Your Thoughts: Kermit's Swamp Years: TV Airings and Opinions

[EmmyMik]

Originally posted by Sir Didymus
I haven't seen it yet, but i want too. Is Jim Henson in it??? I read on IMDB that Young Jim Henson is in it! It that true???

Didymus

I don't want to spoil it too much (not that there's much to spoil), but there is a scene where a young Jim Henson (sure that's what the credits tell us, but I have my own theories about that! ) briefly meets the young Kermit.

 

[Sir Didymus]

Thanks Emmy! I call Wal Mart and Fred Meyer everyday to see if they have it, and they always say "No". Wal Mart said they'll be getting it soon though.......

Didymus

 

[EmmyMik]

If there's a Target store in your area, you could always try there.

 

[matleo]

OK gang, time for me to wiegh in I guess, I just rented KSY from our local Blockbuster and well...I kinda...wel, it was just..it wasn't bad but.......I mean it was really great when....Well, I didn't loathe it as I expected too. I actually like the first half of it. IN fact for a quite a whiw I held it in the same regard as Frog Prince, Emmet otter, X-mas Toy, and Bunny Picnic. The ehy got to the high school and i just kind of fell apart. I thought the guy playing the mad scientist was rgeat (anybody else here get the reference to the character Mel Brooks plays in TMM, Krassman?) but his assistant was horrible. Who told her she was an actress? I like blotch, Croaker, and Goggles. Felt indifferent to Horace and Pilgrim. I think if Horace had played more of a role in the film, he might have grown on me. Pilgrim I thouht was just the rehash f the character from the BTS of JHH who is also not that great of a character. I felt a few of the 'muppet referances" a little over done. I liked the license plate (anybody notice that it's only there in that first scene though) and the background muppet-associate names (Goelz, Nelson, Lazer) I liked Statler and Waldorf. But I thought the Piggy, Rowlf and Animal references were too blatant. The Henson thing was okay when you kinda had to look for the name on the mailbox and then...ugh they destroyed it by givign it i's own close-up (we paid for da mailbox, we're goonna use da mailbox!!) and broke the world of the film completly. I liked the look and feel of the film most of the way. I liked the parts that were Kermit's Swamp Years. When it became Kermit's day in the high school it just got goofy. That whole chase scene was like soemthing out of Scooby-doo when they'd be chased by a monster through a barn with some dorky song dubbed over it for no real reason but to kill 5 minutes. And that whole thing at the end about how a frog once talked to the villain and that's why he's evil..what the heck was that? Then the villiain and kids learn that ALL frogs can talk but no one seems to care. "Oh wow, all the frogs talk!!!! That so cool!! That' so awesome... OK, time for Algebra class."
But no really I liked the first half of it. I thought it really DID feel like a precursor to TMM. There were sertain little things that reminded me of the TMM. For a while I even wondered why MFS wasn't this good? I actually thought about going out and purchasing it, but somewhere along the line...it just let me down. I'm wondering if I cold buy perhaps just the first half of the film somehow.
Oh one other thing, does anyone know how to make a children's film anymore without resorting to potty humor? I didn't mind some of it at firstm but again smewhere lon the line it just became too much. I think that was the main problem, like Emmy said, it was all too much after a while. I didn't mind some of the "Hey, i believe in you" moments, but there were just two or three too many. I think they could have done without the Kermit believes in Croaker moment and the "moment" just before the balloons. It was good but every moment, every gag, every nuance was just one too many. I think this film woul have done much better if someone had come in and just streamlined it a little bit. Personally I would have thought JHC had gotten morbidly good at streamlining by this time. it seems of late that there is a really big problem in the Muppet wirting where EVERY half thought out idea that comes in is considered a good one and gets used and there's never a moment when they stuff gets yanked out. Consequently, you get all these ideas that don't mesh after a while. that was the exact problem I had with MFS. And the parts of MTI I don't like are the same thing (Mr. Bimbo and Polly Lobster for example)
Anyway, that's my two cents. I know this review sounds like I hated it, but the truth is I didn't. I really REALLY did like a lot of it. I liked the design and the writing and puppetry, and the characters, for quite a while. I just wish I could have liked it right up to the end and I didn't. the ending just left me empty. it was like why did they only give 85% on this? I guess what I'm felling and what I've been feeling form abou the time Kermit tells Croaker he's the best hopper around is disappointment. Before that I was really into it though, believe me. Anyway, that's abotu all I have to say about that.

--Matt

 

[Joggy]

Kermit's Swamp Years: Joggy's Opinion

So I received the UK release of the Swamp Years VHS in the mail today and I just finished watching it. Here's my short review, ahem. *takes out paper*

I found this the most boring, disgusting, quickly made, cheap production ever made and it doesn't even deserve to have the Muppet brand... uhm... hey. Wait a minute...

oops. Heh heh heh. Sorry. I seem to be reading the wrong review... this is the Billy Bunny singalong one. My bad. Heh heh.

