THE MUPPETS Discussion Thread

WHAT ABOUT GONZO?

/signed

The President Of The Gonzo Loving Club Of Suave Sexiness

Kidding aside, I'm so happy this turned out as well as it did. I said when news first coming out about it that I'd be heartbroken if it was bad.

What sort of asshole doesn't love the goddamn Muppets?

Glad this turned out well, can't wait!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sebastian OB 

What sort of asshole doesn't love the goddamn Muppets?

 

 

Such cursed souls must surely roam the darkest corners of our planet, for sure.

The thought of them chills me right to the bone.

Sweet review ahoy!!!

Just knowing that Grover's in it lifts me up where I belong.

As far as anthropomorphic animal characters go, the Muppets are tops. Even better than the WB characters IMO. I think Kermit the Frog is one of the most soulful creations ever. 

The Muppets aren't a "boy thing" right? Girls love them equally? Had a convo recently with a lady who complained that all my Franchise Me's are "boy stuff," to which I said, "I'm doing the Muppets right now!" But she felt this was no different.

Muppets have a gender demographic?  Best answer to this question... where do you find Muppets at the toy store or toy section?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshua Miller 

The Muppets aren't a "boy thing" right? Girls love them equally? Had a convo recently with a lady who complained that all my Franchise Me's are "boy stuff," to which I said, "I'm doing the Muppets right now!" But she felt this was no different.

There's a small section in Cinderella Ate My Daughter about how there's sort of a dearth of female Muppets. Apparently, the workshop has had trouble coming up with girl characters with staying power. That whole book is worth looking at (Best revelation: look at any Disney princess merchandise with more than one princess on it. The princesses are never looking at each other. Disney doesn't want to cause "confusion" by having characters from different "universes" interacting. It's so weird, they occupy the same space but don't acknowledge one another.).

As to the topic at hand? News that they got it right honestly warms my heart. I was a tad worried after reading the disgruntled thoughts of the veteran puppeteers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshua Miller 

The Muppets aren't a "boy thing" right? Girls love them equally? Had a convo recently with a lady who complained that all my Franchise Me's are "boy stuff," to which I said, "I'm doing the Muppets right now!" But she felt this was no different.

Fuck no. If anything I think they're MORE popular with girls. I have women friends who are absurdly excited for this new movie.

Avoiding reviews and spoilers, but great to hear it's not a giant turd.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whiteboy Jones 

Quote:

There's a small section in Cinderella Ate My Daughter about how there's sort of a dearth of female Muppets. Apparently, the workshop has had trouble coming up with girl characters with staying power. That whole book is worth looking at (Best revelation: look at any Disney princess merchandise with more than one princess on it. The princesses are never looking at each other. Disney doesn't want to cause "confusion" by having characters from different "universes" interacting. It's so weird, they occupy the same space but don't acknowledge one another.).

That is certainly true in a broader statistical sense. Although Miss Piggy was by far the most popular Muppet (as far as merchandising was concerned) during the height of THE MUPPET SHOW's popularity.

That book sounds interesting.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sebastian OB 

Fuck no. If anything I think they're MORE popular with girls. I have women friends who are absurdly excited for this new movie.

Good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nardo 

Avoiding reviews and spoilers, but great to hear it's not a giant turd.

 

Far from it too. As someone who is currently rewatching all the previous Muppet films, this is easily the best one since Henson died.

Sorry about Gonzo/Grover confusion guys.

They are both blue and have names that begin with G.

Yet everyone was always making a big deal out of "What is Gonzo?" Well I say, what the fuck is Grover?

Most of the Sesame Street muppets are vague in origin. What is Elmo? What is Oscar (other than "a grouch")?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sebastian OB 

Most of the Sesame Street muppets are vague in origin. What is Elmo? What is Oscar (other than "a grouch")?

They are monsters.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshua Miller 
That is certainly true in a broader statistical sense. Although Miss Piggy was by far the most popular Muppet (as far as merchandising was concerned) during the height of THE MUPPET SHOW's popularity.

The author doesn't do anything like try to quantify feminism or claim that The Muppets are girl-unfriendly (she focuses more on Sesame Street than the main gang anyway). It's just an interesting aside about the difficulty of creating engaging female characters vs the relative ease with which good male characters are made.

It is. The chapter on the whole industry of making "girl products" just by turning regular toys pink is fascinating.

