Your Thoughts: "The Muppets" Theatrical Film

[Oscarfan]

OK...here we go...

Is this movie as good as The Muppet Movie, Great Muppet Caper or Muppets Take Manhattan? No, No and No.

HOWEVER, I am happy to say it's the first time in a long time that I've truly enjoyed a new Muppet movie.

Pros

• Gonzo: "I've been wearing this under my suit for years!" I literally almost cried at that moment. That's the Gonzo I grew up with, lol.
• I definitely started crying during Kermit's "Pictures in My Head" song. In many ways it mirrored the real life concerns Muppet fans have felt over the years.
• Scooter's onstage moment (I get into that more in one of the Scooter threads, hehe).
• Fozzie and Rowlf's recasts were near perfect, it didn't feel distracting at all.
• Piggy, thank goodness, had so much dignity. I think if the Muppets Take Manhattan story had been continued back in the '80s, this is the Piggy we would have seen. And that's a huge compliment, btw.
• I LOVED Uncle Deadly showing the bad guy what a maniacal laugh really is. Boris Karloff would be proud!
• I'd never really seen Jason Segal before but Gary was adorable, lol.
• My friend and I laughed when Amy refused to sit on Gonzo's used toilets, lol.
• Jim Parsons, the entire audience was laughing, lol. I could totally see him fitting in with the Muppets back in the day.
• Walter - I'll be honest, at first I was a little creeped out by him, lol. But he got a lot better when he started searching for Kermit. I guess because he was taking action as opposed to just obsessing (a lesson all fans should learn from, hehe).
• The ending - I liked it personally. It reminded me of It's a Wonderful Life where technically the bad guy wins, but the hero is the one with the true victory.

Cons

• There was too much plot and not enough Muppet antics. You can only take the Muppets being miserable for so long, at some point you need to bring back the comedy (something MTM was very good at). I remember one of the kids in the audience laughed when Gonzo threw the bowling ball at the end; if there had been more moments like that, the movie would have livened up a lot.
• I get that the '80s are big right now, but some '70s jokes would have been a lot more appropriate considering that's when The Muppet Show was on the air and that's where most of the focus was. (I think if this movie had been made in the '90s we would have gotten more '70s, lol).
• The :: fart shoes joke. Not funny. Not at all. But thankfully it was short, lol.
• I felt like Amy's song could have easily been left on the cutting room floor and you still would have gotten a good sense of her character and her frustration.

So in conclusion, was it perfect? No. But it did have enough genuinely Muppet moments to please a very relieved Muppet fan.

Oh yes, and here's my shameless plug of my Blog review, hehe:

http://herald7.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/go-see-the-muppets-2011/

Amy Adam's song was actually cut from an earlier version, I read. My thought from the first time I saw it was it felt awkward and wasn't needed.

 

[Drtooth]

Amy Adam's song was actually cut from an earlier version, I read. My thought from the first time I saw it was it felt awkward and wasn't needed.

I would have been happy if that was cut and they did the full version of the Richman backstory so he didn't seem so one dimensional. I bet Amy begged and pleaded for that to be in the film, though and that's why it was there... had it not been for the Piggy segment in that song, I don't think I would have enjoyed it . Out of all the Muppets I think weren't in the film enough, it was singing food. That scene did satisfy my desire to see them, though.

Piggy, thank goodness, had so much dignity. I think if the Muppets Take Manhattan story had been continued back in the '80s, this is the Piggy we would have seen. And that's a huge compliment, btw.

I'm shocked the only thing even close to a fat joke was that she was eating donuts. Like I said, if nothing else, Jason et al gave a refreshing take and perspective on the Kermit/Piggy relationship... something that was either completely missing or not quite there in the last few projects. MCC, they were in character married... there was something in MTI, but that was completely added by Jerry Juhl (I kinda think it would have been funnier to see her as a rival pirate... an Anne Bonny type character), nothing in MFS or MOz (due to the fact she was the bad guy), and they did an alright job in VMX, at least if you look at the alternate future. I think there was a genuine moment to use that sort of thing in LTS, but due to the time constraints there was no room for that as a subplot. I really wish LTS had a scene where Piggy was grappling with the thought of going to the Bahamas (or Tahiti or whatever it was) without Kermit... that's like a middle of a movie that didn't exist.

 

[Dominicboo1]

OK...here we go...

