Muppet Family Christmas OR Very Muppet Christmas?

[Daffyfan4ever]

Well, my mom's favorite is MFC. As for me, I liked VMC but I have to agree with Pug that the plot is kind of depressing. It is a bit sad to see Kermit that upset, but it's understandable since I've felt that way at times too. Also, Pepe's really good in that one. But I like that in MFC, they use every Muppet character from different shows. Something that probably couldn't be done today since the characters are now owned by seperate companies. Plus the original Muppateers (Henson, Oz, Hunt) perform in that one. That's always a plus. Scooter and Janice didn't sound right in VMC, so it's good to hear Hunt perform them in MFC.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Ok, sorry, but I don't think there's really any comparison here.
I like both "A Muppet Family Christmas" and "It's A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie". But "Muppet Family Christmas" has to be my favorite. It's one of the very few times you see characters from The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, and Fraggle Rock all interacting. (They even sort of worked Muppet Babies in there too- with the film of The Muppets' first Christmas together! )
This special is definitely some of Jerry Juhl's best work. I liked Kermit and Robin's interchange with the Fraggles in the cave and it was also cool that they came and joined the Muppets later on during the Carol Sing. (Even Uncle Travelling Matt shows up!)
And I love a good running gag- like the "Be careful of the icy patch" bit. And it may be one of the strangest pairings I've ever seen, but it was really cool seeing Big Bird and the Swedish Chef singing "The Christmas Song"- that was one of the best parts. (I think I was crying with the Chef at the end! )
The special took advantage of so many great chances for interaction. Like Bert and Ernie telling Doc that "bunkbeds" are "B words" and telling him that where they come from, that's small talk. LOL!
And Janice and Cookie Monster's interchange. "Look what I've got. Christmas cookies!" - COOKIE!!!!! "Who was that strange blue creature?" Animal- "That my kinda fella!" LOL!
Great exchanges like that made this an awesome special. And of course, there's tons of great Christmas music. I think I like almost any song when the Muppets are singing it and that's especially true of Christmas music. "We Need a Little Christmas Now" is a great song!
And Jim Henson's cameo at the end made the whole thing all the more special!

However, there are good things to be said of "It's A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie". For one thing, it's nice to see the continual integration of classic TMS characters with Muppets Tonight characters. It's unfortunate that Clifford doesn't show up, but at least you see his picture on the wall. It's always neat when little things like that are thrown in. And the movie managed to reference/parody almost every major Christmas movie!!! For a huge fan of Christmas movies like myself, that was awesome. The title itself is a reference to "It's A Wonderful Life", which of course is dealt with even more with Kermit getting to see what The Muppets would be like without him. (And I loved Yoda's cameo!) The snowman narrator is of course, a reference to Burl Ives' character in "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (I think I'm right on that anyway) And Rizzo's red nose obviously referenced Rudolph later on. The whole gift exchange thing at the start was a great parody of O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" (a beautiful story by the way)
(And Johnny Fiama's reaction was perfect! "Gee, thanks Sal." And Bunsen and Beaker were hilarious in that scene too)
And Fozzie did a funny parody of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". And there was even a reference to Steve Irwin- the Crocodile Hunter! And one of my favorite scenes was the frog with his tongue stuck to a pole. (And the frogs telling him, "Come on. I triple frog dare you!") LOL!!! That was a reference to a classic 1983 movie- "A Christmas Story"- one of my favorite Christmas movies.
And there was still a cohesive story running through that was really good. And I know Scooter's voice was a litte off, but it was great just to have him in there. And to see the Muppet Theater after 21 years! And Sam had some good lines (and a very interesting alternate life!)
But I think one of the best parts was Kermit and Gonzo's song "Everyone Matters". Such a true message! And that was really great. And I also liked that Gonzo got to have a fairly large role in the movie, along with Fozzie. I don't think it will ever be the same as "A Muppet Family Christmas" or "The Muppet Christmas Carol", but it's a pretty good Muppet Christmas addition all the same.

 

[minor muppetz]

Wouldn't it have been great if the Sesame Street human cast appeared in MFC? It would have been interesting to see Doc interact with the humans (it's also a little bit sad that he didn't talk to Big Bird).

I was thinking about this, and now I'm starting to wonder if there was a limited stand for people to walk on. Doc was the only human in this special (not counting Jim Henson or the hands of the human who give Miss Piggy some slippers), and Big Bird was the only full-body muppet in this special. There were no Gorgs (or Doozers), there was no Sweetums, no Doglion, Thog, or Mutations, there was no Bruno, and there definately wasn't any Snuffleupagus (I don't think Martin Robinson performed in this special, anyway. He wasn't credited, though there were many uncredited background performers, such as Terry Angus and Rick Lyon).