So Swamp Years... well let's be honest among Muppet friends.

I LOVED IT!!!

Yes folks, the Jog really loved it!!! Anyway, here's what I liked and didn't like. With spoilers.

MUPPET CHARACTERS
Kermit, young but wise, good ol' him, except for the weird lisp sometimes. And grown up Kermit... he's great. Although I thought he was a little too fast in the beginning. It's like "ZOOM! I'm quickly gonna talk you into this movie!"

No words necessary on his buddies Goggles and Croaker, they're the best! Pilgrim must have been my favorite character though. I'm not a pet kinda guy but I'd love to have her for a dog, she's so adorable! Blotch... Okay, the first flaw I'm gonna mention here is that the friendship between Blotch and Goggles came waaaay too soon in the film. It would have been more fun to have them be enemies for a long time and Blotch learning to be a friend at the end, and not somewhere in the middle of the film.
Horace D' Fly is waaaay cool too. I actually liked his song.
Finally a cameo character: Jack Rabbit. Waytago STEVE! I LOVE YA BUDDY!

Overall, the Muppet characters was what I thought was the biggest flaw in the movie. There weren't enough! The movie was just flashing between Kermit, Croaker and Pilgrim, and Blotch and Croakers. You can do that in a Fraggle Rock episode but I'm not sure if it would work in a movie... at least it didn't work in this one. But, even though it's my biggest complaint I'm not gonna be negative about it because the characters that were there were fun.

THE ACTORS
Hello? Are you sure you're not supposed to play in an episode of Barney? And Krassman... why aren't you German, like your colleague from the Muppet Movie? Don't you two share the same name? Actually the lousy acting did work for Krassman. He fits perfectly in the scala of "bad acting Muppet Movie crooks".
Finally, young Jim Henson. He even looked a little like the older Jim! I agree with the people who say that the shot of the mailbox is a little too much, but I can also imagine some people don't see the connection at once. Without that shot, the whole scene would have been useless.

THE MUSIC
Harmonica! Love Harmonica! The few songs that were sung by Muppet characters were... well, fine. Zip Dippy by Horace is cool, the Pet song is fabulous, the last song... makes no sense really, but I don't see any other way to make the movie end well. Rainbow Connection punk version... I'll say, put it over there with that lousy Going To Go Back There Someday remake.

THE SCRIPT, PLOT, HUMOR ETC
What I often read in reviews is "I laughed like five times". I'm not sure my laughing calculations are right, but compared to the Christmas Toy, Tale of the Bunny Picknick and Emmett Otter, this one was highly amusing. Those specials are all wonderful, but the humour is nowhere to be found. It's the emotions that make these specials great, and in my opinion this movie has plenty of it.
I liked the classic friendshippy moments... except Kermit's "I believe in you". That was a little too much. The star... hmmm. Don't know what to think of that. It was corny, but then again... isn't "believing in a dream about singing and dancing and making people happy" corny too?

Poopoo humour... didn't really mind that. Thanks to the liberty of Dutch Sesame Street playalong cassettes I'm used to my favorite characters saying stuff like "Hey Ernie! Watch out! You stepped in doggy poo!"
I laughed at the rabbits, although I would have liked to have the movie end with SIXTEEN of them.

Bloopers - no words necessary. A big ol' JOFLMFDAO on those!

-------

Overall, that's my opinion. I'm not saying I compare this to the Trilogy or TMS. I compare this to Emmett Otter, Bunny Picknick, Christmas Toy. And compared to that, this one is a jewel.

Thank you.

*looks down and notices his pants are gone*

Okay, who took those?! Huh?!

 

[Jackie]

And you call yourself "Vice-Jackie" ! HMPH!!!

LOL!

 

[Joggy]

Jackie... the fact that I love KSY and that I'm not interested in wrestling and that I don't REALLY love Joe doesn't matter... *points to tyre tracks on belly* Deep inside I'm really meant to be a Vice-You. Honestly.

Well, that, and it pays well.

BBB!!! BBB!!! BBB!!!

 

[Janice & Mokey's Man]

I cannot believe that you, the Vice-Jackie, and Jackie, the Jackie, disagree so strongly on this...

EMMY and I would never disagree so oppositely on somethin' Muppety...

 

[EmmyMik]

Originally posted by Jackie
And you call yourself "Vice-Jackie" ! HMPH!!!

LOL!

LOL!

Now be nice. At least he didn't call KSY "Inclore".

If he did, I'd have to make up a new word...

 

[EmmyMik]

Originally posted by Janice & Mokey's Man
EMMY and I would never disagree so oppositely on somethin' Muppety...

LOL! You're right! You'd boycott me, and that would cause the destruction of the world!

I'm just playin' it safe!