Last Christmas, the family Christmas suffered an annoying hiccup related to a DVD copy of The Muppet Christmas Carol and a missing song. The relevant blog was posted on 7^th January 2013.

Since then, we have discovered that the old video copy we used to watch was actually not the original theatrical release. The song in question, When Love is Gone, was cut from the original because Disney feared children in the audience would lose interest; they did, however, feel that the song would work successfully when watched in a home environment, so it was included on the video release. So, mystery solved.

Lots of people have complained about the edit, but whilst Disney has responded by releasing a DVD which includes the missing number, this is currently only available in America. We’ll have to wait and see if the company does the same for Region 2.

This Christmas, we had devised an elaborate plan involving setting up the DVD in tandem with the laptop, so that when we approached the offending edit, we could watch our song on You Tube before cutting back to the DVD.

In the end, it wasn’t necessary, thanks to the time-delayed memory of our son, who suddenly remembered that he had picked up another video copy of the film before he’d come across the DVD. It had a different cover and the running time coincided with that of the DVD, suggesting the edit was still in place.

All the same, we decided to give it a go. The critical moment arrived – and there was the missing ditty! The football crowd type reaction to this revelation rather ruined the poignancy of the moment, as we all threw our arms in the air and yelled for joy, but it was a great fun moment all the same. Thereafter, we watched happily to the end, dutifully pointing along with The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, another well-worn family institution.

We’ll be taking great care of our newly discovered video from now on.