Gonna take my niece to this for our first movie outting ever. she can't wait, though I can't tell who's more excited, her or I.

Also, I thought the Muppets would be unversially loved, until they went on WWE raw last week. It was as if Will Smith had been cast as Captain America. The nerd rage was palpable on the wrestling forums.

I say any who doesn't at least appreciate the Muppets, has no soul.

Beaker and Shemus was gold - and I defy anyone to say otherwise.  Plus one of the biggest stars in the WWE at the moment named himself after Cookie Monster for Christ's sake.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Renn Brown 

Sorry about Gonzo/Grover confusion guys.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

This is extremely encouraging news, Renn. Incidentally, how does Chris Cooper handle the villain song I've heard he has? Cooper is many things as an actor, but I've never pegged him for a singer; I'm picturing his singing voice sounding something like Tom Waits.

The movie has a PG rating but would you choose it as the centerpiece of a movie theatre birthday party for a group of five year olds, Renn?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Spider 

This is extremely encouraging news, Renn. Incidentally, how does Chris Cooper handle the villain song I've heard he has? Cooper is many things as an actor, but I've never pegged him for a singer; I'm picturing his singing voice sounding something like Tom Waits.

I think that detail is best left as a surprise. You won't see it coming.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshua Miller 

I think that detail is best left as a surprise. You won't see it coming.

Oh, you saw it too, Josh? I'm guessing you're more or less on the same page as Renn.

It's fine for five-year-olds.

And yeah, the Cooper bit is out-of-left-field and perfectly brief. Enjoy the surprise!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Spider 

Oh, you saw it too, Josh? I'm guessing you're more or less on the same page as Renn.

 

Yup. My "review" will be coming in the form of the final Franchise Me: Muppets installment. But I thought it was excellent. Hits the tone perfectly; has some great songs (Cooper's probably the front runner); and most importantly, it is just really funny. And very sweet too. Plus, it manages to make an AOL dial-up joke work in 2011.

Reviews seem to be highly positive so far. But will it be enough to hit the No 1 spot next week?

It's really weird that three kid's movies are stepping on each other's toes this weekend (well, not weird, it's Thanksgiving, but still). But the Muppets are clearly the frontrunner, which is almost a shame, since I'm looking forward to Hugo as well, and Aardman's always worth a watch.

If it's about Twilight, I dunno. Don't those movies tend to open big and flame out fast?

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Prankster 

 

If it's about Twilight, I dunno. Don't those movies tend to open big and flame out fast?

Yeah. $72 mil on Friday. Which either means the film is going to pull in over $200 mil for the weekend, or a vast majority of the people dying to see it saw it yesterday.

I'm pulling for THE MUPPETS to do big numbers. Saw the film for a second time and liked it even more. I now upgrade my opinion from "really enjoyed" to "loved."

If Domestic fails, maybe the International numbers can save it. I suspect there are a lot of Muppet fans overseas.

I suspect you're correct.

Harry thinks it the 4th or 5th best Muppet movie.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/52056

God I can't get through his obnoxious "prose." I gave up during the first paragraph. Does he have any interesting points?

He basically whines about how there's something indefinably "wrong" with Kermit, he hates the revival songs because they were in "better movies", and he thinks the Segel/Adams/Walter storyline should've been it's own movie.

Bear in mind, I haven't seen the movie yet. But it seems very unlikely that most are having the same reaction.

It is unlikely. Because he's wrong.

I loved it. It's delightful. Made me almost cry* three times. Made my dad actually cry, although he's in a kinda fragile state of mind right now, and I think it's exactly what he needed to see to get some catharsis.

*Almost. I never cry at movies. I'm a studly manly man, you see.

I got misty-eyed myself in several places. Legit places and dorky personal nostalgia places too. Seeing that headshot of Jim Henson and Kermit hanging on the wall definitely hit the ole eye moisture button on me.

Originally Posted by Joshua Miller Seeing that headshot of Jim Henson and Kermit hanging on the wall definitely hit the ole eye moisture button on me.

Oh God that was a completely cheap and transparent ploy and it worked me over like its bitch. The grand finale performance of The Rainbow Connection, too (that's what got my dad). That and the scene when the gang walks out of the studio after the telethon:

Ugh. I tried reading Harry's review again. Made it a couple more paragraphs in this time before giving up. It is kind of embarrassing for one of the best known critics in America to hinge an argument based entirely on fanboy-esque "it ain't how I want it" logic. Jim Henson has been dead for twenty-one years. Saying Kermit doesn't sound "right" at this point is really ridiculous.

