Is there an overrated/underrated Muppet production?

[minor muppetz]

I've been thinking latley, are there any speciffic Muppet productions that fans see as either overrated or underrated? I'm not talking about individual segments, songs, characters, or episodes of shows, but actual productions like movies or specials or such.

Because I can't really think of any Muppet, Henson or Sesame Street production that's really overrated or underrated. I guess it may be hard to actually determine how something could be considered overrated or underrated. But there are many productions that fans tend to agree on being really good (the first three movies, Muppet Family Christmas, The Muppet Show), stuff that fans tend to see as bad (the Studio DC specials, Muppets From Space), and stuff that seem to be mixed among fans (Muppet Treasure Island, the John Denver specials). I don't think there are any productions that seem to be annoyingly popular.

 

[beakerfan76]

Personally, I think the Muppets at WDW special was underrated. Yeah, some could write it off as an hour-long Disney World advertisement by showing off rides (Miss Piggy and Beauregard's storyline) and even that Indy spectacular (Only with Kermit as the fedora-wearing archaeologist himself), it did indeed have a plot, or series of plots (Piggy's ride fascination, the Electric Mayhem's world showcase tour, Beaker having a bucket stuck on his head, ect.) that tied into one main storyline or Kermit and Robin taking the rest of the Muppets to the swamp for an annual festival, but only to get sidetracked at Disney World.

As for overrated, though not by the Muppet fanbase, but rather the Muppet's current company, Disney, I thought it was Studio DC: Almost Live. It's the failed experiment of having classic Muppet humor mix with current flash in the pan teeny boppers. Though it was cute seeing Beaker sing alongside Selena Gomez, the rest fell flat on its face, making the Muppets brown-nose the very thing(s) that's killing Disney with an iron grip. I understand this is a way for the Muppets to come back in the public eye, aside from the viral Youtube videos, but this special was equal to receiving a pile of trash as a gift, but with Muppet wrapping paper covering it.

Heck, not even Statler and Waldorf could save this monstrosity. If they could rip the Muppet Show a new one, this could have been an easy target!

 

[beatnikchick300]

As for overrated, though not by the Muppet fanbase, but rather the Muppet's current company, Disney, I thought it was Studio DC: Almost Live. It's the failed experiment of having classic Muppet humor mix with current flash in the pan teeny boppers.

Agreed. Seeing the Electric Mayhem as Miley Cyrus' back up band made me want to cry.

I think the 2002 Christmas TV movie is way underrated. It was actually very good, and heartfelt. I actually liked it better than Letters to Santa. :shudder:

 

[beakerfan76]

Although to be fair, I haven't seen that many specials myself, so my judgement on the WDW one may be a bit biased, seeing it was the last Muppet production Jim Henson worked on, wasn't it?

However, my thoughts on Studio DC still stand. Disney, if you do not want angry Muppet fans to swarm you and your teeny boppers, do NOT do anything like this again, and do NOT undermine the Electric Mayhem to performing for talentless popstars.

 

[Gelfling Girl]

As for overrated, though not by the Muppet fanbase, but rather the Muppet's current company, Disney, I thought it was Studio DC: Almost Live.

Well, just to be fair, I'm not a big fan of those specials now, but those are part of what reintroduced me to the classic Muppets. After seeing those, I ended up getting the first three movies from Blockbuster and rekindling my interest in them.

 

[Drtooth]

You want highly underrated? The View-master VHS game machine video "You're the Director." That was completely underrated, considering it was only available on a video game engine that could never take off and that people rarely had. Not the best thing out there, and it's only available for watch on Youtube... but it's got some great moments that are just perfectly what the Muppets are about. I mean, there's an entire portion of the game where the characters rap, and pressing the button makes them screw their lines up, blowing their rhythm and rhymes. Trust me! It's a LOT funnier than I'm making it sound.

And so I won't anger whatever 2 Diz-com fans we have on this sight, but to anger everyone else... Muppet Christmas Carol is highly overrated. not the worst project, Oz was that by a long shot, but it just... well, it was an experiment to see where they stood without Jim or Richard, with Frank one foot out the door. But I feel they got it better with MTI. Most of the film centered around human characters with the Muppets playing second and third to them. Why they didn't make some Muppet Scrooge's nephew was beyond me (too bad Richard died before this film was made, it could have been Scooter) and that long scene with Belle just goes on and on! Especially the song. Why, it's more interesting to look at how many times her nostrils flare while she's singing than the listen to her singing.

And like the BEST songs were soundtrack only. Sure, it had its share of great moments... "Light the lamp, not the rat. LIGHT THE LAMP NOT THE RAT! PUTMEOUT PUTMEOUT PUTMEOUT!" you can't be a Muppet fan and not find that scene pure gold. But you have to wade through a half hour of plot expo for anything actually funny like that to happen. Not to mention the fact that I never cared for Muppet classic retellings outside of these new comics, which manage to get them right! Even Robin Hood.

MCC is a great Christmas movie, sure, but as a Muppet movie things were just... well, missing. Even MFS managed to get some of that back. Even MTI.

 

[minor muppetz]

I wonder how the terms "overrated" and "underrated" are determined. I would think that would be based on exposure and preference, or how much the owners promote/release them. For example, many fans say Elmo is overrated because he's in every episode and on every piece of Sesame Street merchandise these days, while Telly is underrated because he's in almost every episode and special these days but there's hardly any character merchandise.

I'm surprised to see that somebody said the Studio DC specials are overrated. I know they were rebroadcast frequently after their first showing, but have they been broadcast since 2008? We know it was announced they'd be on DVD this year, but aside from a Europeon release there hasn't even been an official release date announced for an american release.

 

[frogboy4]

Over: Personally, I never thought the Muppet Babies lived up to their hype or the quality usually associated with the Muppet brand. The program had its moments and great potential, but some of the shrill voices and poor animation quality caused me to lose interest during its second season. I know it's dear to the hearts of many fans, just not me. I kind of wish the Little Muppet Monsters segments could have been mixed in for good measure. There was enough actual Muppet Show character puppetry going on during that period.

Under: The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years didn't really run as much as it should have. Maybe that was due to its dating itself with the actual anniversary number, but this is one of the last times in Jim's final years that the Muppets were all together in one room actually seeming like Muppets! No Disneyworld, no holiday to celebrate...just pure Muppets.

 

[beakerfan76]

I wonder how the terms "overrated" and "underrated" are determined. I would think that would be based on exposure and preference, or how much the owners promote/release them. For example, many fans say Elmo is overrated because he's in every episode and on every piece of Sesame Street merchandise these days, while Telly is underrated because he's in almost every episode and special these days but there's hardly any character merchandise.

I'm surprised to see that somebody said the Studio DC specials are overrated. I know they were rebroadcast frequently after their first showing, but have they been broadcast since 2008? We know it was announced they'd be on DVD this year, but aside from a Europeon release there hasn't even been an official release date announced for an american release.

Like I said, Disney seemed to overhype Studio DC, and to me I didn't like it. Sure, it was nice to see the Muppets on TV again, but at what cost?

 

[Frogpuppeteer]

for me VMMCM is underrated