Your Thoughts: Muppets Letters to Santa

[tutter_fan]

Boy, there were a lot of funny moments in that little one hour movie. Sam eagle talking about the mail (just seeing him looking at everyone who's watching the movie made me laugh!)The swedish chef wasn't bad at all. He had that deep voice just like on the AGT (America's got talent) with Terry Fador (I think I got that right) and the way he talked was typical Swedish chef humor. The little "muppet labs" part made me laugh.

All in all, I'd give it an A!

 

[piggyinmanhatte]

very disappointing

I was crossing my fingers for this one. Sigh.
Many things could have helped this. First, who the heck is Claire? What is the point of introducing two new characters that no one knows and no one cares about, for a measly one-hour special?
What would have been much more believable would be if one of the letters was Robin’s, Kermit’s nephew. And Kermit would feel compelled to get to Santa; which brings me to my next point—why the **** is GONZO the focus? He, while an interesting character, is not the main driver in the Muppets. Kermit is. Kermit always has been.
Not that I have a problem with Gonzo. He’s just the second best friend in this situation, not the star. Now some may say, “But hey, wait, Gonzo was the focus of "Muppets From Space". He can carry a picture!” It worked there—because it was a plausible storyline. You couldn’t do aliens with any of the other main Muppets, except maybe some of the band. Also, Gonzo was his normal self in Space—strange, thinking out of the box, running around like a crazy guy. Just as he should be. In "Letters", though, it’s like someone gave the guy too much Paxil. He’s got no zip, no spunk, none of his usual quirkiness. He’s just slightly depressed and much too mellow for his character.
Speaking of wrong characters, we now come to my biggest sticking point—Piggy. Now, my disclosure is that Miss Piggy has been my favorite Muppet since I was about 2 years old. I’ve always seen her as a confident woman who knows what she wants and doesn’t let anyone hold her back. Who, for instance, hit Kermit and brought back his memory in "Muppets Take Manhattan"? Who stood by her frog in "A Very Merry Muppet Christmas"? She is a strong woman, in more ways than one, and when the chips are down, she sticks by her friends. But this Piggy? I’m disgusted. They made her a selfish brat, as they did in Oz. If this were the real Piggy, she would’ve stuck by her friends, especially her frog. I could picture her perfectly being jealous when Joy showed up, which would’ve been more natural than to just write her out in the first five minutes.
Was it because her eyes look so darn funny now? Was I the only one who noticed that?
Argh. Sorry this is so long...I was just very unhappy with what I saw.

 

[CarrieTheGreat]

Complaint #2 - The Broadcast

After confirming my suspicions regarding the cropped presentation (see previous post), I also saw that the brightness level on the NBC broadcast I watched was dialed up too high.

Especially in the scenes with North Pole Airlines, Uma Thurman looked like an angel in those TV concepts of heaven, you know, where her clothes blended right into the background and you could barely read the light blue writing on the wall behind her?

Anybody else experience this? After that scene, I was distracted by the brightness for the rest of the program.

It seems that NBC didn't care very much about giving an accurate representation of the movie that was made. No widescreen, brightness level too hot. What's that about?

Carrie

P.S. I agree with other posters regarding jokes being highlighted with a rim shot or "wah-wah" sound. I mean, if you're gonna tell us a joke, it is kinda bad form to have to say, "That was a joke" afterwards.

Favorite jokes: "Hallie Barry," "first hit," and Beaker getting the girl.

 

[Randall Flagg]

I'm kind of surprised to see a few being being disappointed that Gonzo was main character. Hasn't that pretty much been the case since Jim Henson died? In MCC, Gonzo and Rizzo pretty much carried the whole thing (as the narrators), and Muppets From Space was entirely about Gonzo. I can't recall Treasure Island too well, but I seem to recall Gonzo being pretty prominent in that too.
I figure it's partly because David Goelz is one of the few remaining original puppeteers (but, wow, his voice changed. It's so much deeper now than it was during the Muppet Show.)

