Your Thoughts: Muppets Letters to Santa DVD

[SillyRed]

Is it just me or is the Star Spangled Banner playing in the background while Sam the Eagle talks about opening other people's mail?

 

[beaker]

It's been about a year since I last saw LTS, so I finally got to see it again with the dvd.

Absolutely loved it. As I mentioned before, a lot of it has a cinematic film quality that AVMMCM seemed to lack. While it's short(45 total of actual film time) it felt much more like a movie than a special.

I really loved the look and tone of it, the color scheme...the opening madness at the post office is so classic. Kermit and company on a random Manhattan roof. Brief scenes of them walking around new york, the excellent lighting in the apartment building hallway. The look inside the airport...once it gets to the north pole there's not much to look at, but there's no denying the final scenes with everyone together felt genuine and had a real magic to it.

It was very cool to see them flesh out Zoot a little more, and just seeing the Electric Mayhem is wonderful as always. We got to see Pops. I thought Carl and Luncheon Counter stole the post office show...good to see so many rats. Bobo as always, every second of screentime with him is wonderful.

My only gripes:

That the bonus material is a bit tricky to navigate. I would have preferred all the deleted scenes re-edited into the film. But I LOVE the blooper real, I wish that and the music video had been seperate accessful features, but they are just amazing...I love how the performers never break character even after they flub a line.

That whole scene with Rizzo and Pepe trying to cell phone video Kermit smacking the door felt so genuine...it's hard to remember these are performers and not "real" Muppets. Also loved the scene of Kermit opening a door with a big white screen and saying "it's heaven!"

While this lacks the true heart and cozyness of Muppet Family Christmas(which I consider the finest moment in Muppet production history), I think it's leaps and bounds above Very Muppet Christmas Movie, Oz, Kermit Swamp Years, etc. and absolutely worth the $20 on dvd.

 

[rexcrk]

I got the DVD when it was released.... don't know why I'm posting now (better late than never I guess )

But yeah, UNLIKE Verry Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (which I do love) I like that Letters to Santa is in anamorphic widescreen, that was awesome, especially since some of VMMCM's deleted scenes are widescreen

Not a fan of the way the bonus features are setup, either, but I'd rather have it like that than no bonus features at all.

 

[JJandJanice]

Not a fan of the way the bonus features are setup, either, but I'd rather have it like that than no bonus features at all.

Yeah I'll agree with that, but the bonus features are lacking big time, . I still love that this Muppet DVD got the treatment of an "O-sleeve" though.

 

[antsamthompson9]

Anyone else notice the goof with Rizzo's voice? In an extended scene at the air port, Rizzo asks who would want to go to the North Pole. It's not Steve's voice (he was busy with Kermit). They never re-dubbed the line.

Anybody know who did it? I can tell most Muppeteer voices, but I couldn't tell that one. Anywho, great DVD! My favorite outtake is when Kermit is like,"Oh, look. It's heavin." Great ad-lib by Steve!

 

[beatnikchick300]

Um, am I wrong because I absolutely hated this? I mean, it had it's moments, just like the other fairly recent horrible Muppet production (MWoO, I guess we call it here), but overall, I just didn't like it. I had no idea why I was supposed to care about the Muppets' relationship with the little girl (mostly because I had absolutely no idea who she was), none of the Muppets really seemed all that in character (am I really supposed to believe that these same Muppets who stuck together to stop a jewel heist and save their theater 20 years later would flake out on their friends when they tried to get letters to the North Pole? Come on...), and even the songs weren't all that good. Plus, we got more of Pepe (grrrr....) shoved into our faces (I think people are wrong when they say that he's the Elmo of the Muppets characters, because at least Elmo is somewhat endearing).

Please don't beat me up. This is just my opinion.

 

[minor muppetz]

I've had this for quite a while, and can't believe that I haven't replied to this thread.

I don't understand why it had to be an "extended edition" and still have deleted scenes. All of the seperate deleted scenes were very short and could have just been inserted into the extended edition. Coud some of the extra scenes have been included in the master copy and then were cut before broadcast?

And I find it poitnless that the "Glad All Over" and outtakes were added as part of the main program as opposed to being special bonus features.

Interesting that the DVD included an advertisement flyer promoting the special's telelvison broadcast, promoting it as the shortened broadcast version. Those who have the DVD don't really need to watch it when it's broadcast, and they seriously advertised that the broadcast contains less (unless they think those who have the DVD are that curious to know what exactly was left out of broadcast)?