Muppets C. Carol (1 Viewer)

[bob kaplan]

How much longer are required to wait before THE MUPPETS CHRISTMAS CAROL could get a new transfer.....so that the cut number might be included in the actual Blu Ray presentation? .... maybe with "branching" so those who wished to skip it, could do so and those that wished to watch it could do so.
My kids have grown and have children of their own but I still watch this charming movie every holiday season....wish it were a complete presentation.

 

[battlebeast]

what was cut?

 

[Osato]

what was cut?

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Why-...-Was-Cut-Really-Should-Have-Stayed-68641.html

 

[Malcolm R]

Given Disney's penchant for multiple dipping, I'm surprised they haven't taken advantage of this to market an "extended cut" of MCC on blu.

 

[Konstantinos]

Haven't purchased this, because it was the extended cut I first saw and loved, and also it was the cut song that is my favourite one since I'm into love ballads.
Hope they release a special edition or something in the future.

 

[DVBRD]

This is something that has always bugged me about this Blu-Ray. This is a very popular holiday movie, and I'm sure that Disney knows that. So it's kind of shocking that they didn't give what people really wanted and included the extended cut of the film as an option.

The only thing that can be explained is that the footage for this number is missing. But that shouldn't stop Disney from locating it, especially since they're a big corporation and won't lose much. They could get Brian Henson as an advisor for this undertaking. Who knows? They might find the other songs cut from the movie that were also on the soundtrack. That would be a great special feature.

 

[Konstantinos]

They might find the other songs cut from the movie that were also on the soundtrack.

i didn't know about other songs.
Is it confirmed that they were shot?

 

[MatthewA]

That article of course fails to mention one big thing about the film: The uncut version was available OAR on laserdisc before there was even such a thing as DVD.

The idea that they would lose the footage for the number between 1993 and today is unlikely. I doubt they'd deliberately throw it out, and with the level of security at the studio it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to steal it. More likely they just don't feel like going to the expense of re-transferring it separately.

But I don't know why they would omit this especially when Muppets Most Wanted got a six-minute longer extended cut derisively referred to as an "unnecessarily extended edition." Maybe they could have showed some truth in advertising and called this the "unnecessarily shortened edition."

 

[jim_falconer]

I still play my laserdisc version of this film every year around Christmas. I could never watch the film without "When Love Is Gone". It's the heart and soul of how things went so wrong for Scrooge.

 

[davidmatychuk]

Agreed. I have the so-called 50th Anniversary Edition DVD from 2005, which allows you to watch what they call the "Extended Full Screen Version With Deleted Scene". They even have the nerve to fine-print "The Full Screen version of this film has been modified from its original version". Oh, really? You don't say!

 

[Osato]

Agreed. I have the so-called 50th Anniversary Edition DVD from 2005, which allows you to watch what they call the "Extended Full Screen Version With Deleted Scene". They even have the nerve to fine-print "The Full Screen version of this film has been modified from its original version". Oh, really? You don't say!

It has been modified in the not true spirit of Christmas.

 

[DVBRD]

You won't believe what had just been discovered. I'd be a Scrooge not to share it with you.

A friend of mine (anonymous) is a collector of off-air recordings and managed to get a broadcast of The Muppet Christmas Carol, taped off of American broadcast TV in 2000. He discovered that there was additional footage that wasn't present in any other versions of the film (and that includes the VHS/LD/pan-and-scan DVD). He found it sometime earlier this year, and managed to submit this to Movie Censorship.com.

https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=620312

The "Marley and Marley" number was extended. It has an alternate introduction with Statler and Waldorf (The Marleys) explaining their presence to Scrooge (lifted directly from Dickens, of course), plus an additional verse near the end. This must have only aired a few times because I haven't heard anyone on the Internet talk about it. In fact, I don't think the issue about "The Love is Gone" (BTW, it was on that copy, too) was brought up until about 15 years ago.

