Your Thoughts: "The Muppets" Theatrical Film

[Puppet crazy]

It's not the ending I was disappointed with, it's the editing of it.

I would have liked to see Gonzo come in the bowling ball after the " The End" tittle, followed by the scene with Gary and Mary. It would have been less messy and rushed plus the Manamana song wouldn't have been split.

 

[Writersright]

It's not the ending I was disappointed with, it's the editing of it.

I would have liked to see Gonzo come in the bowling ball after the " The End" tittle, followed by the scene with Gary and Mary. It would have been less messy and rushed plus the Manamana song wouldn't have been split.

That was kinda bad, yeah. I hope they fix that for that Blu-ray but that is wishful thinking.

 

[beaker]

AICN nails my thoughts on the new film:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/52056

From the words of Harry Knowles himself, a longtime rabid Muppet fan of several decades:

For the duration of the movie - I laughed, smiled and was generally delighted throughout the viewing experience. After the film, everyone told me how much they loved the film - and it was literally written on all of their faces. The love was palpable. That's what is key. People that love the felt, felt the love this night.
Then I started thinking about the review over the last week.

I hated nearly every revival song in the film. All they served was to remind me of the far better films in which they were first featured. Of course, that the MUPPETS have lost their magic is the very subject of the film - and doing this sort of sad recall is actually the plot of the film... but it just felt off for me. I wanted to see The Muppets truly dazzle me. Had the film done everything before the Marathon in the first 10 minutes via a heavily edited PRE-CREDIT scene... Then had the film just be a feature length MUPPET Marathon Special - with tons of great material - actually get great guests to take part - and just have it be the most awesome feel good movie ever, I'd been happier.

...

Basically - the film felt unbalanced to me. Wanting to be two different things - a nostaligic reintroduction to THE MUPPETS and a Really bold metaphorical tale about the dreams and lives that the MUPPETS and the people behind them have given us. Each of these things are outstanding, but neither is fully realized.

Also - and I can not state the importance of this enough... Having seen Martin Scorsese's HUGO earlier in the day - the smallness of THE MUPPETS, the lack of scope or experimentation with the Muppets in the greater world - being one with nature and the magic that gives us. That wasn't there for me. Scorsese captures pure magic in that film - and THE MUPPETS were not as dazzling as I had hoped.

Now, I'm probably one of the very few people that will have this opinion or experience with THE MUPPETS. It just wasn't magic for me this time. I mean, the best thing I can say is it may be the 4th or 5th best Muppet movie. It's fun, I enjoyed it - but it had problems that kept me from just giving myself completely over to it.

All involved could do better work I feel. I just I hope some day I'll see Kermit and not think something is wrong, without watching something old. Not there's a **** thing wrong with that. I do own ALL OF IT! The last thought that I have on THE MUPPETS is this. I get why this film wasn't called THE GREATEST MUPPET MOVIE EVER MADE.

Finally, a review that absolutely to the tee nails my frustration with the film

 

[Drtooth]

Wow... it really seems like you genuinely liked the film, saw it too many times, and just saw the flaws after the second time.

The review basically says "WAAAA! This isn't the first three movies! I wanted something EXACTLY like the first three movies and I didn't get it." I'm sorry, but that's what it said. Let's face it, no matter how good they try to make a film, we're NEVER going to get the first three movies. We didn't with MCC, MTI, or MFS... we didn't with any of the telefilms, we got close with this one, but no cigar...but closer than most of those ever were.

All and all, it points to crummy overediting to fit a 90 minute easily digestible forced time frame. Everything just falls short BECAUSE there wasn't any room to finish anything, even though the original script obviously finished half the concepts off. I REALLY want a Donner cut of this movie, I want to hear a statement saying "Disney and the theater conglomerates wanted this to be fast" from the writers... but we'll probably never see that.

Like I said, would we be any happier if Kermit was an all but personality devoid corporate mascot/contractual obligation that's barely important to the plot like in MFS, or have the characters reenacting yet another old story with some B-list actor getting even more screen time than all the humans in this movie combined? I'd shudder to think we'd even be excited with it.

What really honks me off is the "NYyyyy-I HATE the music, it reminds me of blah blah blah" bit. Those were supposed to be a nice little nod, little fanboy nuggets for us to smile over. They could have very easily ignored the rest of those films ever existed.

I'm sorry, but it's painfully obvious that the only people who don't like this movie are obsessive compulsive film student dorks who basically nitpick at nits that needn't be picked, when every other kiddy film out there, even some of the good ones...even some of the relatively not bad ones all seem like they're written and filmed with the entire crew on Speed, Pixie Sticks, and Red Bull all mashed together into a little paste. A couple things make this film not like a film that was made 30 something years ago, when... let's face it, only a handful of indie films and low key Oscar bait are written like that.

