Your Thoughts: Lady Gaga and The Muppets Holiday Spectacular on ABC

[D'Snowth]

Though it wasn't.

 

[Beauregard]

Though it wasn't.

*double-take*

 

[antsamthompson9]

Nether KSY or this was a let-down. The only parts I didn't like were the parts that didn't have Muppets in them.

 

[Bliffenstimmers]

I enjoyed Swamp Years, the thing about it though is that it's different from other Muppet productions in its writing and humor. It feels more like a 90s/early 2000s Nickelodeon cartoon, so I can see why it's a turn off to most Muppet fans.

I'm going off topic though. This special, I've seen the majority of it a few months ago. It was OK. Some of the gags with the Muppets were fine enough, the auditions scene was my favorite part. They could have done better, but it did the job fair enough. Just the fact that the Muppets guest starred in a TV special like that is pretty remarkable to me.

 

[D'Snowth]

I enjoyed Swamp Years, the thing about it though is that it's different from other Muppet productions in its writing and humor.

I don't see how, considering Jim Lewis and Joey Mazzarino wrote it.

 

[jvcarroll]

I don't see how, considering Jim Lewis and Joey Mazzarino wrote it.

While I enjoyed the performances from Bill Barretta, Joey Mazzarino and Steve Whitmire and the Pet Store number was amazing, I still think the writing, the human stars and the rest of it was terrible. I mean Barney level terrible, but not quite Telletubbies terrible. I give it 1/2 stars out of 5 stars and that half star is for "Life as a Pet." Kermit's Swamp Years makes Disney's Planes look like high-art. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone over age four. :/

 

[Mo Frackle]

I don't see how, considering Jim Lewis and Joey Mazzarino wrote it.

While I love and respect Jim and Joey, and their work, the fact that they wrote KSY doesn't necessarily make it good. Even great writers can create something not so great. KSY's basic story was great - Kermit's first adventure, awesome idea that one can do so much with. But overall, the finished product felt like it was missing some elements needed to make it really good. The writing, not-Muppet acting, etc. could have been stronger. Not terrible, but certainly towards the bottom of my "Favorite Muppet Movies" list. In short, good idea, weakish execution. Just my opinion.

 

[dwayne1115]

While I love and respect Jim and Joey, and their work, the fact that they wrote KSY doesn't necessarily make it good. Even great writers can create something not so great. KSY's basic story was great - Kermit's first adventure, awesome idea that one can do so much with. But overall, the finished product felt like it was missing some elements needed to make it really good. The writing, not-Muppet acting, etc. could have been stronger. Not terrible, but certainly towards the bottom of my "Favorite Muppet Movies" list. In short, good idea, weakish execution. Just my opinion.

I think if they had made KSY a little more edgy more adult instead of for an audience of children it would have been much better. I think when the Muppets try to be to kidish or to adult they fall. There has to be a balance and in KSY that balance was not there.

 

[D'Snowth]

I still say KSY has a "Film School 101" look and feel to it, but in a good way. It's not overly stylized, and it doesn't rely too heavily on a lot of special or visual effects to carry the movie... and of course, more of actual puppetry techniques were utilized, as opposed to the heavy use of greenscreen and chromakey that both Disney and SST seem to always rely on anymore these days (even though KSY does have it's fair share of occasional such use). In short, it almost seems like either a student film that took a lot of time, effort, dedication, people to make, or a Sundance-esque indie film that actually had a pretty decent budget. As a teen, watching it made me feel like the kind of movie I could make myself.

Really, my only minor quibble with KSY is the inconsistency with the time period: it's clearly supposed to be the early 50s if it took place around the time Jim was in his teens, yet a lot of Croaker's slang and terminology, as well as George Washington High School are too modern and anachronistic to work.

 

[D'Snowth]

I think if they had made KSY a little more edgy more adult instead of for an audience of children it would have been much better.

Um... KSY did have some edge to it, given the time it was made. Croaker especially seemed to use a little more "mature" language throughout the movie (but then again, it's Bill Barretta, what do you expect).