What is your least favorite Muppet Movie?

[conburke621]

I can't STAND Muppets Wizard of Oz or Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. Those two weren't even trying to be Muppety, they just wrote parodies and slapped the characters on them. Muppets From Space is the worst of the theatrical releases in my opinion, but it's really not that bad a movie. I think I just dislike it because it's not a musical. I dunno, that's just me.

 

[Drtooth]

VMX had a sizable non-Muppet fan viewership. The ratings were spectacular, and they completely beat a crappy Brady Bunch movie on the same night. When it wasn't trying to be the Christmas version of Scary Movie type films (in context, that worked for then), it did have its moments. It was riding the coattails (or maybe creating the coattails) of the 2002 era Muppet comeback. Palisades Toys just started making Muppet figures and possibilities for new telefilms and TV shows were flying around (which sadly nothing came out of). it may not have been a great film, but it was a very invigorating time for the Muppets and the fanbase.

MWOz broke the franchise. It just completely broke it. MFS broke the film franchise, but to be fair everyone hated working on it.... but MWOZ came out at a terrible time. That was the big thing Disney was going to use to launch the Muppets under their ownership, it got disastrous ratings against the Daytime Emmys (because there were still those Soap Opera things back then, so people cared) ON opening night of a Star Wars movie. And then, every single plan Disney had for the Muppets fizzled out until about LTS, then they were slowly trying to build it back up before the Muppets came out. But really... MWOZ is the Muppet's Batman and Robin. Campy, ugly, franchise killing.

 

[snichols1973]

I don't know if anyone else has ever seen or heard of Muppet Classic Theater, but I think that even Statler and Waldorf would find this one unbelievably absurd (which is quite normal for them, even when they're not sitting in their theater box).....

http://www.muppet.wikia.com/Muppet_Classic_Theater


It consists of 6 fairy tales:

Rumpelstiltskin (played by Gonzo), The Emperor's New Clothes (with Fozzie as the Emperor of Fozzalia), The Elves and the Shoemaker (the elves look like Elvis Presley), The Three Little Pigs (with Andy and Randy "This job's too hard!", and Miss Piggy as Sandy), King Midas (with Kermit in the title role, and Miss Piggy as Queen Midas), and Gonzo as The Boy Who Cried Wolf.

I haven't actually seen this (I just found it on the web while looking up other movies featuring the Muppets), and it sounds like the Muppets with a Fractured Fairy Tales twist, but if any of you have any memories of this, feel free to share.....

 

[Mo Frackle]

I don't know if anyone else has ever seen or heard of Muppet Classic Theater, but I think that even Statler and Waldorf would find this one unbelievably absurd (which is quite normal for them, even when they're not sitting in their theater box).....

http://www.muppet.wikia.com/Muppet_Classic_Theater


It consists of 6 fairy tales:

Rumpelstiltskin (played by Gonzo), The Emperor's New Clothes (with Fozzie as the Emperor of Fozzalia), The Elves and the Shoemaker (the elves look like Elvis Presley), The Three Little Pigs (with Andy and Randy "This job's too hard!", and Miss Piggy as Sandy), King Midas (with Kermit in the title role, and Miss Piggy as Queen Midas), and Gonzo as The Boy Who Cried Wolf.

I haven't actually seen this (I just found it on the web while looking up other movies featuring the Muppets), and it sounds like the Muppets with a Fractured Fairy Tales twist, but if any of you have any memories of this, feel free to share.....

That's not really a movie. It's more of a direct-to-video special. In my opinion, it was okay, but not fantastic. There were some fun bits sprinkled throughout. The stories are a mixed bag. And the songs are kind of forgettable.

 

[Slackbot]

I have MCT, and overall I wasn't impressed. It just didn't seem that funny to me, and I didn't care for the songs at all. It felt like they wanted to make a video with the Muppets, but they didn't have a story to tell, so they did the usual and plopped 'em into some public domain stories. That said, I did find the Shoemaker & The Elves kind of amusing, and it's always fun to see Gonzo & Rizzo together. However, it's a pet peeve that in this and some other productions Fozzie is portrayed as a village idiot type. C'mon, that's just flippin' mean.

You can buy it on VHS fer cheap on Amazon. Unlike The Muppets Go To The Movies, which has never been put on video in North America and which I'd like to see. Hmm, maybe as an extra with Seasons 4 and 5. (Hey, I can dream.)

 

[Drtooth]

However, it's a pet peeve that in this and some other productions Fozzie is portrayed as a village idiot type. C'mon, that's just flippin' mean.

It seems that the character was going to be Flanderized into one, mistaking his goofiness for stupidity. Fozzie has never said anything stupid before. Sometimes naive, but never stupid. I blame how he was portrayed in MTI, because you can tell that's the direction he was going in when you count this DTV thing and MFS. Eric really breathed new life into the character, and he's been his old Fozzie self ever since VMX.

But I've seen the Classics theater in segments on YT... They probably work better as short segments than a full movie. Makes you wonder if this was going to be something else in the long run. There are those Disney DTV projects that are thinly disguised pilots of unsold shows. Especially the heartbreaking Atlantis series, which WOULD have been better as a TV show than a movie. Greg Wiseman, that's why.

 

[Mo Frackle]

Letters To Santa

Actually, that'a a TV special, not a movie.

 

[Misskermie]

Does Dog city count?


I bought the movie.

 

[D'Snowth]

I saw the Elvis Elves segment at a Jim Henson exhibit at the art museum back in 2005... it cracked me up to be perfectly honest... I haven't seen any of the other segments from it, so I can't really judge it as a whole, but that one certainly cracked me up.

 

[Mo Frackle]

Does Dog city count?


I bought the movie.

Also a TV special. And I wouldn't exactly put that in the official Muppet category. Yes, the characters are Henson creations, yes they were performed by the familiar performers, and yes Rowlf appears, but I think Dog City (and a few other specials, like Tale of a Bunny Picnic, Christmas Toy, Song of the Cloud Forest, and Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas) should be considered stand-alone specials.