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Nov

Single-sentence review of The Muppets

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Almost entirely everything I hoped it would be – which includes the fact that the kidlets in the theatre I was in were just as entertained as I was.

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BSD said on November 27th, 2011 at 12:30 am

Our theater was cracking up at some points.

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Alex Jay Berman said on November 27th, 2011 at 1:25 am

It’s nice to be pleasantly surprised on the rare occasion, yes?

* Caveat the First: Some nice salute to the memory of Jim Henson would have been nice–and yes; I realize something similar was probably tacked onto any or all of the various The Muppets Flog a Dead Horse flicks and straight-to-vids from 1990 through 2005, but, quite simply, they do not count.

* Caveat the Second: Though vastly entertained, the seventeen- and fourteen-year-old girls we took did not understand why everyone in the theater over the age of twenty-five misted over at “Rainbow Connection”.
(And yes; we rushed right out and bought them a copy of The Muppet Movie, because some things simply must be done.)

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Matthew Murray said on November 27th, 2011 at 2:17 am

I’m glad kids liked it, because so much of it seemed like things you would only understand if you’d seen the old stuff.

Also, @alex, I liked Muppet Treasure Island and Muppet Christmas Carol. I mean, I’m drunk right now, but I think those two count.

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Willy Wonka said on November 27th, 2011 at 5:18 am

Muppets Christmas Carol is a legitimate classic, and I will fight anyone who says otherwise.

Muppets Treasure Island is possibly less essential, but damnit, I found it funny.

We don’t talk about Muppets From Space.

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Unlucky7 said on November 27th, 2011 at 5:34 am

Seconding the FUCK YOU, MUPPETS CHRISTMAS CAROL WAS A LEGIT GREAT MOVIE.

And so is this movie, really. Hopefully, we can get a new Muppet Show out of it? Or at least have a Statler and Waldorf commentary track on the Blu-Ray release.

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Mecha Velma said on November 27th, 2011 at 6:05 am

While Muppet Christmas Carol was good, to be fair its pretty damn hard to fuck up that storyline. You’d need a director like Uwe Boll or Ed Wood to even try.

@Alex – I think the fact that this movie was so awesome was enough of a tribute to Jim Henson. Also, there was a picture of Jim Henson sitting next to Kermit on the wall of stars in the Muppet theater.

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Prodigal said on November 27th, 2011 at 1:59 pm

Also, the museum or whatever it is next door to the Muppet theatre in the exterior shots has a banner with Jim Henson’s picture on it. That, and the way they used the opening shot of the original movie in the opening shot of this one, were worthy tributes to Jim.

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Dan Lokhorst said on November 27th, 2011 at 2:01 pm

Muppets From Space holds a special place in my heart because it settled a standing argument that a friend and I had going for years; what Gonzo’s species was. She insisted he was a buzzard, and I said his stated classification was a “Whatever.” Turns out we were both wrong. Sort of. Muppet continuity is fairly malleable.

@Unlucky: SO MUCH YES to that commentary track!

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AMS said on November 27th, 2011 at 5:57 pm

I saw it with my girlfriend. We both really liked it and are holding out hope that it won’t be a one-off thing, that the Muppets will continue to be used prominently, whether in theaters or on television.

As far as Muppet Treasure Island and Muppet Christmas Carol are concerned, they’re fun movies, but I don’t consider them part of the Muppet canon. They aren’t stories about Kermit, Gonzo, Fozzie, etc.; they’re stories where the Muppets play other characters.

Pretty good long opening weekend for the movie, about $42M in the US. And I think it will continue to do well through the Christmas season because of word-of-mouth reviews and parents taking their children to it. We saw a Saturday matinee showing, and the theater was pretty full.

I’ll probably buy the DVD when it comes out either way, but a commentary by Statler and Waldorf would clinch it.

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Matt D said on November 27th, 2011 at 9:26 pm

I liked it, a lot, and yes, got emotional at times, but I wish they had gone over the script one last pass to tighten it up.

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Alex Jay Berman said on November 28th, 2011 at 2:04 am

Honestly? Being Jewish, I haven’t all that much of a desire to see Muppet Christmas Carol (not that I don’t appreciate the original book, or the Alistair Sim or Bill Murray versions, but …).

Now here’s the next question: Where does Muppetry (Muppetude?) A new TV show? A series of movies? How do you keep the brand going?

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steve, from the internet said on November 28th, 2011 at 3:49 am

You haven’t even seen Muppets Christmas Carol and you’re deriding it as “Muppets flog a dead horse”? Shame on you, sir.
In my opinion it’s one of the best Muppet movies out there. I am also rather fond of Treasure Island.

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Jason Barnett said on November 28th, 2011 at 7:19 am

Well the Muppets are supposed to be characters who dream of being actors. So in things like Muppet Christmas Carol and Treasure Island they successfully got the part.

I rememember they actually did interviews with a plot like that. Someone’s interviewing Kermit about how Ms. Piggy has been cast as his wife and his response is he’d like to remind Piggy of three things “THis is only a movie. This is ONLY a movie. This is ONLY a MOVIE”

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Salmo said on November 28th, 2011 at 7:56 am

In addition to the two pictures of Henson, he had three cameos; two as Kermit, and one as Mahna Mahna.

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DistantFred said on November 28th, 2011 at 8:46 am

All these people asking for a new Muppet Show… do you guys forget how much of a failure Muppets Tonight was?

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Brian G said on November 28th, 2011 at 11:05 am

Well, that’s because it was Muppets Tonight. Keep the original set, keep the original characters, keep the same format with cool, hip guest stars, etc. If they keep the same idea as the movie, it shouldn’t be too hard.

I’ll even point to “Muppet Central” from the Jim Henson Hour as not being bad, even though it had a needlessly updated format.

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Prankster said on November 28th, 2011 at 12:40 pm

I liked Muppets Tonight, but yeah, it was a mistake to put the focus on new muppets at the expense of Kermit and co. Also, I feel like it just wasn’t the right time for the Muppets to come back. Now, with this apparently highly successful movie having restored them to fame, a show would probably be a big success.

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Dylan said on November 29th, 2011 at 2:15 pm

As a long time fan of the Muppets, I loved this. Though I have one question: where the heck was Robin? I’d have settled for just seeing him riding around on Sweetums, but his absence was quite noticeable.

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-evan. said on November 29th, 2011 at 9:44 pm

I loved this movie. My brothers and I were left singing the songs all weekend.

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AMS said on December 4th, 2011 at 1:32 pm

Dylan,

Obviously, Robin was replaced as the kid-friendly audience stand-in by Walter.

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mtraptor said on December 7th, 2011 at 9:45 pm

When I saw the movie the day it came out, a little kid sitting behind me at one point said loudly, “Mom, Kermit’s looking at me!” That kid’s gonna be juuuuuust fine.

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