Letters to Santa: Some thoughts

[Beauregard]

Continuing my latest tradition of posting running commentary while watch Muppet movies, I thought I'd share a few thoughts on LTS as I give it a Christmas watch.

My first thought is, remember when this first came out with new costumes for characters, some funny moments and some snappy new Christmas tunes and we thought this was the best that the Muppets would ever get? (How wrong we were!)

Another thought: Hello Clair's Ma.

Also, hi Beauregard having a good old sweep in the background!

This movie had a few nice Muppet Show style moments, such as Sam discussing the fact that we should NEVER open letters (although there wasn't really a joke attached to his appearance) and the Wish Granter 3000 from Muppet Labs.

Speaking of the WG3000: Poor old Bunsen with his embarrassment at the appearence of that young lady.

Hi Piggy. Nice outfit. "Of course you can! I just called for a car." Also, "No need to get bent out of shape!" (Haha!)

And now for (ugly) Pigeons with hilarious voices. Sometimes that line gets stuck in my head for days at a time, "Peck, peck...peck, peck...peck, peck."

So, Pepe sleeps with the fishes? I have no opinion on that line. "They call me, The Prawn." (LIKE!)

Hi Muppet Babies Scooter with your laptop. Nice set up for a word-gag though. Enjoyed that one. But I do have to say, if Clair and the Muppets had planned ahead and not tried to send their letter on Christmas Eve (Christmas EVE!!! Seriously, when did they think Santa would have time to fix up the presents for them??) they may not have been in this problem in the first place. ("Nuts? Anybody, nuts?")

The Muppets do act like themselves in this movie. Fozzie is nice and supportive of Kermit, Piggy is a little selfish but has a good heart, Gonzo is soulful and a bit zany, Rizzo and Pepe are cynical, Scooter is a bit geeky...But, there is still *something* lacking from their characterization here.

LOVE the different sized doors in their hallway. (When did the Muppets move from the boarding house to flats in the city? NOT that I am complaining. I actually prefer them in their own flats.)

Hi Whoopi! I love you. Is she reprising her "Boss" role here, one wonders?

Hi Penguins. Nice mix of talking and quacking.

Hello Joy the Ticket Agent. I love how she is totally flirting with Kermit, while Pepe is totally in love with her. Its actually a cameo that I really enjoy. "Blackberry, Blueberry, Raspberry, Halle Berry."

Now, is there ANY need for a bad guy in this movie? Thank goodness for Bobo as a hilarious foil. "I'm just rubbing you the right way." Bobo vs. Fozzie! Enjoy THAT. "It used to be the coffee room, now its the interrogation room!" "Prepare the cattle prods!" "Ring-a-ding-ding." "You said 'move move move, I want to see you on that plane'."

Poor Gonzo gets a lot of abuse sometimes, his nervous reactions to Officer Meanie remind me of his behavior around the guy from Muppets From Space.

Hmm...so, Meanie is a bully and doesn't think he can change? I don't get it. Its not enough exposition to justify his existence in this film at all, sorry. He's my least favourite Muppet villian EVER.

Also, not to keep harping on about the error in this movie, but why did they have to jump from the plane when it was already supposed to land at the North Pole? However, I did LOVE when Fozzie's hat lands in front of him, and when Kermit digs Gonzo out of the snow, and when Rizzo says, "He's a big guy!"

Clearly the Chief Elf has issues.

Hi deep-thought Gonzo (ala. alternate universe Gonzo). Now THIS is a song that I can get behind. He's so sweet in this...and I love to hear Gonzo and Fozzie harmonize. (On another note, its so nice that in The Muppets Kermit finally takes over the deep-emotional storyline again so that Gonzo can return to his original crazy artist stint).

OH HI SANTA!!! I simply ADORE this Santa Claus! He's super funny and adorable and full of the jolly Santaness that he really should be filled with. Plus, he's British.

"Oh Joy!" "Oh rapture..."

LOVE Pepe as an opera singer!!!

Haha! I love that Clair's Ma has an authentic reaction to seeing all the Muppets show up at the front door: "OH MY!" Lew Zealand "Its Fishes!" Pepe "Hola Clair's maaaaamaaa...."

I was happy to see Piggy show up, thinking, "Who's going to rub the suntan lotion into my back?" She's dressed rather fancy too!

Zoot: "Happy Hanukkah." (Who knew?)

HI ROBIN! (In my opinion, he should have been the main character rather than Gonzo.)

LOVE that Lew is hanging a silver Fish ornament on the Christmas Tree!

HI ROWLF!!!

Now, I really really LOVE the Bunsen/Beaker dancing scene. No matter how you choose to interpret it.

Happy 4th Wall Breaking Holidays!

 

[Beauregard]

Hmm...also watching the deleted scenes: Clair's Ma is a little bit of a human-supremacist....tsk tsk.

