Your Thoughts: Muppets Letters to Santa

[Redsonga]

I think if they had had more time they might have been able to make fun of their new youtube videos somehow .

 

[MWoO]

I think if they had had more time they might have been able to make fun of their new youtube videos somehow .

Why? I don't see how that serves the story in any way.

 

[Redsonga]

Why? I don't see how that serves the story in any way.

Why does it have to? Part of the muppets is that they just have fun. And youtube is a big part of todays word anyway . Plus it would have made a nice self ad :3

 

[Beauregard]

Yeah, it would've been cute to see Rizzo or someone running about with a camera.

Rowlf: "I guess some people will even sell Christmas to Youtube..."

Or similar.

By the way, I don't think I've yet made a list of everything I liked about MLtS, so here goes:

Friendships - The Fozzie/Kermit friendship was back, with the added dynamic of a Fozzie/Gonzo friendship (when they went to the Post Office and when they sang at the North Pole.) I'm not sure what happened to the Rizzo/Gonzo friendship as I didn't see anything there...but the new Rizzo/Pepe friendship was (and is) just great. (As was their tiny doors!) It was GREAT to see Kermit taking the lead as the leader of the Muppets (although Gonzo took the lead in the songs, but I see this as a nod to the fact he's the only 'original' performer, and has the strongest singing voice, nothing else.)

Relationships - It was amazing to see Kermit finally admitting his feelings for Piggy with the same intensity that he did in MFC when she was caught in the blizzard, for example. ("Me?" in response to Piggy's sun-lotion inquiry was priceless!) Can I also put Bunsen and Beaker into this category? It was so cute to see Beaker with a sooo cute (is cute the right word here?) girlfriend, and Bunsen A. not looking, B. getting jealous was funny and...it felt right. They are two friends who have worked closely together for years, and I really felt how important their companionship was to one another when Bunsen cut-in and danced with Beaker. (I'd have been disappointed if he'd done anything else...I could also picture Bert and Ernie doing a similar thing, it's sweet!)

Apartments - It was nice to see them living in a new location (I'm assuming that the Boarding House is a summer home by the beach?), and it was great to see Humans living by them because...it gives us hope that we too may one day live with the Muppets.

Cameos - I didn't feel that any of them stole anything from the story, instead, they advanced it. Usually I have to hide in embarasment when watching a Muppet movie with non-Muppet friends because the cameo's are *so* bad...but here, none of then over-acted or stole the screen or anything. And I loved every one. Especially Paul Williams (I think there may be fanfic material there...I can't help wondering what he was so bitter and drunk about), and it was great to see The Boss had stopped by on a Christmas Eve to get them to the airport...maybe they could've paid her in coffee? The British Santa was nice...and actually acted and sounded very much like the Santa from Miracle on 34th Street so that helped me in believing he was real!

Speed - This special was fast paced...as it had to be, but I actually love it for that very reason. Some Muppet productions are long and feel like they just fly by (MTI or MFS, you are guilty of this!) often with little happening to advance the story...And yet this special was very short, but so much Happened that it felt a lot longer. I thought it's timing was great...and I'd like to see a new Muppet series use that kind of format.

That's just a few of the things that I loved with this special...I could go on.

There's a couple of things I was disappointed with...

Songs - Try humming any one of them and you'll end up singing either "It feels like Christmas" or "When love is gone"...I love Paul Williams and his iconic songs, but did he recycle all the tunes from MCC?

LOP Syndrome - Lack of Piggy Syndrome! She was very Muppet Show here, flouncing in, doing her thing, and getting out again. But she seemed to lack a lot of her 'heart' in doing so. But I really can't complain! Also...she shouldn't be aloud to sing unless she has a song to herself like Santa Baby...because her one-line-in-a-song-lines are usually atrocious...Kissy kissy!

 

[MWoO]

Why does it have to? Part of the muppets is that they just have fun. And youtube is a big part of todays word anyway . Plus it would have made a nice self ad :3

To me that just reeks of trying to be hip for the sake of being hip, the very thing people complain about in MWoO and AVMMC.

I was watching AVMMC today and noticed how many parts of that special are already dated. While the main story holds, some of the jokes are just dated and over done. A youtube joke would be the same. Youtube jokes are cliche, not clever.

 

[MWoO]

Friendships - The Fozzie/Kermit friendship was back, with the added dynamic of a Fozzie/Gonzo friendship (when they went to the Post Office and when they sang at the North Pole.) I'm not sure what happened to the Rizzo/Gonzo friendship as I didn't see anything there...but the new Rizzo/Pepe friendship was (and is) just great. (As was their tiny doors!) It was GREAT to see Kermit taking the lead as the leader of the Muppets (although Gonzo took the lead in the songs, but I see this as a nod to the fact he's the only 'original' performer, and has the strongest singing voice, nothing else.)

