THE MUPPETS (2011)

Given that most of the Muppet stuff is meta-showbiz, she's a classic showbiz character.

This is so wrong that I don't even know where to begin.

― bouquet beatdown (Nicole), Friday, November 18, 2011 12:52 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah, i was gonna say something about that but i also didnt know where to start. feel like the doctor from bridge on river kwai bein all like madness... madness....

A number of the cameo guests listed way up in that Wiki article didn't make the cut. I wish Jack Black hadn't.
My other insights which you can read Monday.

Oh, Jack Black is in it? I try to avoid everything he gets involved with. My love for the muppets overpowers my visceral dislike for JB though, so I'm still looking forward to this.

There are compensatory factors if you like to see Jack Black suffer.

Frank Oz hasn't really muppeteered since the 90s

we don't need Miss Piggy anymore, we have Jenna Maroney

morbius, does this have much of a plot or is it like beads-on-a-string? (actually i sort of feel like i'd prefer the latter.)

hmm I think I will enjoy seeing Jack Black suffer, yes

it's a getting-the-band-back-together plot.

tho there are some reprises of The Muppet Movie, sometimes the 1979 movie it reminded me of was Satr Trek: TMP.

someone who's seen it already please tell me this doesn't suck. better yet, tell me it's awesome!

if it actually is, of course. if they kill my childhood in this movie i'd rather not see it.

the only assurance I need is that Rowlf The Dog is well-represented here

My FCF loved it, sez it will appeal to anyone over 30+ with fond memories of the Muppets.

we don't need Miss Piggy anymore, we have Jenna Maroney

― Θ ̨Θƪ (sic), Friday, November 18, 2011 5:20 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

MIND BLOWN

tho there are some reprises of The Muppet Movie, sometimes the 1979 movie it reminded me of was Satr Trek: TMP.

This is as close to "ringing endorsement" as I can imagine! I love ST: TMP. It's my 2nd or 3rd favorite Trek movie after Khan!

well, it's funnier, and no one's as stiff as Persis Khambatta.

persis khambatta rip :(

she was only 49

yes, that was a pity.

NYT feature on Bret McKenzie and his 3 songs (the vid here with Kermit is preferable to the perfs of the song in the film):

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/magazine/bret-mckenzie-muppets.html

Better than Muppets in Space; got nothing on the original trilogy.

Also, yes, jaymc's FCF OTM in that it want to make kids laugh but, more importantly, make adults get a good nostalgic cry.

Big fan of Miss Poogy over here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIr99TP7_mw

"You saw All About Eve, right?"

There's a woman always smoking in front of my building who reminds me quite a bit of Miss Poogy.

Actually this could've eclipsed the first movie with a couple moves:

-no Walter
-team up Piggy and Adams

Could've done entirely without Segal, Adams and Walter entirely.

Entirely, in case that wasn't clear.

Adams was criminally underused. Would've preferred the reunion to be instigated by Mark Wahlberg and Adams as their Fighter characters.

I will be interested in hearing kids' reactions, as it's not aimed much at em as you say.

and yes, it'a 100% nostalgia fest and my eyes were leaking in 5 mins.

^^^^ this is all I need to know. I have to see this.

saw this last night in a discount theater jammed to the rafters with single-digits and their stoic herders. movie was fun, but took waaaaay too long to get going. tons of mopey, draggy musical numbers and laugh-free "character development" stretches. as a result, the kids were restless as all hell. serious bag-crinkling set in about ten minutes after the film started and never stopped. surprised that the parents didn't laugh more, though, cuz i found a lot of it pretty damn funny: muppet man, the telethon numbers, etc.

there was a low stage in front of the theater screen on which, during the credits when the lights came up, a bunch of kids danced and played. best thing about the movie. meanwhile, this one little girl, seated behind us with her parents, said "i want to make my own muppet!" her parents just grunted, so she repeated the idea, this time met with silence. then she said that it would be fun to play on stage with the other kids. so her parents got up to leave, again without speaking a word. lesson: parents suck.

this was ok beut somehow didn't feel "big" enough? i mean i capitalized this thread title for a reason.

Way, way, way too much unfunny emphasis on (star and writer and executive producer) Jason Segel, his Amy Adams wife and puppet brother. Detracted from the muppetness, forced tedious "relationship arc" bullshit on the movie.

"Well yes, I know it's called 'The Muppets'. All the more reason it should mostly be about MEEEEEEE!"

