Frank Oz worked on a new Muppet movie script

[beaker]

I agree it was the film that had to be made...I mean it feels special in parts, but other times it feels way off for me(Gonzo in particular) Im really hoping the next film they make can be a ittle more down to earth, more natural styled filmmaking like an indie film/december period clooney drama or the original movies. I feel muppets work best in that environment..just check out the 2003 Mastercard commercials. I want to see the Muppets walking around real downtown areas like in the Muppets take manhattan...not closed sets all the time.

Btw is there any word on when we'll know if there will be extras in the march release? I am so curious what got cut.

 

[Drtooth]

I just checked out the Winnie the Pooh movie. The standard DVD came with 3 deleted scenes, the Blu-Ray came with 5 more. So I'm sure most of the deleted scenes are going to be on the special super duper BluRay edition.

Still, I hope they have very important key deleted scenes. I wasn't exactly wowed by any of the ones from the VMX DVD, and there was entire cameos that didn't even see a DVD special feature of the Simpsons release. I hope that Jason et all pulled for everything possible to be on these releases.

 

[blackaerin]

I think there was an overall problem with communicating with the audience on what's going on. Important plot points and character were not given enough focus on and menial gags getting too much focus.
Tex Richman's backstory, why the Muppets disbanded in the first place, what was up with the Piggy Kermit drama. There were moments, but nothing that we can sink our teeth into and enrich the story, and no one else referred to them until they became important.

It ended up being quite distracting actually, wondering about these plot points during the movie, hoping they'd be answered and even more confused when it ended unanswered.

Hate to sound like a broken record, but they really could've built up Walter's shining moment a lot better. I wasn't even aware he could whistle at all. From what I can remember, the only time he ever whistled besides the number was during the cleaning montage, and even then it was so subtle you don't even realize it as anything special.

Personally, I think they tried too hard to be funny/cool/hip. I was getting Oz flashbacks, especially during the Richman Rap.

 

[Duke Remington]

Personally, I think they tried too hard to be funny/cool/hip. I was getting Oz flashbacks, especially during the Richman Rap.

Sorry, but I never saw anything of the sort in this movie.

 

[Scooterforever]

I think there was an overall problem with communicating with the audience on what's going on. Important plot points and character were not given enough focus on and menial gags getting too much focus.
Tex Richman's backstory, why the Muppets disbanded in the first place, what was up with the Piggy Kermit drama. There were moments, but nothing that we can sink our teeth into and enrich the story, and no one else referred to them until they became important.

It ended up being quite distracting actually, wondering about these plot points during the movie, hoping they'd be answered and even more confused when it ended unanswered.

Hate to sound like a broken record, but they really could've built up Walter's shining moment a lot better. I wasn't even aware he could whistle at all. From what I can remember, the only time he ever whistled besides the number was during the cleaning montage, and even then it was so subtle you don't even realize it as anything special.

I think getting rid of Gary & Mary would have created ample time for all of these things to be explained. I feel Walter was essential in serving as a catalyst for getting the Muppets back together, but scrapping the whole Gary/ Mary/ Smalltown subplot would have allowed for a lot more to be explained in the 1 and 1/2 hours the movie was given. Segel writing himself into the film as Gary was just self-serving, pure and simple, in my opinion, and I think having a guy previously known for nothing other than Judd Apatow films may have hurt the film's marketability. On the other hand, I feel like no matter what the studios would've wanted a marketable A-list star to play a major role, and Amy Adams, a great and diverse actress, fills that niche nicely. I loved the film overall and I've seen it 6 times in theaters thus far, but the Gary & Mary subplot seemed to stop the film dead at times.

 

[Drtooth]

Segel writing himself into the film as Gary was just self-serving, pure and simple, in my opinion, and I think having a guy previously known for nothing other than Judd Apatow films may have hurt the film's marketability. On the other hand, I feel like no matter what the studios would've wanted a marketable A-list star to play a major role, and Amy Adams, a great and diverse actress, fills that niche nicely.

There was a lot of focus on the human characters, but no where near classic retelling levels. I don't mind the Gary/Mary subplot at all, but only because it's a subplot. It gives some sort of tension to the Gary/Walter subplot. I tried thinking of what would happen if Mary wasn't in the film, they probably could have done it without her, but then there wouldn't be tension to the human catalysts. The plot was mainly about saving the Muppets, bringing them back together, and I don't think it would have worked out the same if it was just Kermit slamming his fist down and saying, "I'm getting everyone back together."

We WERE going to have to have some celebrity being a large focus. That's what the Classic Retellings were. If we got one of those, we'd relaunch the franchise to classic retellings, each getting less interesting than the next. This was the film that had to be made, this was the story that was meant to be told, this is the film that will relaunch of franchise of endless possibilities.

