The Muppet Christmas Carol to the screen were longtime head writer of "The Muppet Show" Jerry Juhl (penning the screenplay), original Muppeteer Frank Oz (serving as executive producer), and Jim Henson's son Brian (as producer and making his feature film directorial debut). Why is the visual staging of this solo number so unutterably boring? She never even takes her hands out of her cute little Victorian muff. [ Ed. note: While gathering images to lay out this post I discovered that Belle is actually not wearing a muff at all, she just keeps her hands so still and pinned to her stomach for the whole song that I Mandela Effect-ed one into existence. I am noting this in case you too believed that Belle was a muff-wearer.] Why on earth wasn’t this number designed to be a shared song between Belle, young Scrooge, and older Scrooge from the get-go? We can still culminate with Belle and Present Scrooge harmonizing — that’s perfect and I have no notes. 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. Only one supplement from the film's first DVD release has not been presented here, but it's a substantial one. "Frogs, Pigs, and Humbug: Unwrapping a New Holiday Classic" was a (then) newly-produced 22-minute making-of featurette hosted by Brian Henson, Gonzo, and Rizzo. It combined on-set interview clips with Michael Caine and some of the Muppet performers 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).

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 reviewFor this 50th Anniversary DVD, Disney has recycled the animated menus from the studio's initial DVD release of The Muppet Christmas Carol. That's just fine because they're quite inspired and much more fun than your typical DVD menu. Kermit hosts the screen and tries to get you to make a selection if you begin waiting. Of course, his antics are more likely to encourage you to NOT make a selection and instead watch him grow mildly frustrated. That's the point. Aside from the new EasyFind menu icons, different highlighting cursors, and the obvious menu revisions/additions, they're exactly like the previous DVD, which for once, is a good thing. Item: 134768434885 The Muppet Christmas Carol (DVD, 2002). Get ready for a heartwarming holiday experience with The Muppet Christmas Carol on DVD. This 2002 release is filled with laughter, music, and all your favorite Muppet characters. Join Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and the rest of the gang as they deliver a timeless tale of redemption and generosity. This G-rated movie is perfect for children and families, with a mix of live-action and puppetry that will keep everyone entertained. Directed by Brian Henson, son of Muppet creator Jim Henson, this film is a must-see for fans of the Muppets and classic Christmas movies. Add it to your collection today! Get ready for a heartwarming holiday experience with The Muppet Christmas Carol on DVD. This 2002 release is filled with laughter, music, and all your favorite Muppet characters. Join Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and the rest of the gang as they deliver a timeless tale of redemption and generosity. This G-rated movie is perfect for children and families, with a mix of live-action and puppetry that will keep everyone entertained. Directed by Brian Henson, son of Muppet creator Jim Henson, this film is a must-see for fans of the Muppets and classic Christmas movies. Add it to your collection today! The bonus short "Gonzo: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Weirdo" is also great and hilarious! Read full review Maybe the other half of this situation is just that Muppets musicians have historically struggled to fit the genre-mandatory earnest romance song into a Muppet movie. The examples range from the forgettable (“ He’ll Make Me Happy,” The Muppets Take Manhattan) to the cloyingly saccharine and not really supported by the plot (“ Love Led Us Here,” Muppet Treasure Island) to campy bombast (“ Never Before, Never Again!,” The Muppet Movie; “ The First Time It Happens,” The Great Muppet Caper). I think the nicest romance song in a Muppet movie might be “ Couldn’t We Ride” from The Great Muppet Caper, and it’s really just a little ditty about how nice it is to ride a bike with your sweetie in the park, as well as a complicated feat of puppeteering pulled off with sublime ease. A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) • The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) • Jim Henson's Dog City: The Movie

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. The final two features actually pertain to The Muppet Christmas Carol. The first is a gag reel titled "On the Set" (2:32), which provides several moments of flubbed lines, missed marks, and so on. As usual, it's interesting to see the Muppet performers remain in character for these snafus, and the sarcastic introduction from Gonzo and Rizzo is appreciated. The second, "Christmas Around the World (2:57), features more humorous shenanigans from Gonzo and Rizzo, as they explain Christmas traditions in various parts of the world, from Australia to jolly old England. Informative and amusing. 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!) Bear in the Big Blue House: Visiting the Doctor with Bear • Early to Bed, Early to Rise • Storytelling with Bear • Sense-sational! Dinosaurs: The Complete First and Second Seasons • Dinosaurs: The Complete Third and Fourth Seasons

Disney Princess: A Christmas of Enchantment • A Very Playhouse Disney Holiday • Disney Channel Holiday At last, The Muppet Christmas Carol is treated to a 16x9-enhanced widescreen transfer in the ratio it was originally seen in, 1.85:1. This presentation is a thing of beauty. It offers a vast improvement over the previous DVD release and praiseworthy color, contrast, and sharpness. The print is not quite immaculate but close to it and any imperfections are extremely minor. In short, it's everything you hoped for three years ago and probably even better thanks to advances in compression technique. The trio of ghosts are, of course, The Ghost of Christmas Past (a floating girl apparition), The Ghost of Christmas Present (a large, absent-minded red-bearded man who occasionally sounds like ALF), and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (an eerie, silent, faceless being). By showing Scrooge what has happened, is happening, and will happen, they illustrate how wrong he has been treating those around him and just where such behavior will get him - a death mourned by no one. 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. Personally, I think this is the best Christmas movie I own, maybe even the best Christmas movie ever. The costumes are period-accurate, the humor is generation-spanning, and the emotional message is perfectly clear without being pretentious as so many movies are these days.

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!Mostly what this means is that I’m not coming into this conversation with any long-standing nostalgia for the movie, or any internal meter about what constitutes the “right” version. It doesn’t feel weird and out of place to my ears the way, say, the lost Wizard of Oz musical number “ The Jitterbug” did when the preservationists first found and released the footage. You’re much more of a Muppet Christmas Carol vet than I am, Susana — did that affect your opinion here? As one would hope for any discrete scene in a movie, there are a lot of things that “When Love Is Gone” does for Muppet Christmas Carol, as you say, not least introducing a musical motif that is reprised in the very final moments of the film. If nothing else, it should be included in any release of the movie for the sake of preservation. These are things I believe wholeheartedly. Susana: I’d honestly never really thought about it that way — for a long time it’s just been the place in the movie that I’d get up to pee or grab another cookie and a hot chocolate refill, so I’m really enjoying this alternative perspective.