I think the Rizzo/Gonzo friendship came about because Kermit Fozzie and Gonzo wasn't really happening since the Jim Henson Hour. Frank started leaving his muppet work as far back as the Jim Henson Hour. Then in MCC Kermit, Gonzo, and Fozzie never got a chance to interact. In MTI their characters didn't interact much either, Fozzie being a dimwit, Kermit being captain and Gonzo being a cabin whatever. In MT Franks characters almost never appeared aside from Piggy who was always a guest star. Fozzie barely (get it?) appeared and Kermit was often not featured as well. By the time MFS comes about Frank is only voice looping making it hard to have Fozzie to do scenes interacting with other characters.

It really wasn't until AVMMC with Eric Jacobson that we see Kermit and Fozzie as true friends again and Gonzo was hanging out with Kermit more than Rizzo again. This carried over into MWoO and now LTS. Does this mean Rizzo will always be paired with Pepe? I hope not. I like the Rizzo/Gonzo dynamic. However, I like having the trio of friends together as i feel the not only work well together as characters but look good on screen together too.

As a side note, Gonzo has the strongest singing voice? Not in the least. No offense to Dave but I think even he would agree with that. Also Steve is an original performer as well. He may not have been around as long as Dave, but he's been there a LONG time. He tsarted in season 4 of TMS if not sooner and played a lot of background characters and was even given a role in the EM. All of the original performers had an EM character. Plus Rizzo was in 2 of the original 3 muppet movies, not to mention Steve was a main performer in Fraggle Rock and the Jim Henson Hour. To me if you worked on TMS you are part of the original cast. Just because he was drafted into some recasts doesn't mean he isn't an original performer.

 

[Redsonga]

The muppets always comment on our everyday world and something is going to be dated sooner or later, but the internet is something that we have used everyday for at least the last ten years and has become a part of all our lifes (unlike the Disney live action stars which not everyone watches), with youtube along with it...The blackberry joke may become dated to but for our time, it fits. It's like having the Muppet Show without disco, even though it is dead now, it was alive and well then and nearly everyone was a part of it....

The 'trying to be cool' things in OZ to me were bad because their tone of jokes did not really fit the Muppets, they might have worked with other characters, but they just didn't ring muppety to me, anymore than in AVMMC, were it was all the dark tone and nearly no jokes IMHO...

On the other hand, commenting on youtube, given the fact that they are alive and well on it and doing very true to character things there feels very muppety. It's so everyday now, and used by all ages, IMHO, it would not it's not so much be a comment on what is hip as what is . Like big hair and legwarmers in the 80's or neon colors in the early 90's .

 

[Nick22]

The muppets always comment on our everyday world and something is going to be dated sooner or later, but the internet is something that we have used everyday for at least the last ten years and has become a part of all our lifes (unlike the Disney live action stars which not everyone watches), with youtube along with it...The blackberry joke may become dated to but for our time, it fits. It's like having the Muppet Show without disco, even though it is dead now, it was alive and well then and nearly everyone was a part of it....

The 'trying to be cool' things in OZ to me were bad because their tone of jokes did not really fit the Muppets, they might have worked with other characters, but they just didn't ring muppety to me, anymore than in AVMMC, were it was all the dark tone and nearly no jokes IMHO...

On the other hand, commenting on youtube, given the fact that they are alive and well on it and doing very true to character things there feels very muppety. It's so everyday now, and used by all ages, IMHO, it would not it's not so much be a comment on what is hip as what is . Like big hair and legwarmers in the 80's or neon colors in the early 90's .

buhuhuhu. i hate the way people dressed in the 90s. i love everything 60s and 70s. 80s was ok.

 

[Libba Yuki]

buhuhuhu. i hate the way people dressed in the 90s. i love everything 60s and 70s. 80s was ok.

The 80s are kinda hit/miss with me. I loved the big hair women would wear (Except on Miss Piggy in MTM...I didn't like that look on her at all in that, which is odd because I liked it in MFC), but some of the clothes look horrible.

I love everything from the 70s and backward!

 

[Drtooth]

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

I like how they managed to keep that going with Pepe and adding it to Beaker (dude deserves it after getting blown up)... though once again, I think a lot of people are going to walk out of this with the internet obsession of random fan pairings thinking "Bunsen X Beaker."

I guess people thought it was "Kiddy" since they weren't shooting out as many innuendos as the last films did.... though I took "Sleeping with the fishes?" "I already do" as something sexual...

The 'trying to be cool' things in OZ to me were bad because their tone of jokes did not really fit the Muppets, they might have worked with other characters, but they just didn't ring muppety to me, anymore than in AVMMC, were it was all the dark tone and nearly no jokes IMHO...

Oz... ugh... Did they HAVE to turn the thing into a tie in with American Idol? I give them credit for trying to be close to the original source material, despite the fact they pilfered freely from both the MGM film and "the Wiz".... but that's all I give them credit for. Seems that they were trying to get different audiences that like different things, and it seemed muddled. VMX was better in tone, I think... but still, like the Muppets were working with Simpsons style dialogue and jokes (one of the writers, remember?).