Your Thoughts: Muppets Letters to Santa

[Rugby]

I thought whoever is voicing Fozzie is doing a great job at making him sound like Frank's Fozzie. Very well done.

 

[Nick22]

I thought whoever is voicing Fozzie is doing a great job at making him sound like Frank's Fozzie. Very well done.

eric jacobson is voicing fozzie

 

[IgorPonweed]

My thoughts: Very funny and sweet special loaded wiht celebritys. In other words, the way the Muppets used to be. Scooter didn't sound quite right, though. Oh! And Delivering Christmas is one of my favorite Muppet songs!

 

[redBoobergurl]

Finally! I finally watched this tonight! And I have to say this, it's my own opinion and I've read what everyone else has to say - but this is what I remember about the Muppets. These were the Muppets of my childhood. I was so thrilled, I thought it was very well done. This was the best Christmas gift for a Muppet fan ever. I only hope it's a sign of more good things to come!

And Rowlf SANG! And played piano!

Two thumbs up from this girl.

 

[beaker]

How come we didn't see Crazy Harry at the airport? That woulda been pretty edgy (I LOVED how they made fun of how crazy security has gotten at the airports) I also liked the featuring of a biracial family.

People are right, this did feel pretty condensed. It felt like a 90 minute(two hours with commercials) Muppet movie watered down
to a brisk 44 minutes. The best part of the movie had to be the last 5 minutes when the whole gang ends up at the apartment building.

Certain scenes in Letters to Santa felt like they were out of a theatrical film, just the camera/coloring/lighting setup(like whenever you saw the Muppet gang in the apartment hallway or room)

You all really need to check out the "Glad All Over" music video
that has the best clips from Letters To Santa as well as footage shot just for the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEF4ptW54QU&feature=channel_page (click on high quality version)

Someone mentioned they werent sure about the focusing on certain muppets. Like in real life, friendship dynamics change.
For years and all through the 1990's, the main "Muppet Gang"
was Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo and Animal. Now of course it's
Kermit, Fozzie, Piggy, Gonzo, Pepe and Rizzo. Pepe has been one of the main Muppets for awhile, and the Pepe/Rizzo dynamic is just too perfect.

Sadly, I'm guessing the dvd won't be out til next November as is customary with tv Christmas specials. I can't wait to get it either way and hope it has a bunch of extras.

Either way it was great seeing the Muppets on prime time tv, even if it felt a bit truncated. It was a score to get Paul Williams again, as he always churns out gold.
And for those that noticed, there was a nod to Muppet Family Christmas(my favorite Muppets special of all time, next to Muppets At Walt Disney World)...when the Swedish Chef and the Turkey appeared to be friends, Im guessing that was a nod to MFC and a resolution/sequel to that storyline.

Also...someone said this was just made for little kids? Was I the only one who noticed the heavy emphasis of sexuality and lusting over women? I always found it funny what a strong libido toward human women so many of the male Muppets exhibit

 

[beaker]

When the muppets go on interviews do the performers go out and say "hey, this is my character now let me do some jokes" or do they go out as the characters. Did jim Henson guest host the tonight show or did Kermit and the muppets? Did Jim Henson throw the muppets a movie premier party for the muppet movie or did Kermit?

The muppets have always been treated as if they live in our world.

Absolutely. Again, hence why hardly anything that happens in any Muppet production can really be considered "canon" or continuity. When Elmo gives a presentation in front of congress, or when I saw Carroll Spinney with Oscar...it's not "haha, look at the guy with the puppet on his hand" like one might feel toward the majority of classic puppet characters(sorry to say) The Muppets get away with being assumed to be real. When you see a Muppet and his performer in person, even if youre looking right at the performer, it's near impossible to think of the character as merely a puppet. And this is the genius of it all, the magic.

This special if anything, showed the true heart of Fozzie, Kermit and Gonzo. Fozzie, so innocent yet unyieldingly caring.

