Your Thoughts: Muppets Letters to Santa

[Drtooth]

Now I didn't see the last Christmas Special they did, but didn't people complain about that one being too adult? I heard Pepe used the word "Sexy" (which in the Muppet World might as well be a big old F-Bomb) and there was a scene of the Muppets in a raunchy dance club or something. I also heard Triumph the Insult Comic Dog made a cameo. No way that was Kiddie.

So maybe they took those criticisms to heart and decided to make this one more kiddie.

That's exactly what I've been saying. Not that I didn't like VMX trying to be edgy and everything... but there were scads of complaints... a scene was even pulled because of angry, snotty letters. I'm not saying they've completely pandered to them, but they clearly wanted something a lot more low key.

They also made it a musical, which to me is a must with the Muppets. One of the biggest disappointments about Muppets from Space is that they had all these great 70s songs, but the Muppets didn't sing any of them. Why? I mean I know none of the songs were original, but at least they could have had the Muppets sing "Brickhouse" or "Celebration" So even though the songs in this special weren't fantastic musical numbers like we're used to from the past, it was nice to see them try it. And the songs were at least good IMO.

MFS was just a conceptual nightmare... that's all I'm saying. And I'm not just talking about Jerry leaving due to the studio's insitance on rewrites killing any depth the film had... but the fact they used old 70's funk tracks (and I like those funk tracks, they're just not up to good use here). Other than the Celebration and the last line of BrickHouse, the Muppets didn't sing anything. I would have loved to have seen "I'd like to go back there Someday" at least played during the end credits, instead of that lame kaleidoscope twirling around to yet another funk track.

OZ, while it did have music, the muppets only sang in, what, three of four tracks? And none of the songs were memorable... I liked "The Witch is in the House" and all, and "Naptime" was pretty good... but they were much blander than anything they ever sang. And in the case of KSY and VMX, the muppets need to sing more than one song. Which brings me to the fact that the one thing I really wasn't too happy with was the opening credits.

I think this special was a step in the right direction, but they've still got some work to do to get it back to being the Muppets that I grew up with.

Exactly, I think they found the right tone, and they got the right angle with this special. The only way things could be better is if they keep working it out. They were real close with this one... we really need more than one project in three years to see that.

 

[a_Mickey_Muppet]

i thought having a british santa was kinda diffrent

 

[turkishproverb]

I really liked the new special. It was a little more kiddy than the older muppets were, but worlds better than Wizard of oz. It looks like they really understood what they needed to do this time. Hope things continue like this.

On a character development note, it was nice to see Beaker finally get one over on Dr Honeydew.

 

[Zack the Dog]

Just a few little notes about LTS, I don't want to nick pick it but i do wanna talk about it!

I loved Lew Zeland hanging the fish ornament on the tree at the end and the Penguins in the airplane!

Camilla ended up in the mail cart but she didn't get sucked up and shot out the shoot with the other Muppets.

I can see how two different looking Fozzie puppets could have been used, because that MFS "smashed face" looking Fozzie was only used in the outside the post office scenes in which would have been a different day/location of filming and maybe it was just that Fozzie puppet that was brought along.
Also and I'm not sure but at one point of the special Fozzie kinda sounds like he was performed by another voice when He and Gonzo return to the post office only to find it closed. Which is right before Sam the Eagle comes in. I don't know for sure, either my ears are just playing tricks or I'm guessing (key word "guessing") of what happened was that Eric was performing Sam and another puppeteer performed Fozzie of course for that scene that they maybe never dubbed over Eric for Fozzie's voice for that scene? the voice not like terrible or off, it just sounds "not like Eric's Fozzie" too me for that short bit. I could be completely wrong mind you. What do you guys think? I just listen to it again and i don't know, the voice is not off just different sounding, maybe it's just the fact that it could be dubbed and it sounds different?

 

[dwayne1115]

Grr i want the new Muppetcast to be posted already I can't wait to hear what the three writers and Paul Willams talk about!

 

[MWoO]

Also and I'm not sure but at one point of the special Fozzie kinda sounds like he was performed by another voice when He and Gonzo return to the post office only to find it closed. Which is right before Sam the Eagle comes in. I don't know for sure, either my ears are just playing tricks or I'm guessing (key word "guessing") of what happened was that Eric was performing Sam and another puppeteer performed Fozzie of course for that scene that they maybe never dubbed over Eric for Fozzie's voice for that scene? the voice not like terrible or off, it just sounds "not like Eric's Fozzie" too me for that short bit. I could be completely wrong mind you. What do you guys think? I just listen to it again and i don't know, the voice is not off just different sounding, maybe it's just the fact that it could be dubbed and it sounds different?

It looks and sounds to me like Sam was performed live in that scene while Fozzie was dubbed. The dubbed voices always sound too clean these days and the voice doesn't quite sync up.
I'm not sure what it is, but the sound work for the muppets hasn't been so great in recent years.

 

[Reevz1977]

It's taken a few days for me to draw a real opinion of the special. I desperately wanted to love this special and found myself looking for anything to cling to. I would have to say that I felt nothing towards the special. I neither liked nor disliked it and that was the problem. There were things that did grate with me, the first scene with Scooter, the Swedish Chef talking english AGAIN (he did this in the studio DC special) and some of the puppets looked terrible, including Kermit who looked pale. Gonzo only seems the be the consistant puppet these days. None of this was enough to make me dislike the special but to counteract this there wasn't a great deal to make me like it - although I did laugh out loud at Gonzo's X-ray. All-in-all it was nice to see the Muppets back on TV (don't get me started on the DREADFUL Studio DC's) but my yuletide Muppet must-watch is still MCC. Don't get me wrong, the Muppets are moving in the right direction, just not as quick as I would have hoped!

 

[RedPiggy]

If I'm remembering it correctly, at least we know what happened to his trumpet from the Muppet Show.

 

[Reevz1977]

If I'm remembering it correctly, at least we know what happened to his trumpet from the Muppet Show.

Yep, the question is who put it there and via which end?

 

[RedPiggy]

Ew ... ROFL...