Your Thoughts: Muppets Letters to Santa

[SesameStMuppets]

So here are my thoughts...

By the way, I'm taking the Frank Oz approach to the voices: the performance was great with all of the characters... that's all that matters. Anyhoo...

The opening was a really neat transition... from the stacks of letters to the sky scrapers. Did anybody notice the old Muppet stamps that were on a ton of the letters ?

I wish I hadn't watched the on-line previews since that was pretty much the first part of the movie until the first commercial.

It was a nice mix of everyone's attempt to get the letters off to Santa. Personally, the Scooter bit with the 'hits' was the best one (naturally) . I personall found the whole thing with the Sopranos to be almost more of the Muppets making a cameo in their world rather than the other way around.

Nathan Lane was such a great villan! Definetally surpassed anything post-Muppets at Walt Disney World; but, really how could he?

Bill is still growing on me. I love how he has brought back the remains of Rowlf and Dr. Teeth; Bobo is good, I really still can't stand Pepe so to see him saking stage instead of Piggy, Scooter, or anybody else, steams me. I know it's difficult to have Fozzie and Piggy together with Eric, but Kermit and Rizzo are both there.

Did I meantion Harry and Beaker were perfect? *skims what he's already written* Harry and Beaker were PERFECT !

The Muppets have really come back to re-capture what a cameo is! That was always the best part of any Muppet movie, and they're clearly getting back to that! Whoopi was really good, it's nice to see that her relationship with the Muppets has always stayed strong.

Muppets getting thrown around! Yes! Both getting tossed offf the mail truck and then needing to 'wing it' was such a great call-out to the Great Muppet Caper without totally recycling it!

The songs were good... I wish we could have heard a few more. They weren't to the standards of the Muppet Movie or Emmet Otter, but how could it, really?

I didn't like seeing Santa. The Christmas Eve on Sesame Street approcah was always my favorite. Keep him omnitient; otherwise you keep seeing a different Santa in EVERY OTHER CHRISTMAS SPECIAL and then the illusion becomes tarnished, if not destroyed. Not only that but the casting was off for him. Somebody find me Charles Durning!

I know I'm going to offend some here, but I dind't find Gonzo's role convincing. It was clear that paul Williams inspired this script, as Gonzo was the main character. Now, I have no problem with having Gonzo being the main character! I love to see new sides of characters, and I absolutely love Gonzo. However, you can't tell me that Gonzo could pull everyone together to do something nice at Christmas while Kermit wants to give up and truly be a Caribean Anphibean (forgive the reference). I'm not saying that Gonzo's heart can't be in the right place, but Kermit's heart would never be in the wrong place! The Muppets have always been about Kermit pulling everyone together, 'the eye of the hurricane' as I believe Jery Juhl coined it. To see Kermit need convincing to save somebody's Christmas was just wrong in my mind.

Overall, I enjoyed the special. It was well done. The puppetry was beautiful. The gang was back together! I hope to see more projects that are better than this, but this will definetally be a wonderful spring board to make a better movie.

Three and a half of five Kermits for me!

 

[Drtooth]

I thought it was absolutely amazing. I think the only true problem was that it was too short. It felt like a half hour special that happened to be over in an hour. Had it been a solid 2 hour film, it would have been much better. I mean, a scene with Santa's elves would have been nice... and I really think it should have focused outside of just those five characters...Other than that, I felt it was great. A little closer to Christmas Eve on Sesame Street than MFC...I agree it needed to be more chaotic, but once again, a time issue.

But I really have to say, they brought the Muppets back to almost a Jim-era sense of quality. They found the right audience, and they didn't have to go fishing for tweenagers with pop star stunt casting, or pandering to nostalgic college students with loud, tacky jokes about pop culture and lines about Camilla "filling out." This is the most timeless Muppet project I've seen in a while (not entirely, but no Cast of Scrubs [though I like Scrubs] or Kelly Osborne popping their heads out and saying "Look! I'm in a Muppet special"). And you know what? It had the 2 base things that they haven't gotten right in a muppet project for years. The Muppets played themselves, and the guest stars played characters... not the other way around. And other than one or two guests, it wasn't a commercial for NBC like the last time.

And we FINALLY have multiple original songs. Not one or two with a weird pop music sound track. What was that? Since MTI?

As for the story focusing on Gonzo, well, PAul Williams did write some of it, I don't know how much he wrote, but he once spoke of connecting most to that character, so I can see why it came out that way.

