Muppet Christmas Carol now streams on Disney Plus with controversial cut song

In 2022, Christmas got here a bit of early for followers of The Muppet Christmas Carol — not less than, those who subscribe to Disney Plus. Not solely did the streaming service add a 4K restoration of Brian Henson’s 1992 vacation film, however the launch got here with an additional choice for deep-cut followers: a model of the movie that restores the song “When Love Is Gone.”

The Paul Williams-penned quantity was cut from the theatrical model of Muppet Christmas Carol, reportedly on the orders of Disney honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg. Then it was restored haphazardly in house video editions. VHS copy? Included. The 86-minute widescreen DVD launch? Not included. The 90-minute fullscreen model within the similar DVD set? Included! The unique movie negatives of the scene had been at one level presumed misplaced, then rediscovered, however not in time for the movie’s first streaming launch on Disney Plus in 2020. Fans needed to wait till the film’s thirtieth anniversary this 12 months for the addition of “When Love Is Gone” to The Muppet Christmas Carol on Disney’s flagship streaming service.

That addition set off a tiny vacation warfare at Polygon, with staffers debating what the song provides and whether or not it’s an important a part of the movie. (Disney possible had its personal inside debate in regards to the inclusion: The streamer affords the theatrical model of the movie, the “full-length version” with the song included, and a clip that’s simply the song on its personal, so viewers can decide their poison relying on their preferences.) But what’s a popular culture debate in the event you don’t invite your whole readership to select sides? We determined to speak it out in public.

Tasha Robinson: OK, let’s make clear one factor: I noticed The Muppet Christmas Carol for the very first time per week in the past, due to buddies who had been appalled that I’d by no means watched it earlier than and arrange a bunch viewing on-line. (They really came upon final 12 months at our group semi-hate-watch of White Christmas, and insisted on establishing this week’s screening almost a 12 months upfront. That’s dedication!)

Mostly what this implies is that I’m not coming into this dialog with any long-standing nostalgia for the film, or any inside meter about what constitutes the “right” model. It doesn’t really feel bizarre and misplaced to my ears the best way, say, the misplaced Wizard of Oz musical quantity “The Jitterbug” did when the preservationists first discovered and launched the footage. You’re way more of a Muppet Christmas Carol vet than I’m, Susana — did that have an effect on your opinion right here?

Susana Polo: Oh, on the contrary. Though it was cut from the theatrical model, “When Love is Gone” was included haphazardly in house video variations. All the copies my household occurred to personal, from VHS to modern-day, included the scene. It’s all the time been there for me. And yeah, I feel it suuuuuuuuu— I imply, uh, I feel it’s the weakest a part of the movie. But how did it hit you, contemporary to the glory of Muppet Christmas Carol?

Tasha: As a necessary a part of the story, truthfully! We watched the theatrical cut first, and that scene, the place Ebenezer Scrooge’s youthful romance ends, setting him on the trail of the bitter miser, appeared weirdly curtailed and complicated to me. I wasn’t actually positive why she was dumping him! The cut scene isn’t simply the song, it’s the entire clarification of how he retains suspending their marriage ceremony, and the way she feels he doesn’t love her anymore, and is continuous their plans with out actually feeling them. It’s fairly vital context!

Image: Walt Disney Pictures

And then I assumed the song itself was fairly pretty. It’s one other one from frequent Muppet songwriter Paul Williams, the man behind Muppet classics like “Rainbow Connection” and “I’m Going To Go Back There Someday.” This song isn’t in that class, however for me, it has a few of the similar taste of candy melancholy and candy concord. Why do you hate it a lot?

Susana: See, now that is an attention-grabbing flip. I’ve principally by no means seen the film with out that scene, provided that I used to be in elementary faculty when it was in theaters. It was not really clear to me till simply now that Katzenberg excised the whole thing of that character beat. That was an especially dumbass factor of him to do. And it makes me doubly glad that Disney Plus has restored it.

As one would hope for any discrete scene in a film, there are loads of issues that “When Love Is Gone” does for Muppet Christmas Carol, as you say, not least introducing a musical motif that’s reprised within the very ultimate moments of the movie. If nothing else, it ought to be included in any launch of the film for the sake of preservation. These are issues I imagine wholeheartedly.

It’s simply additionally that I object to “When Love Is Gone” on the grounds of what makes musical. The song itself isn’t all that good, is carried out stiffly, and is staged uncreatively, however greater than that, it takes the viewer on an overlong detour with a personality we barely know and who’s about to depart the narrative completely — marking it as an actual outlier in a area of absolute banger musical sequences.

Tasha: It’s only some minutes! It isn’t that lengthy! And it’s nearly our final touchpoint for younger, emotional Scrooge earlier than his coronary heart hardened. So he’s the main target right here, not his minimally developed love curiosity!