Kermit sounded fine. Fozzie had a few moments where he didn't sound "right," but y'know what, it's a new person doing the voice, it's not going to sound exactly the same. It's like complaining that Mickey doesn't sound like his old self; that was then, this is now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whiteboy Jones 

 

I loved it. It's delightful. Made me almost cry* three times. Made my dad actually cry, although he's in a kinda fragile state of mind right now, and I think it's exactly what he needed to see to get some catharsis.

I got misty-eyed at one moment: when the curtains go up and we're treated to a big, using-every-speaker-in-the-theatre rendition of the Muppet Show theme. I think it was that they even got the camera movements right. There was so much joy apparent in the crafting of that sequence that it spills over and infects the audience. The minds behind this movie love the Muppets, they adore the Muppets, but more importantly, they *get* the Muppets. It wasn't just fanwank. It was real. And for something so uncynical, so optimistic, so kind and so happy to find its way into theatres in this day and age--I smiled like I haven't smiled in years.

I loved this movie. Top five of the year easy, unless the Christmas Day marathon yields some heavy hitters.

Just saw it tonight, pretty much in the loved in catagory.

I put it second best (my fav is Muppet Capper), though I haven't seen either the original or Manhattan in a good while.

I agree with Harry Knowles only inasmuch as the Segel/Adams romance becomes almost perfunctory by the end. And even then, it's almost worth it just because we got that great "Am I A Man Or A Muppet" song out of it.

I also think this one suffers from the same problem as a lot of the films post-Manhattan, in that the filmmakers have to constrain themselves so much to keep a laser focus on the main characters, they kinda don't allow a lot of the second string Muppets the time they deserve. That's kind of a roundabout way of saying STOP SIDELINING THE ELECTRIC MAYHEM DAMMIT.

But anyway. Yeah. The film's great. Just brimming with heart, respect for these characters, reverence for the Muppets legacy, irreverence for everything else.

And because the support group needs more members, yep, dirt got in my eyes twice. The first I expected: Rainbow Connection snaked its way up my tearducts with such preternatural ease, it's scary. Not even really the song by itself, but when each of the backstage Muppets all look at each other halfway through, lock hands, and stride onstage. It's the anti-Toy Story 3 incinerator moment.

The other one hasn't been mentioned by anyone yet. It's when the Muppets are sleeping in their hammocks on the stage, Fozzy worries about rain falling through the hole in the roof, and confessing, in the most heartbreaking manner ever, how much he doesn't want to go back to Reno. Niagara fucking Falls.

Man, i can't wait to see this. But it doesn't hit my shores untill 8th Dec.

P.S- How did the kids in your audience react to The Muppets?

Couldn't say. The girlfriend and I had a family thing to go to, so we ended up at a 9:40pm showing what was maybe 1/3 full, and it was entirely teenagers and adults. All of whom loved it, but yeah, no kids.

Speaking of the extraneous stuff, though:

--Trailer-wise: How the fuck have I missed that Studio Ghibli made an adaptation of The Borrowers?

--The Toy Story short beforehand is slight, but really fun. Jane Lynch remains great. And I reiterate: I really, REALLY love Bonnie as the toys' new owner.

Aaaaand Justin makes me want to see it even more. Dare I ask who the awesome Jane Lynch plays in the Toy Story short?

Saw it with the family last night and absolutely loved it. It's got a few issues, but it's a giant, hilarious love letter to the Muppets. 80s robot killed me.

The one big issue I had was the role of Gonzo. He was underused, and just kind of felt off, which is disappointing because he might be my favorite Muppet.

Also, I've been hearing that some of the trailer footage (like them in prison, or the Mahna Mahna takes with various celebs) got cut. Is this true? If so, I really hope that kind of thing gets on the DVD.

Yep, I loved it, too.  A great mix of the irreverent and the nostalgic.  Good use of celebrity cameos without it seeming like a crutch.  I especially liked Chris Cooper.  He seemed to really get it.  "Maniacal laugh!"

The misty part for me was when Walter got his "Muppet moment" at the end and was cheered by the crowd.  That got me.  

^

OK, now I *have* to see this in theaters. I was gonna do it anyway, but that clinches it.

Also, please tell me Sam the Eagle gets some solid screentime. That fussbucket's always been one of my favorites.