So definite B for me as well.

 

[RedPiggy]

I know! When everyone was out in the hallway when Piggy came out, Floyd should have made a joke about the Pig. That would have been the perfect time to make fun of her.

And then there'd be "oh no, not another pig joke" from some of the crowd.

 

[SesameStMuppets]

I had forgotten to mention that it was too short. Your description that it was a half-hour special that went too long was great!

Also, why were they living in an apartment? It was too much like Muppets From Space, in my opinion. There is never any explination, which bothers me as a fan. I'm going to stop complaining now, because I did love the special, and I really don't want to ruin it!

 

[hoopless]

I NEEEEEED to see it! the NBC streaming doesn't work outside the US so does anyone know where i can see it? can i download it anywhere or get someone to send me a copy? i'll pay all costs i just need to see it and it's not going to be on UK television

 

[Oscarfan]

If anyone missed it, it's n Hulu.com apparently.

 

[TML]

I enjoyed the special more than I thought I would. The beginning seemed a little off to me, a little rushed, but once they got back to the apartment building I really enjoyed it. It reminded me of a nicer Happiness Hotel, where all the Muppets live together in a slightly run down building. I loved the quick jokes like when Floyd says, "Nuts" and then the camera pans to him passing out nuts. And when Animal hit the computer and Scooter says, "Well, we just got out first hit!" It was definitely done in the spirit of the Muppets.
I will admit that I am extremely tired of hearing people on this board pick everything apart. Why does it seem as though the interenet was created for group criticism? Of course Steve Whitmire isn't going to perform Kermit like Jim did, he isn't Jim. To expect a performer to simply mimick another is insulting. The spirit of a character needs to remain, but each performer will invariably bring their own take to it. I have not been a fan of Eric's performance of Piggy for quite some time, but lately he seems to be getting her nuances and other levels of her personality coming through. Keep in my mind, the original performers performed these characters daily for five years and countless specials. We have all been upset with the absence of these characters over the last 10 or 15 years, so obviously the new Muppeteers have not had the opportunity to perform these characters nearly as frequently. Now, they may get the chance to work with the characters and get into their skin much more regularly. Since Piggy has been used in interviews and such much more frequently, I have noticed a definite improvement in his performance of her.
Lastly, the first season of the Muppet Show is, admit it, not that funny. Like any show it had bugs to work out. A new creative team is working with iconic characters that come with a lot of baggage. It cannot be easy to live up to that. They are definitely moving in the right direction and from the YouTube videos to interviews to this special, each step is moving in the right direction. Let the new people grow into it and see where it goes. Remember, kids are very different today than we were back in the 70's and 80's. Because there are parts you think are stupid, perhaps it is appealing to a generation you don't understand.

 

[hoopless]

If anyone missed it, it's n Hulu.com apparently.

unfortunately that one doesn't work outside US either, but thatnks

 

[CarrieTheGreat]

The widest problem with Letters To Santa

I'm going to take this from a completely different angle. The special was a solid "B" as far as story goes, but I kept having these "framing issues" while watching the show.

I KNEW IT!

After watching the video here (http://forum.muppetcentral.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=722355), I've confirmed my suspicions that the special was filmed in the widescreen format, but NBC chopped 25% off the sides to show it in that blasted "full-frame" format! Especially near the ending, where so many characters appear on screen at the same time, you just couldn't see everybody.

Did everyone else experience this? The framing problems of Kermit and others walking right almost completely of the picture only to duck back in were incredibly distracting. I can imagine that I'll have a much better experience watching this film on DVD, because I'll finally get to see it the way the creators intended.

Why NBC didn't broadcast this in letterbox I don't know, but I wish they had.

Carrie

 

[ngreen522]

Liked it a lot, but oh how I wish it were longer. Can't wait to buy the DVD and see what was cut.
Anyone else wish it were a little more "Road Trippy". I'm sure you critics have already mentioned this, but I was a little disappointed that each problem had a very quick (too quick) resolution. For example, (SPOILER ALERT!):
How do we get to the North Pole? Fly.
How do we overcome the airport species profiling? They let us go.
How do we find Santa's Workshop? We jump off the plane to land right in front of it.
Santa has already left. How do we catch up to him? We make a wish and he comes back.

Yeah, too much "easy going", but of course, they had to fit it in a 45 min slot. It was still my Christmas wish come true. I just wish they'd come to my house for Christmas.