Oh and Heralde...the movie posters...TRUE art. I HATTTTE(ok hate is a strong word), I greatly dislike the modern bad photoshop jobs they used on every single muppet poster. Why cant they do group shots with the posers or puppets instead of lame photoshop jobs? But yeah I miss the art on posters for star wars films, indiana jones, muppets, etc.
I hate modern movie posters period. Crappy photoshoots, crummy CGI poses... and worst of all TERRIBLE puns for taglines. In fact, The Muppets is the greatest movie poster in the world now for NOT having a bad pun forcibly placed on the tagline. I mean, stuff like (worst example I could think of) "On April 2, Bust a Moo." Yuck. The classic art poster is a lost art... and the worst part is, the last great comedy illustrated movie poster we got was for one of the worst movies ever, "Grandma's Boys." UGH!
Yeah The Muppet Movie was definitely one of those perfect films; they got it right the first time, hehe. Muppets Take Manhattan is so touching and surprisingly grown up and really explored the characters' relationships very well. Great Muppet Caper has some funny moments and all the songs are great but the story is a little flimsy and the human characters over the top at times. So I'd put it at #3.
I don't think anything compares to those... I find them quite untouchable myself... all brilliant films. I find the new one comes very close all the while being its own thing... at least it's closer to those films than any of the classic retellings were. I find MCC a well done film, but the Muppets in it feel... well, basically the reverse of A Very Special Sesame Street Christmas. They're just randomly there half the time. But I really think GMC WAS supposed to be over the top. It seems to be a parody of films I have never seen to compare it to. I want to get the references, I get them in general... but I've never seen the films they're referring to.
As for canon... well, here's the riddle. The canon is there IS no canon. The new movie connects the events of all the other movies together, but it says it's a movie, so that doesn't count. I refuse to go back into the whole Muppet Babies thing... I said it enough times... it was added into MFC to say "Muppet Babies are on TV and a Jim Henson Project" and little else. Though, that home movie makes no reference to Nanny or Skeeter anyway, so there's wiggle room there.
I haven't seen enough Fraggle Rock... does that keep any canon or continuity? Seems like it does. Sesame Street loses it due to the agelessness of the Muppets and the mortality of the humans.