Here’s why The Muppets Christmas Carol song “When Love Is Gone” is missing in some versions. Michael Caine’s career has been anything but dull. At the beginning of his career, he won acclaim for his turns in Zulu, Alfie and Get Carter, but his commitment to accepting roles that paid well would lead to projects of dubious quality. Some of the biggest clunkers include the 1978 disaster movie The Swarm – which even Caine believes is one of his worst efforts – Beyond The Posideon Adventure, Jaws: The Revenge and Bullseye!
Michael Caine himself has poked fun at some of his more questionable choices but came very close to retiring around the time he made the Harry Palmer sequels Bullet To Beijing and Midnight In Saint Petersberg, following a miserable production. It was only an offer from Jack Nicholson to appear in thriller Blood And Wine that he reassessed this decision. He’s since opted to turn down offers based on the cheque and only commits to material he connects with. This has resulted in career-best work, including The Cider House Rules, the Dark Knight Trilogy and Children Of Men.
In 1992, Michael Caine appeared in The Muppets Christmas Christmas Carol, a reinvention of Charles Dickens’ classic tale A Christmas Carol. The movie has since become a Christmas TV staple like Home Alone or Die Hard, and Caine himself made it so his young daughter could watch something he was in. The narrative is basically the same as Dickens, but with muppets like Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, etc inserted into the story. The Muppets Christmas Carol has Caine’s Scrooge being visited by three ghosts who show him the past, present, and future, including his relationship with Belle, who was the love of his life.
Arguably The Muppets Christmas Carol’s most heartbreaking moment is the song “When Love Is Gone,” when Belle breaks up with Scrooge after his focus on business gradually sucked the love out of their relationship. It’s a melancholy sequence but the problem is, it was cut from the movie’s theatrical release. Disney head Jeffrey Katzenberg though it was way too sad for a children’s movie, and its removal from the narrative feels jarring. It undercuts Scrooge’s journey and the payoff of him singing the end song “When Love Is Found.”
Director Brian Henson (The Happytime Murders) never wanted to cut “When Love Is Gone” from The Muppets Christmas Carol, and the song was restored for most television, VHS and DVD versions. The song was missing from the Blu-ray cut, however, and Henson explained to The Big Issue why. It turns out Disney lost the original negative for the movie and while they tried to put the “When Love Is Gone” scene on the Blu-ray from the original video release, the visual drop in quality was too sharp and it was removed.
Henson is still hopeful The Muppets Christmas Carol’s negative will be found and “When Love Is Gone” can finally be restored for good. In the meantime, the sequence is fully available online for fans who want to seek it out.
