I admit I am genuinely baffled by the number of people who preferred MMW because they felt that the humans in TM's had too much screen time in the story. Of all the things that might be used as a point of comparison between the two most recent movies, that seemed like a strange thing to use. For what they are worth, these are my musings/observations.
I've heard a lot of snarky comments about Gary and Mary. I've been a little surprised about the vehemence of the dislike. Frankly, one of the things I found attractive in the original Muppet movies was the childlike appeal of the human characters--Max and Jenny and Ronnie, for example, are rather naïve and full of sometimes graceless charm. Even Lady Holiday and Nicky Holiday are whimsical characters. Each of these characters interacts believably with the Muppets--none of them sing solos or try to take center stage. Center stage is already occupied--or should be. When a human takes that role in a Muppet movie (MWoO), then the story tends to lurch.
I felt like I spent a LOT of time watching people instead of muppets in MWW. Point in fact: we saw more of the gulag review than we did of the muppet performances, which was a shame. I would much rather have seen more of Scooter's awkward "Moves Like Jagger" than lots and lots of shots of gulag prisoners in union suits and tutus. While musically pleasing, "The Big House" seemed to go on for a long, long time, and while Kermit is in the shots, he's a passive listener instead of an active participant. In contrast, in GMC, although there were lots of bathing beauties, Piggy took center stage. You never forgot for one moment who the real stars were. In this movie, Tina and Ricky compete with our felt friends for the limelight. I do NOT include Ty in this category--he did an amazing job of becoming one with the muppets--playing off of Sam, flirting with Piggy, making squinty-eyed eye contact with the other Muppets. He blended beautifully. In contrast, Tina and Kermit don't really seem to interact--they just share screen time. Jean Pierre's emotion at the thought of saying goodbye to Sam was in all ways more believable than Nadya's supposed infatuation with Kermit. Ricky's character might have been more appealing if he had--even for an instant--fallen under the Muppet's spell and showed some genuine delight in their presence. If Kermit had been there instead of Constantine, then he probably would have eventually won Dominick over with his friendliness and sincerity.
"We're Doing A Sequel" was very reminiscent of the big production numbers in Aladdin and The Lion King, but instead of being full of muppety goodness, what we sortof got was a line of performing muppets in the front and all of the spectacle was the humans performing in the back. At the end of "We're Doing a Sequel," our guys were basically lined up in the front with the really interesting stuff happening behind them. I was uncomfortably reminded of the Gaga Thanksgiving special. The more I thought about it, the more this seemed like a Disney movie with Muppets in it, than a Muppet movie made by Disney.
Still, I have seen the movie twice, and hope to see it again while it is still in theaters. I only wish the movie could have centered on something the Muppets wanted to accomplish instead of having the plot shang-hai'd by an evil frog.
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