If you see When Muppets Dream Of Peace or The World According To Sesame Street(two powerful newer documentaries), it's just crazy how Sesame Workshop will go into areas where children's lives are being ravaged by war to try and entertain, teach and uplift.

So the Muppets are very real in a sense, and perhaps one of the only pure things left in the world. The sickening oversaturation of Elmo and Disney's corporate hand can't change this.

And i said faith in Santa is a lie. Kids are told a man in a red suit comes into their house at night and leaves presents. That is a flat out lie told to kids and kids have faith in that lie.

Kids are also told a bearded man in the sky watches over them.
Guarantee to even hint that such thinking is tomfoolery, would have billions of people up and arms. I say let people believe whatever they want to believe, as long as it doesn't harm anyone.

Also, let's be honest...does any kid truly believe Santa Claus is real...any more than they believe in the Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy?

I agree, it's not silly at all . I mean Kermit and his fiends live in the same world as SS, not our world exactly if you want to swear by the Santa isn't real faith . I think believing in Santa is not just a 'kid' thing in the first place though, and showing Santa is not a bad thing...But Santa is coming to Town is my favorite Christmas cartoon

Well...depends if we're talking "canon". Every talk show, news show, ect is very respectful when they have any Muppet on(from Muppet show or Sesame) and treats them like they would a human guest. Unlike say, Lost or Star Trek, there's no true flow of continuity since each movie or special(or show) is within it's own canon. I doubt Gonzo really is an alien, or that Piggy and Kermit really got married. Those are just plotlines in movies, since the Muppets are just actors(as they emphasize when they are being interviewed)

 

[beaker]

My timer didn''t work with the new converter box thing. Does anyone know where I can download it (preferably in a format I can put on a dvd so I can bring it home for my daughter). I promised my daughter we would get to see kermit and we didn't

Yes!

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4587348/A.Muppet.Christmas-Letters.To.Santa.2008.HDTV.XViD-TvT

It's also on Hulu:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/49470/a-m...muppets-christmas-letters-to-santa#s-p1-so-i0

and NBC
http://www.nbc.com/Movies_Specials_...o/clips/the-muppets-are-glad-all-over/867481/

I really dont like posting on a review thread and I really dont like reading them but I did and I am.

Just remember the muppets are a business, they always have been. For disney to keep them going they need to build a fan base. True we are a fan base but most of us are in our 30's on average.

They rightfully want the young upcoming generations to become the new fan base. SO while they try to please us with recasts and old favs, that shouldnt be priority. It should be to make the muppets visible and re-intoduce them to this young generation who 75% has not ever seen The Frog, ThePig, and Grover, I mean Gonzo.

Just my thoughts

But Yes I Loved it and would watch it every year with my kids. I tend to prefer family christmas because that was a memory from my youth. But trying to get my kids hooked I have to use the new stuff.

Totally agree. While the 2002-2005 era mostly focused on appealing to the college aged folks...banking on the "nostalgia" factor, it's HIGH time the Muppets became viable within the child and tween markets again. The Muppets cannot live alone on
"hey, remember the Muppets! It's hip and nostalgic"

Some people want to say the Muppets died in 1990. I say bullocks. There's so many instances since JH's passing that are 100% Muppet magic heart. Sure there was awkwardness from the late 90's and on, but I think the Muppets are definitely back.

I for one am tired of the Muppets being seen as some old 70's or 80's kitch thing. The Muppets have been around since 1955, and I believe they will be around in one form or another forever.
You can't just pin down the Muppets as this or that.

You got Fraggle Rock, Bear in the Big Blue House, early 1960's Rowlf, Sesame Street in all its incarnations, Sesame Street international, Mopatop, The Hoobs, Henson Alternative Brand(Puppet Up), Land of Gorch, and on and on. Truly something for everyone, and I imagine in the future the offshoot brands will be limitless.

Of course I know he is a puppet, but that does not change my love of his character and my feeling that what made/makes up his soul as a character (From Mr. Henson mainly) is real and something to be treasured : ). Call that and my love of Santa religion if you want but that is really not how I mean it...

