Once you find out what the movie could have been, it does make you more dissappointed. But I have to say, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Saw it twice in the theaters. unfortunately, they were the cheaper theaters, packed with screaming kids.
Every problem with that film was conceptual. They lack of original music, the fact they wanted to explain Gonzo's origin (which gets into the studio screwing up the plot line-), and the one non-conceptual problem, Frank Oz basically just looped dialogue, lacking his presence and his amazing ability to ad lib great lines into the characters (without his ad lib, Cookie Monster wouldn't COWABUNGA, Piggy wouldn't HAYYYYYYiiiYA! and Bert wouldn't faint).
But there were things I did like about the film....
The fact the muppets all live in a crowded little house like that really spoke to the Bohemian aspect of the Muppets as a band of poor little performers.
We get some great on screen time with newer characters, Like Johnny, Sal, Pepe, Bobo and of course, Clifford (before Kevin got so busy with Elmo, the character all but disappeared).
and of course, we finally got a movie where the muppets played themselves and were the stars of the movie, unlike the last 2 films, where they were second fiddle to human actors. I will say, I like it a lot more than Muppet Christmas Carol, in which, asdie from Gonzo and Rizzo, there were long periods of time when you only saw the Muppets as background characters (I feel Muppet Treasure Island handled it better, though Piggy's bit was bookended in).