Your Thoughts: "The Muppets" Theatrical Film

[newsmanfan]

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I've only seen the film twice, and my budget won't allow more, but I have already reserved my dvd copy!

Something that doesn't seem to me to have been noted enough in this thread: the astounding amount of sheer DETAIL that was put onscreen. Tiny things made me smile continually...everything from Gary and Walter's kitchen having vintage Fiestaware (ye gods! my mother has the exact same pitcher!) to the rebuilt Newsman...BLINKING! I didn't catch it the first go-around, but during the telethon at my second viewing I sat bolt upright. "WHAT? He BLINKED! That wasn't a scowl, that was a blink!!" --Okay, it's silly, sure, but for each of us who truly love love loves a particular character, little things like that really warm the whole experience! Someone else much earlier remarked on the fact that Gary and Walter's map to their house has Paradise Falls on it, a nice nod to another great film about following dreams and learning to be a family again. Sure, we all saw the Wall O'Banjos and got chills...Gonzo's wearing that costume under his suit, the same one from the piano-balancing sketch! I'm sure the dvd will foster more appreciation for those sorts of details, especially background stuff, but I just wanted to say kudos to the Muppet builders and the set decorators, who worked just as hard as anyone with screentime to make this an amazing production enjoyable on so many layers!!
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[Beauregard]

One thing that I want to say in response to a few posts from the first page is that to me (from just one viewing, I may change my mind later) I didn't feel that the movie was as 'hacked up, with pieces littering the cutting room floor' as people seem to suggest. If we didn't know those scenes existed (Flashbacks, most of them) then we probably wouldn't miss them.

The Maniacal Laugh gag works to me even without a flashback to explain it, and reminds me of when in The Goon Show people would read their actions as well as words as a form of radio comedy, "...insert evil laughter here..." I also think that Tex seems to have given the theater back more as a result of his head injury than because of the laughter situation, from the hints in the newspaper clipping (Note: LOVE that one newspaper clipping was advertising "The Nutcracker 2". Details, details). It really slows down LTS and MFS when they have the bad guy sit around explaining their back story. I just don't care about them, I'd rather see them be mean to the Muppets and get their commupance(sp?)!

Similarly, Piggy quite quickly and simply explains the whole breakup situation during their walk when she hints that she built that house for them to have children in after tricking Kermit into marrying her. With or without the backstory, that is enough for me to get it. I, for one, would have hated to see Kermit shouting "I will never marry you!" at Miss Piggy. I'd rather leave it to my imagination...and even that kinda hurts me. *shudder* He was already quite jaded in this film without being shown to shout at someone hurtfully... I'm glad they cut it.

Similarly, I am glad that they cut out the Fake Celebrity Awards scenes and the prison scenes because, honestly, the film already had SO many storylines that it would have slowed down the flow.

I'd looove to see them in an extended edition (as long as we also have the theatrical edition available!) or as deleted scenes. But I don't feel they were necessary to the plot.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I didn't feel that the movie was as 'hacked up, with pieces littering the cutting room floor' as people seem to suggest.

I agree; I didn't get that vibe from the movie at all.

The Maniacal Laugh gag works to me even without a flashback to explain it, and reminds me of when in The Goon Show people would read their actions as well as words as a form of radio comedy, "...insert evil laughter here..."

Exactly, if I hadn't known the back story, that's how I would have interpreted it too.

Similarly, Piggy quite quickly and simply explains the whole breakup situation during their walk when she hints that she built that house for them to have children in after tricking Kermit into marrying her. With or without the backstory, that is enough for me to get it. I, for one, would have hated to see Kermit shouting "I will never marry you!" at Miss Piggy. I'd rather leave it to my imagination...and even that kinda hurts me. *shudder* He was already quite jaded in this film without being shown to shout at someone hurtfully... I'm glad they cut it.

Yeah sometimes it's more dramatically effective to refer to a past moment, rather than show that moment.