To me the muppet live in this world of the roots of what it means to be human along with all our dreams, and magic. They just teleport to our world now and then *lol*

Hey Im with you. I don't believe in religion(I respect people's religion and their right to believe in supreme beings and whatnot)
but if I was to believe in faith...it'd be the love, sillyness, friendship, tolerance, celebration and acceptance that the Muppets, Fraggle Rock, Sesame Street and a lot of what Jim Henson worked towards. While you had grouchy folks like Oscar, Statler-Walford, Uncle Deadly, ect...for the most part the Muppets all represent a kind of universal love that seems missing in so many lives today.

 

[beaker]

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.

I kind of fear for the current generation of kids...they are so used to ADD quick cuts, cynicism, and over abundance of cg animation...as many have said, if Fraggle Rock suddently debuted in 2008 it probably wouldnt go over too well...even though such is exactly what this world needs.

I have faith(hey there's that word again) that the Muppets creative team and performers(and decision makers) have a plan to bring them back on all fronts: to the toddler/child, tween, and older college/nostalgic fan. The youtube and muppets.com shorts show they "get it", and I am absolutely LOVING those.

As the Muppets heard toward the 55th anniversary in 2010 with the Muppet theatrical movie, I think 2009 will be the year when we finally see the Muppets back into prominence...something that hasn't really happened since 1990.

Some people probably felt (as I kinda did) that Grover would actually have been a good fit as maybe the taxi driver, considering the overall tone. And I miss Beau's taxi driving in GMC.

That would have been AWESOME! We havent seen a Muppet/Sesame crossover in forever(well, Gonzo appeared with Elmo and Zoe at the Cinema Arts Festival which is on youtube)

Also, people keep saying the Muppets seem off. Aside from Scooter's voice, I find them to be right on. Kermit seems like Kermit to me. Like people but unlike cartoon characters, the Muppets change. Even for characters of whom the original performers still performs them...Gonzo for instance, is not the same Gonzo of the 1970's.

 

[RedPiggy]

We see them leave. They went somewhere during that time.

Maybe you saw more scenes than I did. I saw them head toward the exit of the apartment. That's it.

or that Piggy and Kermit really got married

Oh, the blasphemy! LOL ...

but if I was to believe in faith...it'd be the love, sillyness, friendship, tolerance, celebration and acceptance that the Muppets, Fraggle Rock, Sesame Street and a lot of what Jim Henson worked towards. While you had grouchy folks like Oscar, Statler-Walford, Uncle Deadly, ect...for the most part the Muppets all represent a kind of universal love that seems missing in so many lives today.

Agreed. It's sad when I learned more about love and acceptance from Jim Henson than Sunday School.

 

[petrieboy]

I've Already Forgotten It

I was thrilled to see Paul Williams contributing songs.

But there were only a couple, and they seemed a bit unorderly and unfocused. "Delivering Christmas" had potential; it was run over by dialogue and chaos, until it turned into background singing. That usually happens when the producers are afraid that songs are not what the public wants, so they sort of hand over a half-sung song as a compromise. The song itself is quite good- its "delivery" was poor.

The Muppets all need singing lessons.

As for the story, it was a drawn out, rambling story of little interest. The mother and daughter's acting was bad, and sappy. Well, isn't sappy bad enough? It might have been nice to have made the mother and daughter Muppets themselves.

I liked the post office scenario. I liked that it took place in Manhattan. I liked that they stole my idea several months ago, posted here on Muppet Central, of putting the characters in an old brownstone building in New York. They left out the subway.

I liked that there wasn't anything in this that was blasphemy, or anything that would cause embarrassment watching with family. I'd like to like it more than I do.

My interest in Muppets has dwindled. One of their biggest fans of ole, I'm still waiting. In the meantime, I've found better music from the new "Take That" and "Maria McKee" and I've found better cinema in films like "Slumdog Millionaire," "Ratatouille."

"Muppets Take Manhattan" remains on my favorite films list, along with "Cinema Paradiso" and "On the Waterfront."