Your Thoughts: It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas

[WiGgY]

...but seeing Scooter like that was a little disturbing. And the Sam thing....isn't a pacifier the sign of doing ecstacy?... [/B]

Well a pacifier is a sign of being a raver, doesn't aitomatically mean extasy. And I thought the Scooter thing was meant to be disturbing. I mean the whole point was that the muppets would have horrible lives without Kermit. Would you rather see Scooter in a movie theater giving out 3d glasses? Personally I thought it fit the time. If you don't want the muppets to change with time then go get yourself some muppet show dvd's.

 

[frogboy4]

Originally posted by EmmyMik
I want a bouncer Beaker action figure!

Maybe they could come as a 2-pack. Or would that look suspicious?

A cage would be a definite accessory!

 

[Bean Bunny]

A Bean figure ( yes, I know that he was in the film for a few seconds but he is show all day at Disney's MGM Studio at WDW and Disney's California Adventure at the Disneyland Resport).

 

[beaker]

I couldnt believe they brought back Bean! We almost saw more of him than Rowlf. Kermit's a given, so I would have to say right under him the star of the show was Fozzie...my goodness, how long has it been since he actually took center stage ina Muppet film?

Sam Eagle decked out in full raver garb isnt a sign of doing 'E', its just part of the genre. I for one would absolutely love a 'Dot' club playset(anyway NBC could sell that model on ebay?) complete with Honeydew dorr checker, Bouncer Beaker, raver Sam, and cage dancing Scooter. When Pepe referenced action figures I seriously wouldnt even think anything if he had referenced Palisades, with all the injokes revealed last night.

 

[frogboy4]

Hey, I want a glow stick!

Originally posted by murgatoad
It didn't do so hot...

"Thanks to "Law & Order... NBC won Friday night with a 6.9 rating/13 share in households.... Among adults 18 to 49, NBC also led with a 4.1 rating...

CBS started...at 8 p.m. with "48 Hour Investigates", 6.5/12. NBC was second with..."It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie," 6.0/11, ...FOX..."The Brady Bunch in the White House," 2.3/5.

At 9 p.m., "Hack" held on to CBS' lead with a 6.0/11, ahead of the Muppets on NBC, 5.4/10....

That's supposed to be bad? For a Friday night (and the busiest shopping day of the year) that kicks some serious butt. Most 18-30 year olds are out on a Friday night. It's good to see that some stayed in to watch the Muppets. The rest are old people who like to watch other old people. The ratings are even higher than I thought they would be. Also - way to kick some Brady butt too! Woohoo!

I think NBC recouped the costs through the top-name ads, in-movie promotion, the tape sales (and likely DVD sales bext year) and they also have a special to air every year.

 

[murgatoad]

Re: Hey, I want a glow stick!

Originally posted by frogboy4
That's supposed to be bad? For a Friday night (and the busiest shopping day of the year) that kicks some serious butt. Most 18-30 year olds are out on a Friday night. It's good to see that some stayed in to watch the Muppets. The rest are old people who like to watch other old people. The ratings are even higher than I thought they would be. Also - way to kick some Brady butt too! Woohoo!

I think NBC recouped the costs through the top-name ads, in-movie promotion, the tape sales (and likely DVD sales bext year) and they also have a special to air every year.

Suit yourself. The ratings were far lower than I thought they would be, given the relative lack of competition and the huge publicity blitz. I thought the current popularity of nostalgia would help the film, but I guess I was wrong. And your beliefs about NBC profiting from tape sales, "in-movie promotion" (you really think "Fear Factor" was benefitted by the movie?) etc. are a bit of a stretch IMO. But again, suit yourself.

 

[AruggeRadio]

I would say it was a disappointment if anything would have gotten a Friends type numbers like a 12.5 but nothing did. You also have to look at what NBC usually gets in that same timeslot form week to week, if Dateline only gets a 4.5 or a 5.0 it was a success in that timeslot. Overall I wouldn't complain about being the 3rd highest rated program of the evening and winning NBC the nights ratings.

 

[scarylarrywolf]

Sorry to be a little late with my review... almost a whole day since the show Anyway, that special blew me away! It was so great to see all the old Muppets back and with speaking parts! It is such a relief to see that Frank's characters have such absolutely WONDERFUL performers:

Eric with Piggy: FANTASTIC!!! I could seriously not tell the
voice was different for the majority of the movie.
I am SO pleased to see Piggy in such good
hand/vocal chords.

John(?) with Fozzie: It's good. It sounds like Frank's stuff lately,
but it's not quite the classic Fozzie.
His mannerisms are excellent, though.

