It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2003)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

In 2011, Disney released a movie called simply "The Muppets". It got mixed-reviews for a number of reasons. This little gem from 2002, is often shown around Christmastime on cable stations. It is a lot like the newer film. In both movies, the Muppet Theater is about to be foreclosed because some evil scrooge-like person holds the mortgage. All the Muppets want to do is put on a show to raise enough money to save the theater.In, typical typecasting, Whoopie Goldberg plays God! Kermit does a really short version of "It's a Wonderful Life-frog style". In this film, the (2002) "Molin Rouge" remake is spoofed and the Salvation Army ends up with all the money! The Muppet Theater is almost turned into a Disco with "Beaker-on Steroids" as the bouncer! Gonzo sings a duet with Kermit on a park bench. It's cute and often overlooked, as it was made for TV and not released to theaters.Plays like a good Muppet movie should. The human stars stay in the background. Joan Cusak really does make a good villain and she is quite funny. "Pepi the Prawn" makes a great "hunch-shrimp" and looks absolutely ridiculous in a suit! Shorter, because it was made for TV. More fun than the recent 2011 Muppet "revival" film.

Jim Henson's Muppet crew is known for making memorable, heartwarming, emotional performances. However, for this holiday film particularly, I saw, nor experienced none of this for 3/4 of the film. It was not until about 10 minutes to the end, did this Muppet vehicle actually produce some smiles. As for the rest, audiences will be frowning at the screen.This Muppet Christmas story is mainly about Kermit. Yes, the story does have his friends in it but for the most part, they are mostly shunned from the screen. As the days get closer and closer to Christmas Eve, the Muppets come to realize that they owe payment to the rotten, nasty real- estate mogul, Rachel Bitterman (Joan Cusack). The problem, if Ms. Bitterman doesn't get her payment on time, she will boot the Muppets from their theater and replace it with a racy dance club.I really don't think writers Tom Martin and Jim Lewis knew what Christmas movies entail tone wise. This film hardly had any joy in it all. Cusack's character is so bad, that her character practically has equal amount of screen time as Kermit. And the fact that one of Ms. Bitterman's assistants thinks everything she says is a sexual innuendo is not funny at all. It's a Muppet Christmas film, how is that appropriate!? And the worst part is, is that it's not even Cusack's character that was cruel to the Muppets. The whole script had all from celebrities to other movie parodies stomping all over the Muppets.Let's also not forget how the story was told. This movie is one of those films where it places you in the middle of everything and then rewinds to show you everything you missed. Is that absolutely necessary? There's no need for cutting in and out between scenes just to have Whoopie Goldberg (playing God) contemplating the obvious saying, "This doesn't look good", to a fellow angel, the awkward Daniel, who brings up the whole issue to her, played by David Arquette. The whole job of Daniel is to show Kermit that his life isn't over no matter how hard it seems. Daniel does this by showing him another virtual world where Kermit had never been born. Making things worse, the initial meeting between these two characters is not funny or happy. To have Kermit screaming "I WISH I'D NEVER BEEN BORN" a dozen times and Arquette's character sweating for not knowing what to do, is not making the film anymore enjoyable. Plus, the other world Daniel shows Kermit is fairly dark for a children's movie. This whole subplot is just filler and it should have been omitted.The special effects are standard for 2002 and the music Mark Watters had its emotional tunes but this time it dragged the film down. It's rare that an audience runs across a film score that actually works at evoking the right tones but all for the wrong reasons. Watters produces an assisting score but the tone of the story is so negative, that the score never accelerates the movie any. This is a real disappointment from the Muppet crew. There was even a small voice cameo by Mel Brooks playing what looked like Jack Frost's (1998) grandpa, and that character was left out too.This Muppet production is a sad attempt at making a jolly Christmas film. The tone is heavily depressing and the gags are intentionally mean spirited.