Is this movie as good as The Muppet Movie, Great Muppet Caper or Muppets Take Manhattan? No, No and No.

HOWEVER, I am happy to say it's the first time in a long time that I've truly enjoyed a new Muppet movie.

Pros

• Gonzo: "I've been wearing this under my suit for years!" I literally almost cried at that moment. That's the Gonzo I grew up with, lol.
• I definitely started crying during Kermit's "Pictures in My Head" song. In many ways it mirrored the real life concerns Muppet fans have felt over the years.
• Scooter's onstage moment (I get into that more in one of the Scooter threads, hehe).
• Fozzie and Rowlf's recasts were near perfect, it didn't feel distracting at all.
• Piggy, thank goodness, had so much dignity. I think if the Muppets Take Manhattan story had been continued back in the '80s, this is the Piggy we would have seen. And that's a huge compliment, btw.
• I LOVED Uncle Deadly showing the bad guy what a maniacal laugh really is. Boris Karloff would be proud!
• I'd never really seen Jason Segal before but Gary was adorable, lol.
• My friend and I laughed when Amy refused to sit on Gonzo's used toilets, lol.
• Jim Parsons, the entire audience was laughing, lol. I could totally see him fitting in with the Muppets back in the day.
• Walter - I'll be honest, at first I was a little creeped out by him, lol. But he got a lot better when he started searching for Kermit. I guess because he was taking action as opposed to just obsessing (a lesson all fans should learn from, hehe).
• The ending - I liked it personally. It reminded me of It's a Wonderful Life where technically the bad guy wins, but the hero is the one with the true victory.
  

Cons

• There was too much plot and not enough Muppet antics. You can only take the Muppets being miserable for so long, at some point you need to bring back the comedy (something MTM was very good at). I remember one of the kids in the audience laughed when Gonzo threw the bowling ball at the end; if there had been more moments like that, the movie would have livened up a lot.
• I get that the '80s are big right now, but some '70s jokes would have been a lot more appropriate considering that's when The Muppet Show was on the air and that's where most of the focus was. (I think if this movie had been made in the '90s we would have gotten more '70s, lol).
• The :: fart shoes joke. Not funny. Not at all. But thankfully it was short, lol.
• I felt like Amy's song could have easily been left on the cutting room floor and you still would have gotten a good sense of her character and her frustration.

So in conclusion, was it perfect? No. But it did have enough genuinely Muppet moments to please a very relieved Muppet fan.

Oh yes, and here's my shameless plug of my Blog review, hehe:

http://herald7.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/go-see-the-muppets-2011/

Oh, but hearlde theyu do get their theater back, the newspaper says so on the credits if you listen carefully (I was worried though).

 

[CensoredAlso]

Oh, but hearlde theyu do get their theater back, the newspaper says so on the credits if you listen carefully (I was worried though).

Oh I know, I did hear that. I was just referring to how they didn't technically win the theater back through money.

 

[Dominicboo1]

Oh I know, I did hear that. I was just referring to how they didn't technically win the theater back through money.

True. I understand what you mean about Wonderful Life, because George's friends chip in. I just was upset, because as it's a kid's movie the villians MUST lose, (I'm talking to you Pinocchio). In an episode of Between the Lions a writer is reading to Lionel and Leona and when they find out the villian wins this is what she says "The cheater wins! That's not a good impression for my young impressionable mind!"Ha ha ha!

 

[CensoredAlso]

I just was upset, because as it's a kid's movie the villians MUST lose

Well that would be nice of course but then again what if that doesn't happen in real life? Kids need to learn how to deal with that too.

 

[Dominicboo1]

Well that would be nice of course but then again what if that doesn't happen in real life? Kids need to learn how to deal with that too.

That's true. It's just sort of a message that I think is important, because when people do something wrong it's because they think they WILL get away with it. If Tex won, while it may happen in real life it might say unintenially to families "WOO HOO! BE SELFISH AND WIN! YEAH!"

 

[CensoredAlso]

That's true. It's just sort of a message that I think is important, because when people do something wrong it's because they think they WILL get away with it. If Tex won, while it may happen in real life it might say unintenially to families "WOO HOO! BE SELFISH AND WIN! YEAH!"

Well that's up the parents to instill in their kids what "winning" really means in this life.

 

[Dominicboo1]

I agree! Parents should take more responsibility for their children's actions. If they did, we may be living in a much better world.

 

[zoebell]

were kermit and piggy not together in MFS?