 

[Beauregard]

Another point that I will disagree with people on is where people suggest that "We Built This City" should have been a Muppet musical number. Now, I LOVE Muppet musical numbers (everyone breaking out into Cabin Fever in MTI is simply THE BEST) but, these Muppets were all pretty broken at that point in the movie, and something that music really does is inspire happiness, the way that it did here. If they had sung at that moment, it would either have had to be a more low-key sort of song, or else it would (to me) have seemed out of character for then to switch straight into a Night Life-esque number.

I never liked that song before, but I do now. I think it would have taken a few days of cleaning and joking together, and singing along to stuff, having a bit of a dance, pulling some pranks (vacuum vs. Beaker!) on each other for them to get into the right spirit again to pull off that final show. So, the use of this song really did get them there.

Speaking of the final show. The rehearsal scene had me just staring at the screen with my jaw dropped like, "Is this REAL? Am I DREAMING?" It was so funny and chaotic and referential to their real theme and I was just stunned by how well they managed to make it look like a messed up version of the theme (Crazy Harry cracked me up by poking his head out of the arches when he was supposed to be walking along.) There were so many times actually when my mouth was literally open and I was having to tell myself this was real and now and happening.

 

[Drtooth]

One thing that I want to say in response to a few posts from the first page is that to me (from just one viewing, I may change my mind later) I didn't feel that the movie was as 'hacked up, with pieces littering the cutting room floor' as people seem to suggest. If we didn't know those scenes existed (Flashbacks, most of them) then we probably wouldn't miss them.

All I'd want is that one scene back, and I don't think it would have slowed down the movie at all... it's, what, like 2 minutes at most? If nothing else, it would punch up the ending. Still, the pacing of the movie feels like they had a couple smaller pauses and exchanges that would give us room to breathe in between scenes.

Similarly, I am glad that they cut out the Fake Celebrity Awards scenes and the prison scenes because, honestly, the film already had SO many storylines that it would have slowed down the flow.

And there was clearly a rehearsal sequence too. But that stuff I agree was unnecessary to the film. It's just a shame that so many cameos were cut. it's just that one 2 minute sequence could have made the film a little more punched up.

 

[frogboy4]

All I'd want is that one scene back, and I don't think it would have slowed down the movie at all... it's, what, like 2 minutes at most? If nothing else, it would punch up the ending. Still, the pacing of the movie feels like they had a couple smaller pauses and exchanges that would give us room to breathe in between scenes.

And there was clearly a rehearsal sequence too. But that stuff I agree was unnecessary to the film. It's just a shame that so many cameos were cut. it's just that one 2 minute sequence could have made the film a little more punched up.

I agree, the fact that they had Tex sing his bizarre rap without the payoff of the second verse seemed like a poor choice. The flashback during the song would have lent 30 extra seconds to the picture and a lot more development for the character.

 

[Beauregard]

All I'd want is that one scene back, and I don't think it would have slowed down the movie at all... it's, what, like 2 minutes at most? If nothing else, it would punch up the ending. Still, the pacing of the movie feels like they had a couple smaller pauses and exchanges that would give us room to breathe in between scenes.

Maybe it helped that I already knew that scene was cut from reading here, but I honestly didn't feel like it was missing...Although someone who said that the bowling-ball scene at the end should have been cut before he started laughing and then gone straight to the hospital clip.

I woke up this morning and realized that Link totally sang a song in that movie and I was so into the world of it, and he was obviously so well performed, that I didn't even NOTICE that he shouldn't have been there...if that makes sense. Similarly, I had nearly finished the movie before I realized that Rowlf and Scooter were main characters again.

Gonzo WAS strangely absent (was he in the Ninja scene? I can't remember if he had the ninja-mask over his nose. I was distracted by The Chef's mask being over his hat ) but I laughed outloud every time I saw his arm going round and round with that bowling ball

Fozzie: "Evil oil barren! Evil oil barren!"

