The Muppet Christmas Carol is my favorite holiday movie of all time! I saw the original in theaters and owned the VHS, as well as had multiple DVD versions. However, at one point, the sad love song “When Love is Gone” between Ebenezer Scrooge (Michael Caine) and Belle (Meredith Braun) was removed from the film. Supposedly, Disney felt it was too sad for children. Last I checked, The Muppets are for all ages, but that’s just me.

It seems Disney+ somewhat agrees with me. In an announcement on The Muppets Instagram, they share that you can now stream The Muppet Christmas Carol in all its glory! This includes the once-deleted song on the streaming platform. However, you still have to jump through a few hoops to find it.

“When Love is Gone” is gone no more! 💞 See the beloved song restored within The Muppet Christmas Carol (Full-Length Version) found in the Extras section only on @DisneyPlus”.

Why you still have to go to the extras section in order to watch the full movie makes zero sense to me. Just make it THE MOVIE. That said, I’ll take the win. At least it’s included in a version of the film and not just a random deleted scene. I’m tired of navigating to it and then going back to the movie.

THIS ISN’T THE FIRST TIME CREATORS TRIED TO GET WHEN LOVE IS GONE BACK INTO THE FILM

Back in 2018, with the release of The Muppet Christmas Carol Blu-ray, director Brian Henson tried to add the deleted song back into the film. However, it didn’t work out.

“When we tried cutting it in to the Blu-ray movie it looked terrible because you could tell we’d cut from high resolution to the original video release. I‘m still pressuring them to find it. They keep swearing to me that there is no way it has been lost forever. And I keep saying, ‘but it’s been 20 years!'” Henson added, “They’re still searching. I call them like every month to ask if they’re still looking. One of these days they’ll find it.”

Then, in 2020, Henson confirmed that the “lost” piece of film has finally been found and would be resorted for a 4k remaster. So, here we are.

“They are all set with the full-length version again. I don’t know if they are going to get it up on Disney+ in time for Christmas because they have all these processes,” Henson explained at the time, “but it is coming back. The full-length version is coming back.”

While I’m annoyed it’s still not the main streaming version, I’ll take it!