Sure, the movie could have been better, but think of it this way... it could have been an unbearable, unwatchable piece of garbage that makes the Smurfs Oscarworthy. And if no one thinks that the movie wouldn't have been a little manic no matter who wrote it, they're kidding themselves.

Oh, and I LOVE the comparison to Hugo. Oh, that pretentious movie that's going to go down like all the other overly pretentious children's movies like The Waterhorse and... uh... I can't think of another! They're just so forgotten. "Martin Scorsese...blah blah blah Magic." What's the magic? Making FRENCH kids sound British? The go to pretentious accent?

 

[frogboy4]

Wow... it really seems like you genuinely liked the film, saw it too many times, and just saw the flaws after the second time.

The review basically says "WAAAA! This isn't the first three movies! I wanted something EXACTLY like the first three movies and I didn't get it." I'm sorry, but that's what it said. Let's face it, no matter how good they try to make a film, we're NEVER going to get the first three movies. We didn't with MCC, MTI, or MFS... we didn't with any of the telefilms, we got close with this one, but no cigar...but closer than most of those ever were.

All and all, it points to crummy overediting to fit a 90 minute easily digestible forced time frame. Everything just falls short BECAUSE there wasn't any room to finish anything, even though the original script obviously finished half the concepts off. I REALLY want a Donner cut of this movie, I want to hear a statement saying "Disney and the theater conglomerates wanted this to be fast" from the writers... but we'll probably never see that.

Like I said, would we be any happier if Kermit was an all but personality devoid corporate mascot/contractual obligation that's barely important to the plot like in MFS, or have the characters reenacting yet another old story with some B-list actor getting even more screen time than all the humans in this movie combined? I'd shudder to think we'd even be excited with it.

What really honks me off is the "NYyyyy-I HATE the music, it reminds me of blah blah blah" bit. Those were supposed to be a nice little nod, little fanboy nuggets for us to smile over. They could have very easily ignored the rest of those films ever existed.

I'm sorry, but it's painfully obvious that the only people who don't like this movie are obsessive compulsive film student dorks who basically nitpick at nits that needn't be picked, when every other kiddy film out there, even some of the good ones...even some of the relatively not bad ones all seem like they're written and filmed with the entire crew on Speed, Pixie Sticks, and Red Bull all mashed together into a little paste. A couple things make this film not like a film that was made 30 something years ago, when... let's face it, only a handful of indie films and low key Oscar bait are written like that.

Sure, the movie could have been better, but think of it this way... it could have been an unbearable, unwatchable piece of garbage that makes the Smurfs Oscarworthy. And if no one thinks that the movie wouldn't have been a little manic no matter who wrote it, they're kidding themselves.

Oh, and I LOVE the comparison to Hugo. Oh, that pretentious movie that's going to go down like all the other overly pretentious children's movies like The Waterhorse and... uh... I can't think of another! They're just so forgotten. "Martin Scorsese...blah blah blah Magic." What's the magic? Making FRENCH kids sound British? The go to pretentious accent?

Comparing The Muppets to Hugo is like apples and oranges. They're not meant to be the same experience at all and both have their strong points.

Yeah, I had problems with The Muppets film, but it did the trick by reigniting interest in them for North American audiences. I just hope it gets similar reception overseas. That's my only real gripe. It's losing a lot of the initial momentum before making its way across the pond. I sure hope this February release tactic is a good one. For some reason it's supposed to be a strong time for UK films.

In the end, I hope Disney and the Muppets crew take the lessons learned by this recent film and get more veterans involved with a follow-up, stronger picture. They have the clout to do that now.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah, I had problems with The Muppets film, but it did the trick by reigniting interest in them for North American audiences. I just hope it gets similar reception overseas. That's my only real gripe. It's losing a lot of the initial momentum before making its way across the pond. I sure hope this February release tactic is a good one. For some reason it's supposed to be a strong time for UK films.

We have a problem with film releases here that on;y the first couple of weeks to the first month count. The film saw a huge surge in ticket sales during Christmas break, which is now over, and it managed to make a lot more than we figured by then. Still, the film comes to the UK and most of Europe 3 months later, and about a month before it hits DVD. France gets it so late, they could just order the DVD and watch it on a region-free player. Hopefully that will be a smart move. I'm sure even in Europe the overstuffed December movie market would have crushed the Muppets completely.

