Your Thoughts: Muppets Letters to Santa

[Muppet Loverr]

I was VERY upset that there was no.."I Believe".. This was a disapointment. It should have gotten a longer timeslot. 1 hour is just not enough for a Muppet special. It was juts too rushed..

And Now Piggy...BARELY IN IT! When she was..she was soo ONE DIMESIONAL.

HOPEFULLY, if and when, there is a DVD release They will have something like "Over 1 hour of unseen footage~!" XD that wont happen tho... Just like 2 OUT OF 5

 

[frogboy4]

I loved the songs and didn't feel that they (or the rest of the special) were kiddyish. I'm usually the first one to call foul for that. This was Muppets for the whole family. Pepe was permitted to be a little more "adult" for a good balance.

I too wonder where I Believe went in this special. I think something got mixed up as I don't believe it was a song written for LTS (Letters To Santa).

I was actually pleased with Piggy's scarcity in the program. I love the pig, but the Muppets have been reduced to primarily Kermit or Kermit & Piggy rather than the gang as a whole. She was featured quite nicely here and it showed her love for her Kermie. She'll have other projects.

 

[CoOKiE]

Red... i swear you hover me like an owl and swing in to disagree with ANYTHING when i say something... even if you were to agree with it at one point... if i liked or dislike something... u have to change your mind about it.

You can't seriously tell me that SS and Muppets are at the same lvl. SS was created soly for the preschool age. The Electric Mayhem doesn't sing about the ABC's or 123s... or even about near and far lol.

The Muppet's... pre-disney... have always had stars that teens-adults knew. The guy from Reading Rainbow... or Mr Rodgers never appeared on the Muppet Show... but did with SS... because of the age group.

Jim also said that he created Fraggles for ages (i believe) 7-12. It was somewhere in that age group... maybe not those numbers exactly.

Just agree with me on this one.. for once. Disney had really aimed Muppets to a child's appeal... more then Jim did.

I think that Jim didn't want "Santa" to exsist because it was childish... but he leaned towards it with Muppet Family Christmas... clearly he wasn't the real Santa as he was Doc... but for children... watching for the SS gang... it was Santa.

 

[Redsonga]

Is it the same 'I Believe In Santa Claus' that is in The Year Without a Santa Claus? Or the Dolly Parton song? Because those songs are a lot older than LTS and they might have not been able to get the rights to use it ...

Red... i swear you hover me like an owl and swing in to disagree with ANYTHING when i say something... even if you were to agree with it at one point... if i liked or dislike something... u have to change your mind about it.

It's not really that I change my mind, there are just many layers to how I think about these things, and when it is worded a certain way I disgree.
Mainly, the idea that the muppets are/were ruined by this is something I just don't see...

You can't seriously tell me that SS and Muppets are at the same lvl. SS was created soly for the preschool age. The Electric Mayhem doesn't sing about the ABC's or 123s... or even about near and far lol.

Not the exact level in terms of what they talk about , I was thinking mainly in a character likeably way, that while it was made for age groups to start with, I think each has grown in a way that allows everyone to watch and enjoy the characters on the same level, if they can get passed the for this age group only idea . That's all...

Just agree with me on this one.. for once. Disney had really aimed Muppets to a child's appeal... more then Jim did.

Of course I agree, but I was just saying that that child's appeal can also entail the inner child in every adult, and that's why I don't think the muppets are ruined by it . That's all, I'm not trying to be mean, just look on the bright side. It's nothing against you, I mean no hard feelings ^.^

 

[Baby Gonzo]

Sadly... i liked Studio DC... it actually didn't feel as kiddyish then this special did. Which ruined the muppets.

I don't think this special ruined the Muppets. That in and of itself implies that this special will somehow be the downfall to the Muppets which, I don't think it is. It wasn't the greatest thing they've ever done, by far, but it was sweet and had its moments. But it's fine to have an opinion, like it or not.

I'm sick of breaking things down to "This is for kids" or "This is for adults". By number age, I'm an adult, but I love things that appeal to children as well. If people enjoy something, they should watch it.

People say that Santa Claus is childish and that he shouldn't have been in a Muppet special, but I know many adults who would disagree. I think it's all in your mindset. I suppose it's the escapist mindset in me. Who needs to be "adult" anyway? Isn't it okay to appeal to that "childish" mentality once in a while? I don't know. I suppose I don't think that rainbows are just visions and only illusions.

 

[frogboy4]

You can't seriously tell me that SS and Muppets are at the same lvl. SS was created soly for the preschool age. The Electric Mayhem doesn't sing about the ABC's or 123s... or even about near and far lol.

The Muppet's... pre-disney... have always had stars that teens-adults knew. The guy from Reading Rainbow... or Mr Rodgers never appeared on the Muppet Show... but did with SS... because of the age group.

Jim also said that he created Fraggles for ages (i believe) 7-12. It was somewhere in that age group... maybe not those numbers exactly.