 

[CensoredAlso]

Speaking of wrong characters, we now come to my biggest sticking point—Piggy. Now, my disclosure is that Miss Piggy has been my favorite Muppet since I was about 2 years old. I’ve always seen her as a confident woman who knows what she wants and doesn’t let anyone hold her back. Who, for instance, hit Kermit and brought back his memory in "Muppets Take Manhattan"? Who stood by her frog in "A Very Merry Muppet Christmas"? She is a strong woman, in more ways than one, and when the chips are down, she sticks by her friends. But this Piggy? I’m disgusted. They made her a selfish brat, as they did in Oz. If this were the real Piggy, she would’ve stuck by her friends, especially her frog. I could picture her perfectly being jealous when Joy showed up, which would’ve been more natural than to just write her out in the first five minutes.

I get what you're saying. Personally I just think it's a comment on society in general. In the '70s women's lib was very big and a strong, spunky, humorously (but harmlessly) overbearing female like Miss Piggy was very fashionable. Nowadays, pop culture likes to bring women down and make them look like annoying divas.

And it was strange that she was out of the story so quickly. It's not like it's the old days when Frank Oz wasn't as available, he's not even playing her now. And the current performer did fine. And I agree, they could have made her jealous of one of the female guests or something.

 

[uppitymuppity]

It's A Winner

The numbers are coming in and it's at the top!

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman2/publish/Overnights_50/Puppet_glow_NBC_s_Muppets_is_tops.asp

 

[dwayne1115]

Wow!

 

[Muppetfan44]

I think that I am going to agree with the majority here and say that this special was good, not the best, but definitely a step in the right direction. I've been sitting here reading everyone's comments and there are some things that I just have to respond to:

The whole Santa/faith being real or not: that whole mess on here was ridiculous, you guys are turning a molehill into a mountain. Come on, who cares if someone believes in Santa or the idea of Santa? Everyone should be allowed to believe what they want; don't mess with other people's faith in things no matter what you think. Saying Santa is a down right delusion is just like the whole thing where people argue that someone's idea of God isn't real. Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean that it doesn't exist on some level. If believing in Santa teaches people to be warm and kind and caring a little more during the holidays, why call it a delusion or diss it so much. Stop being a Scrooge and spend your efforts giving toys to the Salvation Army or doing community service or something. I think that just blew way out of proportion on here and people just need to get over themselves.

Now, back to the special itself. I did think that the whole NY apartment resembled SS a little bit but I think they did that for a reason. They are trying to connect the classic Muppets to something kids already know and love; they're trying to put a little of that SS feel into the Classic Muppets so that kids can learn to love them as much as they love the SS characters. I think it's a good psychological move on the creators' part and in terms of building up the Muppets fan base, i think it will pay off in the long run.

As for the whole argument that the adults were a lot like kids thing: it's a christmas special people! The reason why so many of us love the Muppets is because it's brings out the kid in us that loves the silliness, craziness, and innocence that the Muppets are all about. That's why I love the muppets. I mean don't get be wrong I totally appreciate the artsitry and all the work that goes behind it but i think the greatest compliment I can give the performers and everyone else who worked on the special is that they continue to bring out the fun kid in me even when i'm super stressed studying for law school finals and they make me forget about all that and just enjoy the cute funness and simplicity of the Muppets and the warmth of the holidays. I will always appreciate everyone behind the muppets for the way i watch them and just forget about life for awhile and have fun in their adventures.
And I LOVED Nathan Lane's character and the Soprano guys being all serious about Santa; I thought it was great and I think if adults were more like kids sometimes and went back to that innocence and simple kindness the world would probably be a better place than it is now.

I will agree with some of you that Bill Baretta is definitely becoming a powerhouse. Bobo was fantastic and pepe was good too. Bill is really shining and I think that's fantastic.

