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

[Oscarfan]

They've got a new movie coming out soon that looks and sounds amazing. If small potatoes things like this don't come out perfect, whatever. We've got a great new movie to look forward to and things like this aren't gonna stop it.

 

[minor muppetz]

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).

 

[Slackbot]

This was...okay. Clearly it was all about Gaga's new album, and the various guest stars were there for cross-promotion. Is that the correct term? You know what I mean.

Like Ru, I was disappointed with how Piggy was treated. I was hoping for a battle of the platinum-wigged divas. Instead, in her first sequence Piggy was treated as furniture. Huh?? I'm not one of Piggy's Little Piglets, but I don't think that's how she should be treated. As for the rest...well, yeah, it was kinda thrown together. And it's embarrassing how stilted a lot of the bits were. The liveliest footage came from the end, when they showed the outtakes.

Lastly, did they pack Gonzo face down? His nose was weirdly mashed to the side. Made his face look out of kilter.

 

[MrBloogarFoobly]

Well, it was better than watching grainy, depressing footage of foreign wars.

 

[Walter]

I can't believe I missed it!!! Maybe somebody will post clips online...

 

[antsamthompson9]

I thought the special was great, personally.

 

[D'Snowth]

This special was really... meh.

I'm sorry, but I got really bored with the special.

It seemed like the holiday aspect of the whole special took a serious backseat for the whole show, it was more like a Lady Gaga plugging her new album special, with only a holiday song thrown in here and there.

As for the Muppets... they seemed to lack energy and charisma in their performances tonight, I wasn't feelin' it... even Statler and Waldorf seemed tired and listless. Admittedly, those bit with The Leprechaun Bros. were really amusing, and Piggy probably delivered what's now my favorite rendition of "Santa Baby" (heck, maybe the ONLY rendition of "Santa Baby" I actually like, ha)... other than that.

Gaga can't act. I'm sorry, but it's clear that she's not an actor, she fumbled and stumbled with her lines a lot (and actually, Kermit did too in their scenes together, unless that was intentional, it still seemed really awkward). The new Bobo puppet is pretty creepy... the way his snoot seemed to move independently was kinda freakin'... and when did Swedish Chef get married?

Again, the special as a whole was just rather boring. In addition to the holiday aspect, the Muppets also kind of took a back seat throughout the show as well, which Piggy kind of lampshades towards the end. They really shouldn't have filmed this widescreen then try to present it in 4:3. And what purpose did Kristen Bell actually serve in this special? Just to be a pretty Mary Sue? I agree with others in that hey, Rizzo got some more screentime that has sorely been missed lately.

Overall... I wouldn't kill to see this again.

Oh, and one last observation... anyone else besides me think Walter overdoes it on the facial expressions just a little bit? ... Just a LITTLE bit?

 

[MuppetsFan4Life]

So, I missed the first 30 minutes because I was watching Glee, but I did enjoy what I saw. I do admit that there should've been more Muppet stuff and less commercials. The commercials were like 5 minute long. Or am I just over-analyzing things?

 

[animalrescuer]

For me, it was all about Lady Gaga. I was bored when her songs played. The only parts that interested me were the parts the Muppets were part of, my favorites were the audition and where Miss Piggy attempted to sing "Santa Baby" but the backup singers overshadowed her. Those were pretty funny.

I really wished the Muppets should have been involved more, especially Walter and have more christmas songs than what Miss Piggy sang and the trio Swedish Chef, Animal and Beaker did. Overall, other than the parts with the Muppets, I was bored with it. I don't think it's the worst Muppet related special, but it was boring when Lady Gaga and other guests came on with her.
I don't think I'd watch it again.

 

[Ruahnna]

They've got a new movie coming out soon that looks and sounds amazing. If small potatoes things like this don't come out perfect, whatever. We've got a great new movie to look forward to and things like this aren't gonna stop it.

Thank you for your bright spot of optimism. I love The Muppets and I hope they have a great new movie.