Your Thoughts: It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas

[Luke]

Hey Jamie,

Sky Movies Premier on December 8th !

 

[Chilly Down]

The Croc Hunter gag still worked for me, even though it would have been funnier if it was the real guy. I wonder why they couldn't get him? He's had a good sense of humor about himself in the past (i.e. getting attacked by the talking crocodile in "Dr. Doolittle 2", which incidentally featured Creature Shop characters). Maybe he was just busy.

The only two times I heard Jerry were as the unseen announcer at the beginning of the Moulin Scrooge thing, and (I think) that was his Statler as well. Even though the balcony was visible in almost every shot, there were only a couple of scenes where Statler and Waldorf were seen in them, so they could have shot those in a single day with Jerry. Robin, Lew and Pops never sounded like themselves. I'm certainly not dissing whoever was performing them, if this is indeed due to an illness of Jerry's. With practice, things should get better -- or, better still, Jerry recovers and is able to be involved in the next project.

The more I think about it, the more I agree that the pacing was off. Things started slowly with the people buying presents in the street; the snowman gag was funny, but it was like two minutes before we saw the Muppets. When they showed up, the movie got interesting and funny again, especially with the "Gift of the Magi" parody. But then Arquette and Whoopi showed up, and the whole thing started moving S-O S-L-O-W. Of course, I always think a Muppet production that focuses a lot of time on the human co-stars can get boring. The only thing I don't like in the admittedly brilliant TMM is the scenes with just Doc Hopper and his assistant. The human subplots never interest me. GMC is my least favorite of the original Muppet trilogy because of all the time spent on Nicky and the other people committing the crime (though admittedly the movie probably deserves more credit than I've given it on here in the past). The humans were entirely supporting characters or in the background in TMTM, my favorite of the three. I like normal live-action movies with people in them...honest! So I don't know why it never works in a Muppet production for me. But it just doesn't. (Oddly enough, the one time I did like it was the "When Love is Gone" number in MCC -- which is a scene many Muppet fans tend to hate for all the reasons I've listed above. I guess maybe because I knew it was already a part of that story...and the song itself is lovely.)

People are worried that all the current pop-culture references are going to date this film in a few years. I must scratch my head and wonder why this is suddenly an issue. The original TMM is entirely a product of the '70s, with its guest stars that were icons to that period every week, and no one's complaining about that. I've never heard anyone complain about Monsterpiece Theater or Placido Flamingo, either. Yet many people seem to think that the Muppets started referencing pop culture just with this production. Strange.

I'm thrilled at the Neilsen ratings! Yes, NBC's ratings are usually higher than that, and yes, it was second place. But the margin was very small. If CBS had scored a 12 and the Muppets a 6, I would have felt bad. But both networks scored in the 6 range, and CBS' shows were geared to a completely different audience anyway. Honestly, I was terrified that the Brady movie was going to kick the Muppets' butt. But it was the other way around! This did as well as I could hoped for. Now, as has been noted, we just have to wait and see what the demographics were like.

BTW, for those worried about NBC not offering a DVD: I would call and see if you can advance-order a copy. It may just be that they haven't had time to press them yet. And often what isn't advertised on the site can still be ordered on the phone (i.e. I was able to order vol. 11-15 of the Time-Life Muppet videos even though they had taken them off their website). And if NBC hasn't considered doing a DVD, and enough people call and ask for it, it could change their minds!

Luke - Thanks for the news about the theater! Does anyone remember where this was filmed? I'm pretty sure they didn't go back to London and film on Elstree. Also, it's been pointed out that this was a real theater, as opposed to a set created to look like a theater in the past. Previously, they'd have to cut away to show something happening in the audience, for instance, because it wasn't really there in front of Kermit. But here we have Kermit sitting on a stage while the camera pans out into the audience, where all the Muppets are seated. How cool is that?

As for the missing hand rods: it may have been employed before, but this is the first time I was aware of it so much. The Muppets just seemed to have complete freedom of movement in this (i.e. the aforementioned example of Kermit sitting on the stage with apparently nothing underneath him. I know it's an old trick that goes back to TMS's days. I just think it added to the overall effect). I loved it!

A couple of random observations:

When Pepe went out on stage instead of Fozzie, the gag was that he couldn't do Fozzie's job for him. But Fozzie's not a good comedian anyway! He would have bombed just as badly and been heckled just as mercilessly by Statler and Waldorf as Pepe was. That's not a major problem; I just thought it was funny and worth pointing out.