If there wasn't much floor for humans to walk on, then perhaps there wasn't room for a lot of humans to appear (there would have been a lot of muppet performers in the way). If you think about it, Big Bird doesn't really move around much in this special. When the Sesame Street cast walks to Fozzie's Moms house, Big Bird doesn't appear untill after everybody else stopped. he moved around quite a bit in his one major scene, but in all other scenes, he either sits down or he stands in one spot. The monitor inside Big Bird only allows Caroll Spinney to see what the viewer sees, so he wouldn't have been able to see where the board ends, and he also sees with a small hole in his costume, but I don't know if he could see his feet through that hole. There are also some full-body characters, like sweetums, who don't have monitors inside them, making it harder for them to see what they're doing while walking a few feet above the ground. Mr. Snuffleupagus might have been too heavy to workthis way, and if one of the two performers inside Snuffy fell it might have caused a lot more problems than if only Big Bird fell. For one thing, if one of Snuffys performers fell, the weight of the character would probably force the other performer to fall.

It also would have been great if more Mupepts went into Fraggle Rock. Maybe Fozzie, Scooter, Cookie Monster, and Oscar could have gone.

 

[Frogster]

Muppet Family Christmas, no second thought about it. VMMCM was a joke

 

[BEAR]

Yeah, I wonder where Martin Robinson was during that special. I can understand why Snuffy wouldn't be there since he is so big he wouldn't have been able to get inside the house with everyone. However, Telly wasn't even there either. Maybe Robinson had a conflict during shooting or something. I'm sure if he was performing in this special then Telly would have atleast been there. I don't think Fran Brill worked on this one either. Prairie Dawn would have been great. She should have played the piano for the pageant. After all it looks like something she would have staged.

 

[minor muppetz]

Prairie Dawn would have been great. She should have played the piano for the pageant. After all it looks like something she would have staged.

Prarie would have been a more appropiate choice for being in charge of the pageant than Ernie and Bert. Even if Martin Robinson wasn't there, Telly could have still been there without lines.

I'm guessing that Fran Brill, Martin P. Robinson, and Kevin Clash didn't perform in the special. David Rudman was the only credited performer who didn't perform any voices, and I think that Brill, Robinson, and Clash were more prominant performers than Rudman was at the time. They would have probably been credited whetehr they performed voices or not.

 

[BEAR]

Prarie would have been a more appropiate choice for being in charge of the pageant than Ernie and Bert. Even if Martin Robinson wasn't there, Telly could have still been there without lines.

I'm guessing that Fran Brill, Martin P. Robinson, and Kevin Clash didn't perform in the special. David Rudman was the only credited performer who didn't perform any voices, and I think that Brill, Robinson, and Clash were more prominant performers than Rudman was at the time. They would have probably been credited whetehr they performed voices or not.

Yeah, Telly still could have been there even without lines. I was just pointing out how it is obvious Robinson wasn't there due to the lack of Telly. Telly has always been his principal character. If he didn't work on the special they are less likely to think of having Telly appear. Oh well...would have been nice to see either of those missing characters. Then again...wasn't Elmo there? He didn't have any lines though. Maybe that was before Kevin Clash started performing him regularly though.

 

[minor muppetz]

Then again...wasn't Elmo there? He didn't have any lines though. Maybe that was before Kevin Clash started performing him regularly though.

Elmo and Prarie dawn were both there without lines. They both appeared in the front row when the SS cast sings deck The Halls. Prarie dawn is in the audience during the pageant, and when everybody sings christmas carols, she sits next to dr. teeth. I think Elmo was in a lot more scenes than prarie dawn.

 

[minor muppetz]

I was just pointing out how it is obvious Robinson wasn't there due to the lack of Telly. Telly has always been his principal character. If he didn't work on the special they are less likely to think of having Telly appear.

Actually, Martin P. Robinson had been performing Mr. Snuffleupagus for five years when he took over as Telly.

As for them not being likely to think of having telly appear, I wonder if the makers of the special thought about having any specific character who just appeared in the background and didn't speak. After all, Big Jeffy was in this special even though the other members of Little Jerry and The Monotones weren't (Little Jerry wasn't even in the special).

There are a lot of Sesame Street characters who were fairly major at the time of this special who weren't in it, even though their performers were. Characters like The Amazing Mumford, Fat Blue, Placedo Flamingo, Gladys The Cow, and Don Music. I don't know whether lefty was still active in new segments at the time, but old segments with him were still being shown, and he should have been in the special.

 

[golden teeth]

Prarie Dawn wasn't in it either, was she?