Just agree with me on this one.. for once. Disney had really aimed Muppets to a child's appeal... more then Jim did.

I think that Jim didn't want "Santa" to exsist because it was childish... but he leaned towards it with Muppet Family Christmas... clearly he wasn't the real Santa as he was Doc... but for children... watching for the SS gang... it was Santa.

I get what you're saying and agree with that. However I felt that the special had enough of a mature balance to it. There were those Jim-era kid-vids he did with Rowlf, Kermit, Scooter and Fozzie that I never agreed with.

This special teetered a little more toward the young ones than I would have liked, but VMX (that I also liked) leaned a bit too far the other way. I didn't have a problem with the appearance of Santa. The whole pitch of this film wasn't an idea that appealed to me, but it was done fairly well and it hit the spot to introduce the characters to a new generation of families.

That's how I see this - not too kiddie, but very family oriented. Still, Jim did separate the characters into groups:
Sesame for youngsters and their ABCs (especially "latch-key-kids")
Muppet Babies for kids (while being fan-inclusive)
Fraggle Rock for kids (and hippies and lovers of life and song)
Muppets for adults (while remaining all-age inclusive)
Fantasy characters for refined pallets of varying age
It is also known that Jim wanted to create live action actor-driven media with more mature themes.

**Still - Jim strived to make all of his work entertaining for adults. That was part of his appeal that stuff like Swamp Years kind of required fans to "take a leap" into a territory they hadn't been asked to do before. A leap that I don't think should have been asked of us. LTS is far more age inclusive than KSY.**

 

[CoOKiE]

BEFORE I GO ANYWHERE ELSE...

I wanna let everyone know that i wasn't saying the special ruined the Muppets... the kiddyish angle did. When typing that... i didn't think anyone would take it that way... but thats my fault for not showing how to write proper lol. Sorry everyone. As i mentioned... and listed the differences... this Speical had its good sides and bad. But i didn't mean it ruined the muppets.

Seems that you (Frogboy4) and i have the same feelings on the original Muppet universe.

Red... i wasn't saying that ONLY those age groups would appeal to those certain groups of Muppets... but saying that they didn't stray from their age group.

I think Swamp Years was an idea to get children into the Muppets. Maybe they thought that children watching Sesame weren't watching Muppets... so they were reintroducing him... as Jim introduced Kermit on Sesame Street... just a thought.

 

[Libba Yuki]

While I was disappointed with this special, and honestly feel it's the weakest of all the Muppet movies and specials over the years...I did still enjoy it and will buy it on dvd when it comes out.

I really hope they have an extended edition though, the movie felt so short and rushed...maybe I would have liked it more if it were longer.

I'm really hoping the tone of this special (more kiddy than adult/teen) doesn't become a habit for future movies and specials though...I like the more mature and fun stories with depth that we had in all the previous movies and specials, and don't want to see more of the watered down stuff we had in this special.

The kids have SS, I don't want Disney to kiddify the Muppets to appeal more to the younger generation...

 

[frogboy4]

BEFORE I GO ANYWHERE ELSE...

I wanna let everyone know that i wasn't saying the special ruined the Muppets... the kiddyish angle did. When typing that... i didn't think anyone would take it that way... but thats my fault for not showing how to write proper lol. Sorry everyone. As i mentioned... and listed the differences... this Speical had its good sides and bad. But i didn't mean it ruined the muppets.

Seems that you (Frogboy4) and i have the same feelings on the original Muppet universe.

Red... i wasn't saying that ONLY those age groups would appeal to those certain groups of Muppets... but saying that they didn't stray from their age group.

I think Swamp Years was an idea to get children into the Muppets. Maybe they thought that children watching Sesame weren't watching Muppets... so they were reintroducing him... as Jim introduced Kermit on Sesame Street... just a thought.

Actually, that's a good thought. There was a reason KSY was a direct-to-DVD product. I just remember a lot of insider hype about the project that was supposed to appeal to 30-somethings like me and it just didn't.

I did like this special, but my idea of a Christmas special would have probably gone like this:

PITCH: The Muppets embark on a Christmas holiday together only to find that they can't afford their accommodations as their funds were lost along with their baggage in transit. They have to get holiday jobs until their scheduled flight home. In the process they discover people in need of help and Christmas spirit. When their money is found it is given to a good cause. Lots of songs in between!

That seems Muppety to me and the only Santa would be one clumsy Muppet audition after another for the part of a department store Santa. It is derivative, but Muppet-derived. Still, I really liked the special they gave us, that is just what I would have thought to do.

 

[CoOKiE]

You know you're a fan when Disney causes the Muppets to fail... and you still buy the DVD... lol i too will be buying if the right price pops up.

I feel that there won't be an extended DVD.. i do however hope they can add the Macy's Kermit appearence to the special features tho. Thats something i won't wanna miss.