 

[Drtooth]

I agree, the fact that they had Tex sing his bizarre rap without the payoff of the second verse seemed like a poor choice. The flashback during the song would have lent 30 extra seconds to the picture and a lot more development for the character.

I understand the desire for flow in a movie... I just don't see why cutting that out would have stopped the movie dead. Seems a lot of cuts would have given the picture a better flow if anything, maybe even to combat some of the pacing problems. Again, I agree Me Party feels like it should have been cut, but Amy Adams would have no part of it. But I don't see why the studio would begrudge them 30 seconds-2 minutes longer of run time... but then I heard that they cut a 7 second shadow dance from the Oogie Boogie number in NBC for no reason. It comes in right after the "I'm gonna do the best I can." You can hear a musical interlude on the soundtrack.

I woke up this morning and realized that Link totally sang a song in that movie and I was so into the world of it, and he was obviously so well performed, that I didn't even NOTICE that he shouldn't have been there...if that makes sense. Similarly, I had nearly finished the movie before I realized that Rowlf and Scooter were main characters again.

I know! Link was always a major secondary character on the TV show, but he was never in the movies more than a cameo... while he had no speaking lines, he had several singing lines and a heavy background presence. I still don't get the annoyance that Rizzo and Pepe didn't have major roles when you see what characters actually got them.

 

[frogboy4]

I understand the desire for flow in a movie... I just don't see why cutting that out would have stopped the movie dead. Seems a lot of cuts would have given the picture a better flow if anything, maybe even to combat some of the pacing problems. Again, I agree Me Party feels like it should have been cut, but Amy Adams would have no part of it. But I don't see why the studio would begrudge them 30 seconds-2 minutes longer of run time... but then I heard that they cut a 7 second shadow dance from the Oogie Boogie number in NBC for no reason. It comes in right after the "I'm gonna do the best I can." You can hear a musical interlude on the soundtrack.

I know! Link was always a major secondary character on the TV show, but he was never in the movies more than a cameo... while he had no speaking lines, he had several singing lines and a heavy background presence. I still don't get the annoyance that Rizzo and Pepe didn't have major roles when you see what characters actually got them.

Word is that they originally did cut "Me Party" from the film, but stuck it back in to beef-up Amy Adams' role and to give a girl-power portion to the movie. It was short and kind of cute so I have no problem with it other than the fact that Sarah Silverman was given nothing to do. I'm sure she could have thought up something funny.

 

[Beauregard]

I agree about Sarah's part seeming really odd (it was less funny than Bob Hope in TMM, and that's saying something). But part of Sarah's humour has always been saying something normal and it sounding really mean, which is kinda what she did here. Ish.

However, I was focusing more on the Kermit/Piggy plot than the Tex/Muppets plot, and for the Kermit/Piggy plot I felt that the Me Party certainly added something to the movie. She came back, and many may have thought that she just came back for Kermit, so that sequence makes it clear(er) that she came back for The Muppets themselves as well (even if she is fooling herself into thinking that...which personally I don't think she is.) It added a little extra depth to that storyline.

I guess that's where it depends which storyline you were focusing on...as to whether you would have added/taken away the Tex song verse and/or the Amy song/verse.

I really dislike the Tex verse about his childhood...and I also would have disliked to see the Muppets as child-entertainers who show up at kids birthday parties (even really rich kids). Would self-respecting singers, entertainers or artists really show up at a 10 Year Olds party?

In fact, if I may delve further, while it would have been interesting to see the comparison of Walter who ADORED them on first sight and Tex who hated/was scared of them on first sight. Surely that would have confused the issue of whether the Muppets are something that you can latch onto as an outsider. Seeing as Tex was obviously an outsider (laughed at) and did not like them.

Did kids really need to see a child disliking the Muppets? Would that not have confused the issue? (Also the message that if you don't find the Muppets funny then you will grow up evil...is kinda off in my opinion.)

On top of which all I'm hearing in my head is Ed's "DON'T! LAUGH! AT! ME!" and that was cringe worthy in MFS.