Release date

The movie was originally released in the UK in October of 1971, and came to the USA in very limited release in November of 1971. Radio City Music Hall ordered Disney to edit the film from its original approximate 2 hours 10 minutes length for its mid December Road Show, to 2 hours, to accommodate a performance by the Rockettes, who were booked at the theater at that time. This was the release in widespread distribution, and was the only version of the movie offered at the time, until the 1996 Special Edition version, which restored about twenty minutes of footage along with some previous footage not in the original film.

The film footage for "Step in the Right Direction" was never found for the restoration project for the 1996 re-release special edition. Disney was able to find the audio track and scene supplement pictures for the song, which are a bonus on the DVD. Film footage for "Step in the Right Direction" remains lost, and is believed to be destroyed.

For details on the changes and cuts, see the "Alternate Versions" section for the movie at this website.

Joe

I had the same question as the original post regarding what seemed like perhaps a fairly significant delay between filming and release. Even if the actress who played Carrie looked young for her age, 13 or so seems possible, but not 15.

I couldn't find a clear answer, but some extras on the blu-ray (as well as timing of other works) seem to suggest that it is plausible/possible that there was a bit of a gap between filming and release, perhaps a year-and-a-half or two--enough to account for the apparent age of the actress.

For one, on the blu-ray extra features, the Sherman Brothers mention that Walt Disney was involved in the early versions of the songs/movie, which means it must have been in progress (in some way) prior to his death in 1966. They returned to Disney for a while after doing Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang (1968--with a different studio) to work on Bendknobs and Aristocats, presumably some time between about 1968 and 1971.

Plus, given what would have been some high-tech special effects for the time and the additional work to add the animation, it seems that filming would have occurred a while before the movie was eventually released. They also discuss on the blu-ray that there were significant edits (and cuts) to reach an initial theatrical version that met the criteria given to them, another step that could have taken some time.

Just my thoughts. :)