But for probably the most half, I’ll concede that you just’re on-the-nose-correct right here, and that this can be a fairly flawed scene, largely as a result of we don’t know who Belle actually is. (Apart from being performed by singing stage star Meredith Braun.) So the sudden focus on her emotional ache does really feel fairly odd, particularly when she peaces out perpetually instantly afterward.

Image: Walt Disney Pictures

But none of that is what I used to be anticipating a longtime Muppet Christmas Carol fan to object to — right here I assumed most individuals who wished this song gone would simply really feel prefer it was misplaced in a film filled with Muppets to have a dramatic, melancholy, Muppet-less quantity, with two people navigating their extraordinarily rudimentary love story, and never a puppet in sight. Is that in your calculus in any respect when you consider reducing this scene? What are your huge objections right here?

Susana: Bluntly, I feel the entire scene wanted to have been rethought earlier than it was ever filmed. There’s the entire thing about how we’re not invested in Belle and won’t see her once more the very second the music ends on this song. But I’ve much more questions:

Why is the visible staging of this solo quantity so unutterably boring? She by no means even takes her fingers 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 quantity designed to be a shared song between Belle, younger Scrooge, and older Scrooge from the get-go? We can nonetheless culminate with Belle and Present Scrooge harmonizing — that’s good and I’ve no notes.

If I had to do the scene with this song, I feel the very best repair can be to easily slim it to its essence. Belle spells out the whole thing of the character growth right here within the first verse and refrain. The second verse is about… how she feels journey calling her away from an ideal life and worries she could remorse it? But then she leaves anyway! It doesn’t jibe. Cut straight from the tip of the primary refrain to her and Present Scrooge on the bridge and the outro. Short, candy, it communicates all we have to know, it introduces the musical motif for callback later, and it makes the very best of a slipshod state of affairs.

Tasha: I’ll go to bat for not letting Belle begin off by singing with younger Scrooge — consciously, I do know it’s the identical character, however watching Belle and this random younger’un work together, it feels to me like we’re watching two characters we barely know and haven’t meaningfully related with. And once more, the scene isn’t actually about Young Scrooge, it’s in regards to the outdated man wanting on and remembering this second he’s suppressed within the strategy of convincing himself that he likes his solitary, bitter, environment friendly life. Young Scrooge isn’t feeling something main on this second, and that’s what the scene is telling us. (The man taking part in him seems extra like he’s concentrating on making a convincing Michael Caine face than like he’s watching his deliberate life disintegrate in entrance of him.)

Image: Walt Disney Pictures

That staging is a part of what makes the song so nice! Young Scrooge actually simply walks away from her within the background, out of focus, whereas she’s nonetheless singing about leaving him! He proves her level in that second — he isn’t keen to struggle for her or argue with her, he’s off to do his personal factor. He isn’t filled with remorse, so it’s as much as Present Scrooge to step in and categorical that remorse — and perhaps even perceive and acknowledge it for the primary time in his life. Their duet — the previous and current in dialog in an entirely new method — is most of what’s stunning about this scene for me. The specter of an outdated man realizing for the primary time that he didn’t know every part when he was younger, smug, and positive of himself? It’s quite a bit to pack right into a song, however as stiff because the staging is and as fakey and plastic because the set is right here, Michael Caine moving into this second and including his voice actually brings all of it throughout.

Susana: I’d truthfully by no means actually thought of it that method — for a very long time it’s simply been the place within the film that I’d stand up to pee or seize one other cookie and a scorching chocolate refill, so I’m actually having fun with this various perspective.

Maybe the opposite half of this case is simply that Muppets musicians have traditionally struggled to suit the genre-mandatory earnest romance song right into a Muppet film. The examples vary from the forgettable (“He’ll Make Me Happy,” The Muppets Take Manhattan) to the cloyingly saccharine and not likely 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 feel the nicest romance song in a Muppet film is perhaps “Couldn’t We Ride” from The Great Muppet Caper, and it’s actually just a bit ditty about how good it’s to journey a motorcycle with your sweetie within the park, in addition to an advanced feat of puppeteering pulled off with elegant ease.

Tasha: Yeah, I’m positive not going to attempt to struggle you on Muppet love songs typically. I’m completely on board with the take that the Muppets are at their finest after they’re wholly honest, and my favourite Muppets songs are typically the type of achy melancholy songs Williams writes, together with those I discussed above and “When the River Meets the Sea,” a candy vacation song about demise.

But someway that sincerity simply by no means actually interprets into good Muppet songs about romantic love. Muppets can love rainbows, artwork, nonsense, their very own wistful fantasies of belonging someplace, or (I’ll say it once more) the candy embrace of demise, however after they attempt to love one another, the alchemy doesn’t work, and it simply falls flat. It’s in all probability factor that Gonzo and Rizzo don’t attempt to become involved in “When Love Is Gone.” For me, not less than, it’s a flawed however charming quantity that makes some vital character factors for the film. It’s no love song for the ages. But within the methods it does work, it in all probability works finest as a result of it units the Muppets apart for a second and appeals on to the viewers’s humanity.