I have uploaded it here via Google Drive because I'm not going to start a YouTube account just to post this. If anyone wants to upload this to YT, be my guest.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=18oil0GkUVqhBbD9LPHmcU_mThVtikx7T

P.S.: I had intended to upload this the day after Thanksgiving, but Christmas music is already playing on the radio and the Hallmark Channel has become "The Christmas Channel" for a while, so I feel justified in sharing it now.

And now it's time to part. Holiday Wishes to you all!

 

[DVBRD]

I don't know if anyone else is aware, but iTunes and Movies Anywhere released the theatrical version of MCC for digital download with "When Love is Gone" reinstated as an extra. It's in HD (it could be from a 35mm print), but the picture is darker than in previous video versions.

https://twitter.com/Escapay/status/940402647483510784

I question if this is a sign of things to come and Disney will integrate it in some newer prints (hopefully 4K), provided it's cleaned up.

 

[DVBRD]

Last year, Brian Henson did an interview about "When Love is Gone" and how it ended up not showing up on newer copies. It basically confirms what I believed before, that it was because Disney lost the footage. Apparently, the video transfers (the full-screen VHS print and the letterbox LaserDisc print) were made before the number was removed.

https://www.bigissue.com/culture/why-is-the-best-part-of-the-muppet-christmas-carol-still-missing/

BTW, the extended "Marley and Marley" has found its way to YouTube. What I'd like to know is how Disney found that footage? Did they prepare a television version before the extra stuff was taken out?

 

[MatthewA]

It matches the rest more than the one minute of the “Portobello Road” dance in Bedknobs and Broomsticks for which they had nothing but workprint saved on it, and far better than the VHS inserts from 54. Worse comes to worst, they can use whatever process they used to convert Fraggle Rock to HD.

There’s also the possibility of Disney not being truthful with him just because they don’t want to do it. They lied about the status of The Watcher in the Woods’ outtakes and about the original running time of Pete’s Dragon. And after going back to the short B&B even after it had been transferred to HD for iTunes and Vudu at 139 Minutes, I would put nothing past them. But now he’s claiming they lost it in 1992! But they found enough for an iTunes extra. Even their claims seem somewhat contradictory. They lost it, they found it, they lost it, they found it. At least we actually saw the footage, which is more than I can say for “A Step in the Right Direction,” still MIA to this day.

What I have to say about them for this carelessness is against HTF rules. I thought the studios had gotten this misguided way of thinking out of their systems in the 1970s.

 

[Dick]

I thought the studios had gotten this misguided way of thinking out of their systems in the 1970s.

Oh, no...it's only just begun, especially at Disney!

 

[MatthewA]

There are apparently three different video versions of the scene in question, yet they told Brian Henson they couldn't find any film footage at all? He must not have seen or heard about the iTunes version.

How would a 35mm print have had it if it was not in the theatrical cut? The BBFC page on the film gets even weirder when you take PAL speedup into account.

 

[DVBRD]

Disney+ has MCC in their inventory, and like iTunes has "When Love is Gone" in HD as an extra. I watched it, and while it is presented in better quality than I thought it would look, you can tell that it looks a little fuzzy compared to the recent prints, especially when it cuts back to the theatrical version at the end of the song with Gonzo consoling Rizzo. I think that the casual viewer wouldn't tell the difference, though. At the same time, I can understand why Disney won't reconstruct the video version with the deleted footage looking inferior to the rest. A least, I hope this is what's keeping Disney from taking this task on. (You never know with Disney).

And BTW, I too think that Brian Henson's interview leaves a rather gaping hole. That iTunes version came out in late 2017 and The Happytime Murders came out the following summer. Yet all this time Disney never told Brian Henson that they found a decent copy of the deleted song in their vaults, transferred it to HD and released in on iTunes? Disney's PR department boggles me.

 

[MatthewA]

It doesn’t sound like it’s that bad if they still had enough to get a high definition version out of it at least. They seem to be paying more attention to picture and sound anomalies than story weaknesses.

 

[DVBRD]

The makers of 'The Muppet Christmas Carol' break down the movie's lost musical number

'The Muppet Christmas Carol' makers Brian Henson and Paul Williams break down the creation of the lost song 'When Love Is Gone' featuring Michael Caine and Meredith Braun.

ew.com