I think the original poster set himself up for confusion by not really making it clear where he was cutting and pasting the article from - this was from Ain't It Cool News which typically discussed scripts and films/shows while they're still in production (or pre-production) - The person writing the article was just using The Great Gonzo as a fan handle - if you were reading this for the first time on aicn, you would be more likely to get that - without that introduction (and with the way the thread is titled), it's a bit easier for us here to think that this was somehow from an interview with Dave Goelz or Gonzo (esp since he was part of the recent Disney/Muppets panel)...it should not be thought of as implying that it actually is from DG or Gonzo or any of Gonzo's writers etc.
Anyway, hopefully that clears up that before it becomes the main thing this thread ends up being about for pages and pages!
The timing on this is pretty funny for me too as i was also wondering about "hey how's that Segal script comin' along" and also because i've recently thought of what it is that has basically made "The Muppet Movie" THE muppet movie (and to a certain extend GMC) - they were just all around written, directed and performed as just all around classic comedy films - just timeless wackiness. TMM or GMC could very easily air during the evening on Comedy Central for example and feel like it belongs there. MCC, MTI, MFS and even TMTM don't really have that whole tone. I think that's an interesting scale that could be used to judge any new Muppet film by...does the overall finished project seem like something you could tune into late at night on your favorite comedy station not only now but five, ten, 20 years from now?
It is sounding good but then it's really hard to get a sense of how well "it would work" when you're reading a review of a script as opposed to the script itself...but of course this would be if not the very first, an early draft of the movie - and all movies go through all sorts of drafts and changes along the way - it's just the nature of the beast. That's part of why Ain't It Cool News exists - to act as a barometer of if something being worked on sounds like it will eventually succeed, needs to be seriously changed, or scrapped altogether. As the script undergoes its natural growth cycle, the writers working on it (Segal as well as the existing Muppet writers who would be taking passes at it) would be expected to examine how legit they think the reviewer's pros and cons are and make changes/keep things in accordingly.
Some of you who's been around a long time know i collect scripts. Mainly because i love how they reflect the whole creative process and getting a snapshot of what was envisioned at an early stage and what ended up changing. This sounds like an excellent first draft - but it also is a first draft and _IDEALLY_ will continue to get better and better with each draft (though that's not always the case - as we all know from MFS and MWOO) So if these are the initial blueprints, the final construction should really be breathtaking.