Speaking of which, Statler and Waldorf claim to hate the Muppet productions so much. But does anyone else find it funny that they were still in the balcony, hours after the show had ended, when the Muppets were just hanging around depressed and waiting for Kermit to come back?

Welcome to all our new members! I'm thrilled that we've seen such an influx since the movie, and I hope you all stay around so we can get to know you better. And welcome back, Cory!

 

[AruggeRadio]

I agree that the Crock hunter was a little lame. But I thought it was a take on that lame BumFights video that got some people in Jail. I know I may have been the only one who would have caught that but maybe I did because they had a guy dressed as the Crock Hunter and would walk around the streets looking for people pray on. Yes I know that’s obscure but overall I thought that was probably the worse thing in the movie.

Also one thing that was apparent was how much Steve has gotten the Kermit character down pat. I noticed that a lot last year at The Muppet Show Gala but in the new movie Steve took the conch and gave a performance that Jim Henson would truly be proud of.

 

[beaker]

Originally posted by Chilly Down
But here we have Kermit sitting on a stage while the camera pans out into the audience, where all the Muppets are seated. How cool is that?


Welcome to all our new members! I'm thrilled that we've seen such an influx since the movie, and I hope you all stay around so we can get to know you better. And welcome back, Cory!

Thanks Tom! Good to be back. Oh, you just mentioned one of the coolest scenes in the whole film...where Kermit addresses the Muppets in the audience as the camera pans...too cool! I think it is about right then it hits you that the Muppets are back, or at least slowly inching toward that. I also heard awhile back Fox and JHC were heavily considering using the theatre stage as the backdrop of the upcoming new Muppet Show. I think this is a brillaint move. While I LOVED the floating digital satelite look of JHC, and MT worked for what it was...going back to the place where it all began serves as a kind of neat entropy. But if you look back in the last 12 months, we knew it was coming...from the live show to Weezer to the NBC movie, they all took place in the theare.

 

[sarah_yzma]

Originally posted by AruggeRadio


Also one thing that was apparent was how much Steve has gotten the Kermit character down pat. I noticed that a lot last year at The Muppet Show Gala but in the new movie Steve took the conch and gave a performance that Jim Henson would truly be proud of.

I certainly agree. sure it has it's differences, but it does sound kermit-y and when kermit was flipping out saying i wish i'd never been born, that was a moment that reminded me of old kerm...after that i watched Ed Sullivan reruns on PBS and Jim Henson was on there! the character looked just like Kermit except it was a girl...singing to a washrag...it scared me a bit...guess it took a little work for jim henson to get kermit!

 

[The Dreamer]

Location

Chilly Down...

This production was filmed in Vancouver, BC -- that's Canada. Shooting took place this past summer (July 15 - Aug 24, 2002).

Even though the production was shot in Canada, that was NOT real snow. Temperatures at that time of year average in the mid-20's celcius (80 - 90 F). However, many of the outdoor scenes were actually shot outside (Downtown Vancouver and Edgemont Village, for those of you familiar with the area). Imagine what a challenge it must have been to create a convincing winter scenes in the warm summer weather.

 

[SgtPepper]

I loved the movie... even the "questionable" parts... Scooter in a cage was a little weird thogh. I thoght sam the eagle raving was hillarious. Its good to see Janice and Scooter back... now all we need to do is get the rest of the band back to their old selves with more lines. I can't wait for the DVD.

I realy loved the parodies even thogh I've see like 2 of the parodied movies. The Grinch thing had me in tears. The Yoda thing scared the pee out of me for some reason. Ohh and Rizzo on Fear Factor... good stuff ! My favorite was the "I triple frog dare ya !"

I also liked, pepe's character, Doc Hoppers, Amy the Dancing brick, Mel Brooks as the Snowman, Crocodile Hunter, and Beaker the Bouncer.

 

[dbarrie]

Hey fellow Muppet fans,

Thanks for the warm welcome. Does anyone know why the new Muppet Christmas Movie isn't available on DVD?

Don

 

[scarylarrywolf]

I thought IAVMMC was availible on DVD. There was a commercial halfway thru the show that said it was.

--"Scary" Larry Wolf

 

[frogboy4]

The commercial said it was available on VHS and is packaged with the new Muppet Show CD. There is no DVD available at this time. The only reason I can think of is that it's more difficult to make a DVD with the extras, interactive menus and all. Plus some portions seem to have been edited at the last minute (Snoop Dog) so a VHS copy was much easier to rip.