If there's anything outside of the Muppet franchise I think this could be compared to, it's probably Looney Tunes Back in Action. That was supposed to relaunch the Looney Tunes, and it completely failed. The humans were much more the focus and much more 1 dimensional, said humans were completely worthless and useless to the movie, there were more throwaway gags than plot, and of course there were huge behind the scenes conflicts with studio meddling rewriting the movie to make it less comprehensible. We could have got something THAT messed up that would have sunk to the bottom of the Box Office as soon as it came out. And we ALL know what happened to the Looney Tunes after that movie failed.

Everyone's problem seems to be about the same thing... editing. I don't know if the filmmakers even got the choice to make those cuts. A few more scenes would have made the difference, I agree. But what's there was enjoyable, most people loved it, and we're going to get more stuff out of it as a result. What's wrong with that?

 

[Scooterforever]

If there's anything outside of the Muppet franchise I think this could be compared to, it's probably Looney Tunes Back in Action. That was supposed to relaunch the Looney Tunes, and it completely failed. The humans were much more the focus and much more 1 dimensional, said humans were completely worthless and useless to the movie, there were more throwaway gags than plot, and of course there were huge behind the scenes conflicts with studio meddling rewriting the movie to make it less comprehensible. We could have got something THAT messed up that would have sunk to the bottom of the Box Office as soon as it came out. And we ALL know what happened to the Looney Tunes after that movie failed.

Everyone's problem seems to be about the same thing... editing. I don't know if the filmmakers even got the choice to make those cuts. A few more scenes would have made the difference, I agree. But what's there was enjoyable, most people loved it, and we're going to get more stuff out of it as a result. What's wrong with that?

Yes, I enjoyed the movie overall. Great comparison w/ LT: Back in Action. I agree, The Muppets could've been that, but it wasn't. My gosh, just thinking about Loonatics hurts my soul. I still loves me some classic Daffy Duck cartoons, and his dueling pianos scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit was epic.

 

[Drtooth]

Yes, I enjoyed the movie overall. Great comparison w/ LT: Back in Action. I agree, The Muppets could've been that, but it wasn't. My gosh, just thinking about Loonatics hurts my soul. I still loves me some classic Daffy Duck cartoons, and his dueling pianos scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit was epic.

The Muppets is LUCKY, Dang lucky, it didn't have the behind the scenes dilemmas and drama that Looney Tunes BIA had. LTBIA was almost an entirely different movie. Even opened up with a sharp, stinging satire of WB's problems getting another Batman movie off the ground (something they did for years after Batman and Robin killed the franchise). The entire end of the movie was rewritten and refilmed, and they didn't even show the full alternate version on the DVD. And a lot of it was filled with too many old Looney Tunes gags that fell flat. I still don't get the bit about the giant robotic Charlie the Dog. That was completely useless. And I have to say, Gary and Mary were likable as the humans... Jenna Elfman was cold and nasty, Brendan Frasier came off too much a loser to find sympathetic. They could really have just done the movie with Bugs and Daffy, but apparently the star power of 70 year old cartoon characters wasn't good enough and they needed B listers to round out the cast. Steve Martin, on the other hand, hasn't been that wacky and fun since he was singing about King Tut on SNL! His artistic stuff is great... I'm a huge Steve Martin fan... but I do love those classics.

Even then, I still quite enjoyed it. it could have been better, much better... there's no call for it to have done so poorly. Elf, maybe... but the Cat in the Hat? That was an offensive piece of crap.

And because WB felt that the entire fate of the Looney Tunes fell on one movie (that they ruined with constant meddling), they dumped all these plans to make new classic style shorts (including a series of Daffy shorts where he was back to his Bob Clampett wackiness)... they felt they needed to hip it up, they came up with the failure Loonatics, and it took years for them to recover. The Muppets seems to have done well enough, it will hit big on DVD, and we'll see something else soon enough, even if it's just a TV special.

 

[Scooterforever]

The Muppets seems to have done well enough, it will hit big on DVD, and we'll see something else soon enough, even if it's just a TV special.

Ach, there hasn't been a good Muppets TV special (at least in my opinion) since Muppets Go to Disneyworld. Their music videos and web spots have been quite good, however, so there's always that avenue.

 

[Yorick]

Wanna hear the worst thing? I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but the original premise of the Ghostbusters movie wound up being the premise for the Filmation Ghostbusters cartoon, where they DID go to different time periods and outer space.

I thought you were a fan of the Filmation cartoon...I know I am, and it's not a bad thing at all that they travel through time and space!