 

[beakerboy12]

Yeah, LTS wasn't the best. But had some really good moments! Seeing Rowlf and Robin in it, with lines, was really cool to see.... then came The Muppets... but really, this was pretty good! Bobo was REALLY funny ("A ding, ding, ding, di-ding, di-ding, ding, ding, ding!"). But most of all, Scooter's prominence in it. I mean, he didn't go to the North Pole with them, but Scooter really had a big part in it!

The Wish-Granter 3000 was funny and the model was something funny to have done. But overall, the special was pretty good!

 

[CensoredAlso]

Hi Muppet Babies Scooter with your laptop.

Yeah that really wasn't Muppet Show Scooter. Thankfully he came back in The Muppets (2011), lol.

 

[Drtooth]

This special would have been great if it went through one more rewrite or ran another half hour broadcast. It seems that there should be something in the middle that isn't there, like watching the beginning and the end of a movie. Still, I wish either the rest of the Muppets popped up in Santa's workshop or there was a scene with Piggy grappling with the choice of going on vacation alone or staying behind and waiting for Kermit. Either way, I never got to see the DVD and always hated how the commercials interrupted every 2 minutes.

 

[Speed Tracer]

Hmm...also watching the deleted scenes: Clair's Ma is a little bit of a human-supremacist....tsk tsk.

I was incredibly weirded out by Krakowski's performance. Half of the time she looked like she was totally charmed by the Muppets, the other half she looked like she was about to call 911.

 

[zoebell]

i think i'd like to see this one. i haven't seen this or vmx yet, i've heard mixed opinions on both

 

[Puckrox]

I saw LTS for the first time the other day, and I really liked it. It's far from perfect, and I'll agree that it could've used a few more rewrites. I also thought it was far too short... but besides that, I did really like it. It's cute and it got me in the Christmas spirit and there was a ton of Gonzo and, yeah, I liked it. I'll probably be watching it again tonight.

 

[minor muppetz]

Speaking of the WG3000: Poor old Bunsen with his embarrassment at the appearence of that young lady.

I've always wondered what the embarrassment was about (perhaps he was jealous of Beaker, though Bunsen could just use the helmet to wish for his own).

And now for (ugly) Pigeons with hilarious voices. Sometimes that line gets stuck in my head for days at a time, "Peck, peck...peck, peck...peck, peck."

That's one of my least favorite scenes in the special.

Hi Whoopi! I love you. Is she reprising her "Boss" role here, one wonders?

I doubt it. Somehow, her demanding the Muppets' money seems out-of-character for the "Boss". It also comes off as Whoopi Goldberg's meanest role that I've seen her in.

Also, I can't tell Claire's opinion on the Muppets. When Claire learns that the Muppets are all going away for Christmas, she seems to make a fake "darn"-type gester, as if she was showing pretend disapointment. And she seems to take a second before letting the Muppets in at the end. Though her line "any friend of Pepe's is a friend of mine" implies that she's at least friends with Pepe (I wonder what the extent of it might be...). Or maybe she only tolerates them as much as an average parent would tolerate its childs weirder friends.

I like the special, though it's not among the best. I feel it should be reviewed by one of the critics at That Guy with the Glasses. It seems to have a lot of nitpick-worthy stuff in it.

 

[Mo Frackle]

Also, I can't tell Claire's opinion on the Muppets. When Claire learns that the Muppets are all going away for Christmas, she seems to make a fake "darn"-type gester, as if she was showing pretend disapointment. And she seems to take a second before letting the Muppets in at the end. Though her line "any friend of Pepe's is a friend of mine" implies that she's at least friends with Pepe (I wonder what the extent of it might be...). Or maybe she only tolerates them as much as an average parent would tolerate its childs weirder friends.

You mean Claire's mom, right? Yeah I always assumed it was along the lines of a parent being weirded out by their child's friends. She seems to be one of those people that, at first glance anyway, sees the Muppets as a bunch of freaks. However, she doesn't want to be rude to them, so she tries her best to hide her feelings towards them. But I think she had a change of heart after spending Christmas dinner with the gang.

As for the Pepe thing, in one of the deleted scenes, before the Muppets leave for the post office early on, Pepe passes by Claire and her mother standing in the hall. The dialogue goes a little bit like this:

Pepe: Hola, Claire.
Claire: Hi, Pepe.
Pepe: (eyeing Claire's mom, obviously attracted to her): Hola, Claire's mama!
Claire's Mom: Was that the shrimp?
Claire: King Prawn.
Claire's Mom: Do we call him king?
Claire: No.
Claire's Mom (obviously weirded out): Let's go back inside...

I'm guessing the "any friend of Pepe's is a friend of mine" line is somehow a reference to this scene.