As for the problems with the movie, I see them too, but I don't dwell on them. It all comes down to editing. I'm not begrudging a couple missing scenes that we know were there, nor am I begrudging the presence of certain characters. Above all, I think this was a lovely fan tribute, and it didn't suffer from the "Oh YEAH! We're fans! Now let us make OUR movie" that Michael Bay, M. Night Shamalan, and the Matrix guys gave Transformers, Avatar: The last Airbender, and Speed Racer, respectively. The one complaint I hear is that they tried too hard to make it like a classic Muppet Movie... but that's just it! They TRIED!

Still, if they're involved in the next one, I want to see more input from veterans as well. Like I said in the Frank Oz threads, I'm more annoyed that he didn't offer advice than what he felt about the movie.

 

[CensoredAlso]

What's the magic? Making FRENCH kids sound British?

They must be from the same part of France Jean-Luc Picard was from.

 

[beaker]

I'm sorry, but it's painfully obvious that the only people who don't like this movie are obsessive compulsive film student dorks who basically nitpick at nits that needn't be picked, when every other kiddy film out there, even some of the good ones...even some of the relatively not bad ones all seem like they're written and filmed with the entire crew on Speed, Pixie Sticks, and Red Bull all mashed together into a little paste. A couple things make this film not like a film that was made 30 something years ago, when... let's face it, only a handful of indie films and low key Oscar bait are written like that.

Sure, the movie could have been better, but think of it this way... it could have been an unbearable, unwatchable piece of garbage that makes the Smurfs Oscarworthy. And if no one thinks that the movie wouldn't have been a little manic no matter who wrote it, they're kidding themselves.

Oh, and I LOVE the comparison to Hugo. Oh, that pretentious movie that's going to go down like all the other overly pretentious children's movies like The Waterhorse and... uh... I can't think of another! They're just so forgotten. "Martin Scorsese...blah blah blah Magic." What's the magic? Making FRENCH kids sound British? The go to pretentious accent?

But you haven't seen Hugo, how can you judge it? It ends up being a pretty visionary(in some parts) tribute to original cinema.

Also, just because someone isn't head over heels in love with a film doesn't mean they are x or z. Everyone loves Empire Strikes Back, but it's one of my least favorite Star Wars film and I consider Return of the Jedi my favorite Star Wars film.

If a movie feels off, you can't help it. If you give someone food, and they make a face, it's not really their fault. People like what they like. And I never flip flopped. I always maintained this was the film I guess they needed to make. I'm not comparing this movie to the garbage aimed at kids and families these days. I'm comparing the feeling of the film to previous 79-99 theatrical films.

 

[Drtooth]

I see what you mean. Honestly, I don't compare the new film to the first three because, like I said, there's no comparison. But I do compare it to every Post-Henson Muppet project. I have problems with, but enjoyed most of them. My two favorites before the film were VMX and LTS. They both managed to capture something that was lost, or not completely there in the last films... but they are polar opposites of each other in tone. VMX managed to capture the maniacal madcapness of the Muppets, LTS managed to capture the tenderness. I think the film managed to get into the middle ground quite well. That's the tone I'd like to see, or rather would see than something like MCC (artistic, but boring) or Mup Oz (there was no need to film it like it was a 60's Batman).

I don't really find something missing with the movie other than the fact that a lot of the movie was missing due to the fact they crammed so much into 90 minutes. I've been saying this for a while, there's no problem with the movie that couldn't have been solved by more movie. It's a similar problem I have with LTS. It all the sudden hits their weird wall when they get to the North Pole, like there was 10 minutes of film missing, and the ending feels a bit too rushed. Still, for the next project, I want them to write a movie that can be told in 60 minutes, THEN add on the extra gags.

As for Hugo... I kinda wanted to like it and I kinda wanted to see it... but there's just something there that seemed like the story behind the film was much more interesting than what the film could deliver. And I would honestly rather kids watch that kinda thing than Yogi Bear (the stories I could tell you about that screening! People watching during the film was the highlight of the event, and I wish I didn't miss the showing of Rapunzel by 10 minutes or at least had the patience to wait the hour and a half for the next showing... but I was in a bad mood that day anyway and didn't want to take it out on Rapunzel). But it seems like there's just so many movies that try to get that tone that just turn out so dull instead of artistic. Still, it's a better tone than the ADD stuff in kid's movies. But something tells me, the Muppets was going to be pretty fast pace no matter who was involved.

Above all, it's a tick with me. I have something against critics who pan a good movie because something's not quite there, and then praise a poo film that doesn't have to try anything. It's like... I get that something feels off about a movie, but then to say that the Fast and Furious franchise is great because it's dumb...

 

[Beauregard]

I can finally get involved with this thread, having finally seen the movie at an early screening...

Honestly, its gunna take me a few days to pull together my thoughts about the movie because wow...it had so many layers of incredible. I'm looking forward to going through this thread to see people's opinions without the spoilers ruining the movie for me now!