The Muppet Christmas Carolis not only one of the best feature-film adaptations of Charles Dickens’s classic 19th-century novelA Christmas Carol, but it’s also one ofthe best Christmas movies of all time. The 1992 Brian Henson-directed holiday classic has it all: a heartfelt message, hilarious Muppet-based antics, and a strong performance from Michael Caine in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge.
Of course, you can’t have a Muppet movie without some catchy musical numbers, andThe Muppet Christmas Carolhas several of those, from the stirring “Scrooge"to the haunting “Marley and Marley” and the whimsical “It Feels Like Christmas”. But, depending on when and on what format you’ve watchedThe Muppet Christmas Carol, you may have missed one of the most crucial songs of the whole movie: an emotional and heartbreaking ballad called “When Love Is Gone”.Here’s a brief look at the story behind the song, its initial removal from the movie, and its eventual restoration on Disney+.
It’s the Most Emotional Moment From the Film
To truly understand the emotional impact of “When Love Is Gone”, it helps to go back to the scenes leading up to the song’s performance. When Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past (voiced by English actress Jessica Fox), they go back to the time when a younger Scrooge (Ray Coulthard) worked under Fozziwig (a Muppet version of Mr. Fezziwig from the Dickens classic, who is played by the Frank Oz-voiced Fozzie Bear), who owns a rubber chicken factory. During a party thrown by Fozziwig and his mother, Scrooge meets a young woman named Belle (Meredith Braun), and they instantly fall in love.
Fast-forward to Scrooge and Belle later on in their relationship. They’re now engaged to be married, but Scrooge seems more concerned with making money than with starting a new life with Belle. While they discuss their future together in a snow-covered forest, Belle realizes that marriage isn’t going to work, and she laments the end of their relationship in “When Love Is Gone”. After a tearful present-day Scrooge joins Belle for a duet to finish the song, Belle walks away, presumably out of his life forever.
Composer and songwriter Paul Williams, who earned two Academy Award nominations for his work onThe Muppet Movie(Best Score and Best Song forThe Rainbow Connection), was the creative force behind the emotionally-charged ballad. In a 2020 interview withEntertainment Weekly, Williams said that “When Love Is Gone” was “one of my favorite things I’ve ever written in my life.”
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It Was Originally Cut Because it Didn’t Test Well with Kids
The Muppet Christmas Carol
While both Williams and Henson considered “When Love Is Gone” to be an essential emotional moment inThe Muppet Christmas Carol, Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chairman of Walt Disney Studios at the time, essentially vetoed its appearance in the film. As Henson tells it, the song apparently didn’t test well with younger viewers during initial screenings.
“[Katzenberg] never forced me to do anything, but he said, ‘Do you see how antsy those kids are getting?'” Henson tells EW. “He’s like, ‘It’s just a little too adult-emotional for little kids to stay connected.’ [The movie] certainly plays well without the song, but I obviously preferred having the song in. I think it’s good for kids to be pulled into deeply emotional moments, even if they feel slightly awkward about it when they’re in a movie theater.”
Due to Katzenberg’s reservations, “When Love Is Gone"was cut from the theatrical version ofThe Muppet Christmas Caroland from many home media releases of the film. As a consolation, a version of the song by country music star Martina McBride was included in the end credits. Hanson objected to this, as it seemingly tonally contradicted the more-triumphant “When Love Is Found"reprisal sung by Scrooge and The Muppets at the end of the movie.
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It Was Added Back for the 2022 Restoration on Disney+
Unsurprisingly, Henson remained disappointed over the removal of “When Love Is Gone” from most versions ofThe Muppet Christmas Carol, and in a2018 interview, he claimed that it was “unlikely” that the song would reappear in future releases of the movie, as Disney had apparently lost the original footage. But, just two years later, the son of Muppets creator Jim Henson was in for a pleasant surprise.
AfterDisney executives informed himthatThe Muppet Christmas Carolwould be getting a 4K restoration on Disney+, Henson also received word that “When Love Is Gone” hadn’t been lost at all and would be appearing in the updated version of the movie.
“I was so excited. They actually hid it… so I went down and they said: ‘But before we show it to you, we’ve got something else we want to show you’. And they put up reel four of Christmas Carol with When Love Is Gone,” Henson said of the restoration of the song, in a program that will be broadcast on Christmas Day.
“I was like, ‘No, you did not!’ and they said, ‘Yes we did! We found it!’ I was so happy, I was so happy.”
To celebrate the 30th anniversary ofThe Muppet Christmas Carol,the 4k restoration premiered on Disney in 2022, withWhen Love Is Goneincluded in all its original glory.
