But none of this is what I was expecting a longtime Muppet Christmas Carol fan to object to — here I thought most people who wanted this song gone would just feel like it was out of place in a movie full of Muppets to have a dramatic, melancholy, Muppet-less number, with two humans navigating their extremely rudimentary love story, and not a puppet in sight. Is that in your calculus at all when you think about cutting this scene? What are your big objections here? Kermit's 50th Anniversary Editions: Muppet Treasure Island (1996) • The Muppet Movie (1979) • The Great Muppet Caper (1981) Dinosaurs: The Complete First and Second Seasons • Dinosaurs: The Complete Third and Fourth Seasons 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. 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.

Bear in the Big Blue House: Visiting the Doctor with Bear • Early to Bed, Early to Rise • Storytelling with Bear • Sense-sational!

Tasha: Yeah, I’m sure not going to try to fight you on Muppet love songs in general. I’m entirely on board with the take that the Muppets are at their best when they’re wholly sincere, and my favorite Muppets songs tend to be the kind of achy melancholy songs Williams writes, including the ones I mentioned above and “When the River Meets the Sea,” a sweet holiday song about death. For 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. 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. Susana Polo: Oh, to the contrary. Though it was cut from the theatrical version, “When Love is Gone” was included haphazardly in home video versions. All the copies my family happened to own, from VHS to modern day, included the scene. It’s always been there for me. And yeah, I think it suuuuuuuuu— I mean, uh, I think it’s the weakest part of the film. But how did it hit you, fresh to the glory of Muppet Christmas Carol?

Theatrical Release: December 11, 1992 / Running Time: 86 Minutes (theatrical cut), 89 Minutes (extended cut) / Rating: G A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) • The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) • Jim Henson's Dog City: The Movie Finally, Scrooge meets the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, a silent entity who reveals the chilling revelation that young Tiny Tim ( Robin) will not survive the coming year, thanks in no small part to the impoverished existence of the Cratchit family. Furthermore, it is revealed that when Scrooge's own time has passed, others will certainly delight in his absence from the world. Upon seeing his headstone in the cemetery, it is the final epiphany that convinces Scrooge to change his ways and makes him vow to celebrate with his fellow man. 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 reviewThe bonus short "Gonzo: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Weirdo" is also great and hilarious! Read full review

Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving (10th Anniversary Edition) • Shrek the Halls • Santa Buddies: The Legend of Santa Paws 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! 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). 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 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!)

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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. A seven-second Muppet Studios logo (accompanied by a few chords from "The Muppet Show" theme) now appears before the film starts. It's actually not a part of either version's video file, but plays as an introduction the way those annoying FBI warnings and the new and "improved" Disney DVD logo do. 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. Susana: Bluntly, I think the whole scene needed to have been rethought before it was ever filmed. There’s the whole thing about how we are not invested in Belle and will not see her again the very moment the music ends on this song. But I have a lot more questions:

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. 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.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? 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! Songs: "Scrooge", "Good King Wenceslas", "One More Sleep 'Til Christmas", "Marley and Marley", When Love is Gone", "It Feels Like Christmas", "Christmas Scat", "Bless Us All", "Thankful Heart", "When Love is Found/It Feels Like Christmas" This is the first of the Muppet movies in which the focus of the story revolves around characters played by human beings. However, several pivotal roles -- in particular, the three Christmas Spirits -- were portrayed by specially-created Muppet characters. It was at one time considered that well-known Muppets would be cast in these roles (Piggy, Scooter, and Gonzo, specifically) before it was decided that it would detract from the ominous effect the spirits would need to convey. [3]