Kind of too much to ask for from a movie for kids, but it'd have been nice to have the Segel/Adams arc be emphasized a little less and have more Chris Cooper/Kermit action. I kind of feel like the framing device took over a little too much of the movie.

I did enjoy all the references to the Muppet Show and not just the movies.

"i want to make my own muppet!" her parents just grunted, so she repeated the idea, this time met with silence. then she said that it would be fun to play on stage with the other kids. so her parents got up to leave, again without speaking a word. lesson: parents suck.

don't judge these people, you have no idea what they endured that day

F.A.O. Schwarz in NY has a "make yr own muppet" place.

We saw a couple of already made ones that resembled Amber and Alice, they were quite expensive but I was all for pushing out the boat and getting them. But the kids were both "yeah, they're great, but they're not worth it dad."

Pragmatic kids, aged 9 and 11 at the time.

Kind of too much to ask for from a movie for kids, but it'd have been nice to have the Segel/Adams arc be emphasized a little less and have more Chris Cooper/Kermit action.Don't see why that would be too much to ask for. From what I saw in the theater, the younger kids were bored silly by the Segal/Adams business.

</p>

again, the target aud for this film was 35+. My sister didn't get to see it cuz her 5-year-old dragged her to Chipwrecked.

I agree with this, but only to an extent. While The Muppets clearly intends to appeal to the nostalgia of an older audience and much of its humor is too referential for young children to understand, it was marketed at least in part as a children's film. I don't think it was terribly successful on that level. As a nostalgic 35+, I'd have preferred a bit more unselfconscious muppetation, a bit less trite drama and retro referentiality.

a bit less trite drama and retro referentiality

this is basically what i have wanted from every hollywood comedy in the past 15 years

still gonna see this though

I am prime nostalgo demo for this, saw it with my mom and my 6-y-o son, movie a huge success for all three of us; I thought it did a superb job of offering something to all age tranches.

Saw this today. I loved it (being of prime age to be nostalgised to the max). The kids in the cinema, not so much.

The Toy Story short preceding it was great too, but again felt aimed at me rather than at kids.

i want to buy every fucking toy in that short. ghost burger!

Yes!

sorry, that shit was the worst

plot was shit, toys were lol

OTM. DJ Penguin toy was terrific.

Saw this yesterday and welled up a bit in places. I liked how they worked pretty much an entire episode of The Muppet Show in near the end. Could have done with being a bit longer maybe, I wanted at least 15 minutes more of the show really. Loved how old-school it was - Clifford, Rizzo The Rat etc wisely left out.

Bunsen and Beaker sadly underused though.

I just watched and it made me a little sad. In Muppet's from space they all live in a big house, as a big family and their narrative has heart and soul. It's warm and kooky, much like the Muppet's themselves. In this film they are a bit cold,live in a world of mistakes and breakdowns of relationships. Not how I like my Muppet's served up. Don't get me wrong, it is still good, funny and great to watch. Although saying that, Fozzie Bear just isn't right, obviously it has a different puppeteer and voice characterisation but it just doesn't nail it well enough for me. Great film, but has lost that little something that makes the original stuff, when the dream team of " were at their most creative. Only my opinion but the tone, or culture of the Muppet's seems to have changed, and it's turned into 21st century capatalism, with the death of community and relationships. Yes, they get it all back together by the end, but all feels a bit tainted by then. The heart has been ripped out of it. Shame on you Disney (said in a Fozzie Bear voice)

Makes me feel a bit like this.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhoj9x72Mk1qbxh0co1_500.pnghttp

But I maybe over thinking this.

no, that's otm. missed the joy & effervescence of the best previous muppet outings. and muppets from space is great!

Bobin replacing Segel as co-writer on the next one, apparently

Yeah, having read a number of sentiments like that captain rosie's (and Frank Oz's), I'm really wary about seeing this. I love the Muppets, not so much for the characters themselves but more for the overall spirit of the enterprise (at least as it existed during Henson's lifetime). The Muppet Movie is one of my all-time favorite "forging one's own family" movies, and the new movie sounds like it's just on a whole other wavelength.

the different spirit is more acknowledging that the family has kind of lost its way and been separated through the recent years of Disney / Henson hot potatoing imo; it's doing a not-entirely-necessary semi-re-origin story (ending with the family reunited and ready to carry on entertaining) in the same way The Muppet Movie did an entirely-unnecessary origin story.

The new one really relies on and acknowledges that The Muppet Show was a thing in a way the prior movies didn't really?