This special was a lot better than I was hoping. So most of the non-Muppet portions weren't that good, and I feel like some of the songs (even Kermit and Lady Gaga's duet) were just too long. But this is not the worst special the Muppets have ever done. I think it's better than The Muppets Go Hollywood, Rocky Mountain Holiday, The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show (though those are specials I don't see as the best), and the Studio DC specials.
Christmas photos, including photos from The Muppet Christmas Carol and A Muppet Family Christmas.
It was so great to see Lips, Carl, and Mo Frackle in this special. Too bad more obscure characters weren't in it. It would have been great if they'd at least put the full-body monsters in the numbers that didn't have Muppets.
The montage bits with the characters were good, but they also feel like stuff that could have been videos at muppets.com.
This special should have had more numbers like the opening number, the Animal/Beaker/Swedish Chef numbers, and Santa Baby (third time Miss Piggy has sung that) and less numbers that look like live concert footage.
I was expecting the sneak peek at Muppets Most Wanted to be a full clip as opposed to the trailer, which didn't have much we haven't already seen (just the part with Dominique claiming that Kermit now has a cold). I can't believe that they put an outtake of the introduction in the credits. I would have thought that intro would be separate from the special (I doubt it'll be included in reruns or the DVD release, if this special does get a DVD release).
The first scene that was shown online, which we all thought was boring, ended up a lot better than what was previously shown.
One thing I noticed is that it seems RuPaul was left out of the promotions. Not knowing what she looked like, when I saw the promo and the part where they mention Lady Gaga singing with the biggest name in music, referring to Kermit, I thought that clip was of Kermit with RuPaul (didn't realize it was Gaga). And in the promo I had to rewatch several times to understand what the announcer said when he said she would perform with "him" (Kermit). I still don't know if RuPaul is a male or female, I thought it was a male drag queen (are there women who are drag queens), but I felt she looked like a natural woman as opposed to a man in drag.
It is a little weird that Lips wasn't with the Electric Mayhem in the opening number, but was in all those montages.
So is this special not owned by Disney? I didn't notice any logos for Disney or any Disney-owned company (that I know of.... I'd never heard of the company that gets a logo card).