I have to admit I'm not too pleased with the Ricky Gervais cameo, and the photo of (and what I assume will be a scene with) him and my favourite muppet.... ugh, I don't obsessively hate him or anything but I would be lying if I said it doesn't bug me haha. I apologize to people who like him but I just never have been able to stand him. I just hope it's one scene and that's it lol.
Of course that's the thing with cameos or any kind of guest - by using them, you may get their fanbase brought to the audience that may not have otherwise watched but every celeb also has people that don't like them to. Of course a lot of times when people don't like someone they may be judging them based on one role or their usual image/typecast. Of course a cameo can afford a celeb a chance to do something different without the type of time commitment like a lead role that would take them away from their other commitments. At least if someone you don't care for does something with The Muppets it still doesn't mean you'll end up enjoying the final product less. Debbie Harry is one of my favorite musicians/people but the overall episode of TMS that she guested in is one of my least favorites. By the same token, the Loretta Lynn episode is one of my faves even if i don't care for Loretta herself as much. In regards to Ricky himself, have you seen his sketch with Elmo from Sesame Street? That was one of the funniest bits from season 40!
My only concern really is what looks like an ever-growing list of celebrity cameos. Regardless of whether I like anyone on the list or not, most of the reports on the movie so far, have really been about which next celebrity will be appearing on the movie. And that's great for the attention and what-not but I don't want it to be mostly about that. There's a big group of Muppets too and I hope we get to see more of them and they get a good amount to do in the movie instead of it mostly being "Oh, look there's Billy Crystal! Oh look there's Jack Black! Oh look, there's Mickey Rooney! etc"
Part of the reason most of the news we're hearing about the new movie is about the cameos is because casting news is one of the few types of "spoilers" that are regarded as okay to spoil. While the movie's shooting, people don't want to give away too much of what will be in it so actual news about various types of scenes aren't as plentiful but reports of who will be in the film are safer to reveal ahead of time.
I know there's been cameos in past movies but I'm starting to feel a vibe of "Who else can we get into this movie?" from reading all the reports, like that's all that matters about this movie
It's not quantity but quality. Some Muppet projects have been shorter on cameos and others were chockful of 'em. Two such projects were TMM and VMX. VMX was a mixed bag - some cameos did indeed feel like they were too much (scrubs) or forced but others were quite natural/well done (The Batphone) TMM has a large number of cameos but they were all well done and added to rather than took away from the Muppety goodness. It doesn't even seem like there's as much as there are when you're watching, but when you see a list or look at the original theatrical poster that had all their faces at the top, it hits you how much there were and it's not so different than the current movie.
Keep in mind the definition/concept of "cameo": a small part done by a big name. "There are no small parts, just small actors" Any cameo could be done with an unknown actor. But when it's instead cast with a bigger name, not only is there a thrill of seeing them onscreen but they often add something extra to it. Some of the best examples are Richard Pryor in TMM and Whoopi Goldberg in LTS - those could have been done by any random dayplayer but to instead have Richard as the balloon salesman or Whoopi as the cab driver gave each scene that extra spark.
And these will be small parts - some one-liners, others more involved but i'm not as concerned with the effects of lots of cameos affecting The Muppets' screentime (they should ideally all be interacted with them after all) as much as i am the lead actors doing so. To me the cameos aren't an issue/threat but i do find myself concerned with how much of the film will end up focusing on Jason/Amy/Walter than The Muppets themselves. More and more J/A/W are appearing to be the actual protaganists of the film which just seems kind of wrong for a film called "The Muppets". I don't like the idea of a Muppet movie where the Muppets feel more like the guests than the actual stars (which were the main flaws with all the films where they told an existing story - MCC, MTI, and MWOO - what made these films the weaker ones weren't even so much that The Muppets were playing other characters but that the ratio of Muppets/humans were too light on the Muppets. Boom!'s Muppet Classics comics showed how you can actually do a extended story with The Muppets as actors playing parts that work well when The Muppets themselves are at the actual helm)
As it stands, my main concerns with the movie are:
(a) what i just talked about: that too much focus will be on Walter/Jason/Amy and not enough Muppets
(b) that the movie's getting SO much hype and buzz and getting so much expectations built up to the point that the final result may be hard to eventually measure up to the pedestal that's been built for it. That was largely what happened with Letters to Santa - we got all these news reports of how great the writers were and how they wanted to bring more of a late night sensibility to the Muppets and how Muppety it was going to be - and once we finally got to see it, it felt disappointing when it didn't quite match up to its prior buildup (and probably would have been more enjoyable if it was being watched without the lofty expectations)
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