I once saw a bit of this film, and was interested to see the full thing just to see why the critics give it two stars, the result being that I agree. Basically the film begins with Kermit the Frog (Steve Whitmire) telling all his Muppet chums that they have lost everything, and he ends sitting depressed (and possibly thinking about suicide) on the bench. Meanwhile, in another world (Heaven) angel Daniel (David Arquette, who had already been in Muppets from Space) visits the 'Boss' (Whoopi Goldberg, another reason I wanted to see the film) to show that Kermit really needs help. In the flashbacks, it shows Kermit, Miss Piggy (Eric Jacobson, not the original and better Frank Oz), Gonzo (Dave Goelz), Fozzie Bear (also Jacobson), Pepe the Prawn (Bill Barretta) and all the other Muppets have prepared a stage show for many people to see in the Christmas holiday, and it all seems to be going well. But the really mean Rachel Bitterman (Joan Cusack) is determined to either shut the show or the theatre down, and Kermit is doing everything possible to make sure that doesn't happen. Of course, Kermit fails the last time, and Bitterman tells him that they are finished, and she can officially take the theatre. This is where Daniel is sent as Kermit's guardian angel to try and help him, but Kermit is not in the mood, and eventually ends up saying "I wish I was never born". Obviously, you can recognise the spoof of It's a Wonderful Life, with Kermit as the George Bailey, and Cusack as the Mr. Potter, and in the end, obviously Kermit realises how much he means to everyone, and goes back to find the theatre saved as historical landmark. Also starring Whitmire as Rizzo the Rat and Beaker; Goelz as Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Waldorf; Barretta as Dr. Teeth, Rowlf the Dog and Swedish Chef; Jacobson as Animal and Yoda (the only character who sounds similar to Oz's version), William H. Macy as Glenn, Matthew Lillard as Luc Fromage, Carson Daly, Molly Shannon; Scrubs' Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, Neil Flynn, John C. McGinley and Judy Reyes, Mel Brooks as Joe Snow; Brian Henson as Scooter and Janice; Jerry Nelson as Robin the Frog, Statler, Pops and Floyd Pepper, and Kevin Clash as Sam the Eagle. The most memorable moment for me is the stage spoof of Moulin Rouge, besides that and the well known faces in it, not fantastic. It was nominated the Emmy for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for the song "Everyone Matters". The Muppets were number 47 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons. Adequate!

On Christmas Eve Kermit sits alone on a park bench - a broken frog. His lost cries reach the angels but they can do nothing, until one of them, Daniel, takes the case to God herself and shows Her what brought Kermit to this state in the hope that She will send an angel to help him.While the TVM status of this film might suggest that it is a lesser product that the Muppet movies that used to be cinema draws, let me assure you that this is not the case and that this film actually benefits from being on TV and keeping the humour of the show rather than having the pressure of becoming a big screen outing. The overall plot is `It's A Wonderful Life' however the back story watched by the angels and us holds spoofs of Moulin Rouge and Scrubs as well as references to A Beautiful Mind, The Grinch, Entrapment and lots more. The downside of this is that the plot is very episodic, but the plus side is that the film is funny and will easily engage adults as well as children.Opening with the stage manager removing a snowman narrator by calling him a `Burl Ives wannabe' the film keeps this sense of humour that you've come to expect from the TV show. My favourite line from the whole film is Bunsen replying to Beaker with `thank you Beaker - I think you have a beautiful mind too'!The cast of muppets are very good - with all the new characters from the television show having a bit of time, including Pepe, Risso the Rat, Johnny Fiama and his monkey etc. The voices are not done by the original cast for a variety of reasons but they are still very good - I had to look at the credits to spot that it wasn't Frank Oz doing Fozzie (and Yoda!). The human cast is amusing even if it doesn't all work. The cast of Scrubs are wasted and not funny apart from showing up but cameos from Arquette, Macy, Goldberg and Lillard are all amusing and Cusack seems to enjoy herself.Overall this was a fun festive film, it has the usual message to it and it has moments that just don't work and the plot really is just a salvage job from other films, but it still works and is surprisingly funny with lots of film references. The downside of this I suppose is that the film won't stand the test of time as the topical references get forgotten over time, but that's why it was a TVM I guess, cause that won't matter.