I did miss Johnny and Sal; they're always a fun pair. Someone said that Sam the Eagle needed some work but I thought he was awesome. He sounded and looked just like the Sam from the later seasons of The Muppet Show I thought

As for Gonzo being the lead, I thought it was ok. I wish that Fozzie could of shown a little bit more but the song between the two was the absolute best thing about the special; it was just great. The songs were wonderful but i was disappointed that the I believe in Santa Claus song wasn't in there because that was also a great song.

I loved Kermit, Gonzo and Fozzie in the apartment. It felt like the Great Muppet Caper again and that was just awesome.

Claire and her mom were cute, but I do think there should of been more about who they were and why they were living in an apartment building with a bunch of Muppets. I do also agree that the storyline lacked that sense of urgency; like Claire could have wished for something for her mom and told Gonzo why it was so important to deliver the letter and not tell him about wanting her friends to stay for the holidays too. The whole friendship with Gonzo and Claire was sooo cute and priceless.

I really liked the wide range of characters that appeared, all the performances were great.

Another thing that was awesome is how they got rid of the fourth wall and talked directly to the audience, especially at the end, like they took us with them the entire time and made us part of the special. Pepe's you have got to be kidding me was the best and all the little jokes and quirks like his nuts comment were just perfect for the muppets and great.

Now for my main thing about this special: Kermit and Piggy. I am one of the biggest advocates of the frog/pig relationship and I have to say that I do miss a little of Kermit's spunk in his personality but I LOVE that he seems to be finally treating Piggy as his girlfriend and actually wants to spend time with her (when he's not trying to save christmas for someone). I really wanted something more between them here though and I hope that appears if there is an extended version, but I absolutely LOVE, AND I MEAN LOVE! the forward direction that their relationship is taking; even with all the recent appearances, like on Dr. Phil and that Mike and Juliet Morning Show, they are acting more like they are in a relationship and I love it. That has always been a big problem with me my whole life because I could not understand for the life of me why Piggy keeps wanting to be with Kermit if all he did was reject her all of the time; I thought it was showing the world the worst example of how a relationship should be between two people so I am absolutly estatic that the relationship is moving forward. I do think both Kermit and Piggy's personalities have changed a little for the worse; kermit has definitely lost some of his spunk and seems really placid a lot and Piggy's character is looking a lot more vicious than I think it ever was or ever should be. I do agree with the person who said that Piggy would stick by Kermit and support him when he decided to help the kids (maybe she's finally getting fed up with him rejecting her all of the time, haha) I love Piggy to death and I really wanted to see her a lot more in this because she has always been a star of the muppets and she definitely deserved more time in this special. I hope they return both kermit and piggy's personalities closer to the way they were and keep all the great relationship coming!

I really think the thing that would have fixed this special is more time. It had a really good start (not the start of the movie I mean) but if they would have filled it out a little more with more character development for Claire and her mom and just filled more of the backstories of kermit/piggy, all the other characters and maybe a little more in trying to find santa's workshop ( i thought paul williams was a really grumpy elf by the way), it would have been A+.

I did really enjoy the special and will add it to my christmas repetoire, totally a B and I hope they keep up the good work and keep trying. Sorry my post is so long but i had to get it all out of my head so I can keep studying for Torts, haha!

Happy Holidays everyone!

 

[Reevz1977]

Anyone know where people outside the US can see this special? ? ? ? ? ?

 

[AnimatedC9000]

Yes Virginia, the Muppets are making a comeback!

This special... wow... it was amazing. I pretty much SQUEALED every time I recgonized a character in the background.

All the parts with Beaker... too cute! And I agree that "May I cut in?" is THE SINGLE MOST ADORABLE BUNSEN/BEAKER MOMENT! IN THE HISTORY OF THE 21st CENTURY!

A lot of our favorites were back. That I liked.

I agree that the film was too fast-paced.. I just hope that they included those extra scenes in the DVD release...

The ending was very sweet. Everyone sang, we got to see Robin again... and we found out that Zoot is Jewish.

... excusemeIhavetogofindAilie. *rushes off*