Is that really Brian with Scooter? I can hear him doing the voice.
It sounded better than the Scooter from MFS.

I have to praise the writers too. They implimented so many great parodies and brought back stuff from the Muppets' past. The script was extraordinary. I didn't catch the writing credits, but I could swear it was a classic from Jerry Juhl.

It's wonderful to see the Muppets back with their classic sense of humor!


--"Scary" Larry Wolf

 

[Luke]

Re: Hey, I want a glow stick!

Originally posted by frogboy4
That's supposed to be bad? For a Friday night (and the busiest shopping day of the year) that kicks some serious butt. Most 18-30 year olds are out on a Friday night.

I think NBC recouped the costs through the top-name ads, in-movie promotion, the tape sales (and likely DVD sales bext year) and they also have a special to air every year.

It doesn't kick serious butt, but it's above average and i think as well as could have been expected - it's certainly not a major dissapointment at all. As for whether it's enough to mean that more Muppet holiday movies will be produced, i'd say that the rating doesn't make it any more or less likely - it'll probably go right down to how NBC felt the general public and media reaction was and how much they can sell the advertising for next time, and also the age specific demographics. I feel pretty good about it though, i don't think they have a problem by any means.

10 Million sounds generous but christmas budgets are always boosted a lot on high profile projects like this. Don't expect NBC to be worried too much about the costs - as you say, they did a lot of in-movie promotion and showcased a lot of their stars so they'll have been aware and more than happy to throw away some cash in Henson's direction although i shouldn't think it'll be quite as much next time. It should make a quite a bit from the ad sales but nowhere near enough to make the Muppets pay for themselves, tape/DVD sales are just bonuses to them - this was all about the promotion and the cute warm fuzzy feelings to help people decide to stick with the peacock over the holiday season baby.

It was actually quite clever of them, if anything, to have changed the Muppets airdate to a night they knew would be slower and less competitive.

 

[Janice & Mokey's Man]

Me thoughts

Welp, I fiiiiiinally got to see the movie just now (couldn't watch it at the folks', network channel reception is TERRIBLE there)...

I enjoyed it. Gave me some good ol' belly-laughs, and I was smilin' a lot.

Okay, like, first things first:

JANICE

OMGOMGOMG SHE'S BACK!! SHE WAS PROMINENT!! SHE WAS THE MOST FEATURED MAYHEM MEMBER IN THIS!!

REALLY!

SHE WAS!



*sigh*

So, it was GRRRRRRRREAT to see her, and to HEAR her!! FINALLY!! It only took 12 years! LOL!

But how was her voice? Well, frankly, not that great. She sounded more like a MAN than "Janice". Richard managed to make her sound more feminine and believeable, even with a deep voice. But this dude who did her for this sounded like he didn't try to "womanize" her enough.

But ya know what?

I was so THRILLED to hear her speak for the first time in over a decade, I was smilin' and gigglin' and on Cloud 9! When she said her harp line, I laughed for, like, 2 minutes!! LOL!! BOTH out of sheer JOY for her, and the humor itself. And if this guy sticks with her, maybe he'll get the voice more "Janicey" and fine-tuned.

And they even had Janice sit by Sam in the theatre seats---my 2 TMS faves sittin' next to each other!

One thing that really sucked though, Janice wasn't in any finale scenes---what's 'at about? They included her SO visually much in the first half of the movie, I was sure to see her at the end...but, oh well, at least she was featured as much as she was!

I LOVE ERIC JACOBSON!! His Piggy is the BEST it can be, almost a dead ringer for Frank (almost---there were times you could tell, but he's SO great most of the time), and his Fozzie rocks, too!!

Kermit sadly seemed to have regressed. He sounded SOOO Kermity with Craig Kilborne, but he sounded too "new Steve Kermit" in this for me. But, visual-wise and manner-wise, Steve was great---I just hope he gets back to his closer-to-Jim voice he had with Craig.

OMG, Pepe was hiLARIOUs!! (*to Emmy and Jackie*) When he came onscreen, I was like, "Hey! Thar's that cyoot li'l PAYpay!" LOL!! FRYMYHIDE!!! I love that ***** li'l shrimp! LOL! (King Prawn, whatever...lol)

LOVED seein' the theatre!!

*sigh*

SUCH a theatre...

LOL! @Jackie&Emmy

I love Whoopi Goldberg, but never could feel comfortable with her portrayin' God...eesh...in fact, I'm surprised they had a portrayal period! (beautiful scenery, though...lol)

So, those are some o' my thoughts in a nutshell.