A ‘lost’ song from the Muppet Christmas Carol has been found

A song that was originally cut from The Muppet Christmas Carol movie has been found and revealed by director Brian Henson.

The song is performed by Scrooge’s fiancée Belle when he goes back in time and is called ‘When Love is Gone’.

The song, a love ballad, was deemed too boring for children by the Disney’s studio chief at the time Jeffrey Katzenberg, so was cut. 

Once it was removed both the video master and negative of the song were both lost, until now…

Once the film was released on DVD, the song was completely lost after appearing on the VHS release of the film. 

Speaking to OJ Borg on a special programme about the Muppets, Henson said he received a call back in November asking him to view the new version of the film in crystal clear 4k. 

He was unaware the the lost track had been found and couldn’t believe what he saw. He said: “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, I was like, ‘No, you did not!’ and they said, ‘Yes we did! We found it!’ I was so happy, I was so happy.”

The song reminds Scrooge of a time when he and his fiancée broke up as he decided to focus on his career over their relationship. 

Henson told the BBC that they thought the film didn’t justify a love ballad ‘because there is no loving relationship that we can celebrate in that movie… So the love ballad is when Belle is leaving Scrooge’.

You can listen to the song in an interview with Henson on BBC Radio 2 on Christmas Day during The Muppets at Christmas: it’s Time To Play The Music, at 7pm.

You can also watch the normal film (without the song, unfortunately) on Disney+.