relevant.
WhileThe Muppetsand its sequelMuppets Most Wantedprovided decent revivals of the franchise, but TV seriesThe Muppets, which was based on the format ofThe Office, fell flat. The Covid pandemic led to the creation ofMuppets Now, which in its haphazard creation managed to re-capture some of the “unplanned” feel thatThe Muppet Showalways had. Following last year’sMuppets Haunted Mansionwa sa hit,The Muppet Show’s in-house band The Electric Mayhem will be taking the lead in their own series for Disney+, which makes it seem that the Muppet comeback is certainly getting on track.
In addition to the new Muppet content, fans of Jim Henson will also be able to go all the way back to the puppeteer’s first show in a new book,Sam and Friends: The Story of Jim Henson’s First Television Show. The book will feature scripts, behind-the-scenes photos and many never before published images from the Henson Archives. The book will be released on September 24th.
