The greatest Muppet Christmas spectacle of all time
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The greatest Muppet Christmas spectacle of all time |
| Original title | It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2002 |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Kirk R. Thatcher |
| script |
Jim Lewis , Tom Martin |
| production |
Martin G. Baker , Warren Carr |
| music | Mark Watters |
| camera | Tony Westman |
| cut | Gregg Featherman |
| occupation | |
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| chronology | |
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Successor → |
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The greatest Muppet Christmas spectacle of all time (Original title: It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie ) is a television feature film by Brian Henson from 2002, in which the Muppets play the leading role. The film is a collaboration between Jim Henson Pictures, MGM and NBC . The film was nominated for an Emmy in 2003 in the Outstanding Music and Lyrics category. The following year he was nominated for a Golden Satellite Award in the Best Youth DVD category.
The film is based on the Christmas film Isn't Life Beautiful? Along with other films and popular TV shows . ( It's a Wonderful Life ). In addition to the Muppets, David Arquette , Joan Cusack and Whoopi Goldberg also play the leading roles.
action
Much like the original It's a Wonderful Life , the movie begins with something bad happening at Christmas. While the Muppets decorate their Christmas tree, sing jingle bells and give each other presents , following the example of the short story The Gift of the Wise (for example, Rizzo the Rat sold his cheese collection to buy Gonzo a Petri dish, but Gonzo moved his Petri dishes to buy Rizzo a diamond cheese cutter ) a sad Kermit appears, chases Miss Piggy away and tells everyone: “We have lost everything, the money, the theater, everything.” He goes out sadly, sits down on a bench and freezes. The unnoticed angel Daniel in heaven sees this on a white monitor (the sky is shown like a white, light office and all employees (angels) wear white), but nobody wants to help him. So he goes to God's office himself ( called the boss in the film ). The office is a huge flower meadow with a couch and remote control for the monitor. The boss is skeptical whether Kermit needs his help and a little justice, but then Daniel shows Kermit's story on a monitor.
Kermit's story begins on the NBC show Last Call with Carson Daly , where Kermit proudly and happily tells host Carson Daly about the Muppets Christmas show. When he is back in the theater, Gonzo introduces him to the French Luc Fromage, who wants to present a major opening number with Cirque du so lame , a parody of the famous Cirque du Soleil . Gonzo and Luc are thrilled, but Kermit doesn't like this number, which Luc finds disgusting ( you're just a frog, ugh! ). Pepe wants to go to Miami for Ricky Martin's Christmas party during the Christmas holidays, but the Muppets don't have the money.
Rachel Bitterman appears, the greedy new boss of Bitterman Bank and Development (BBAD), the bank that sponsors the Muppets. The old boss, Mr. Bitterman, is dead, she says. Bitterman demands the Muppets pay by midnight December 24th, or the theater belongs to the bank. Pepe falls in love with the attractive Bitterman and leaves the Muppets.
Kermit asks Dr. Honeydew for help; he says you have to save, e.g. B. reduce salaries for longer periods. Kermit tells his friends, they only agree when Fozzie explains how much Kermit has made for them and Scooter agrees.
Now the preparations for the show begin. Unfortunately, Miss Piggy is hired to do a guest role on Scrubs , also an NBC series. Kermit tries to hire celebrities, but everyone refuses. At the request of the Muppets, he sees no other way out than to bring Miss Piggy back. So he goes to the filming location of Scrubs , where Miss Piggy plays a corpse extra. After Kermit's request to return to the theater, Bill Lawrence fires her.
Meanwhile, Bitterman wants to give Pepe a Christmas bonus, but only if he tells her everything about the Muppets' financial situation. Their plan is to turn the theater into the modern, hip nightclub The Dot . To keep the Muppets under pressure, they secretly forge the contract from midnight to 6:00 pm. But Pepe realizes and wants to warn Kermit and the others.
The Muppets have now sold enough tickets to secure the theater. Pepe runs to Kermit and wants to tell him about Bitterman, but he doesn't get around because he is pulled onto the stage with his scarf on Rizzo and a few other rats, disguised as reindeer, with a sleigh. The performance begins.
As the opening number, the Muppets show Moulin Scrooge , a parody of Moulin Rouge . Miss Piggy plays Satine and sings the Eartha Kitt song Santa Baby . The number becomes a success.
Behind the scenes, Pepe Kermit finally tells about Bitterman's plan. Fozzi persuades Kermit to bring the money to Bitterman himself and gives up his moonwalk appearance. Pepe replaces him and tells a joke that nobody finds funny. Statler and Waldorf comment on it.
While Fozzi brings the money, he is followed by Nancy and Nicki Nut-What, a reference to the movie The Grinch , a crocodile hunter and a Santa Claus. In the hustle and bustle, he accidentally swaps the wallet and instead of money brings Bitterman a sack of laundry, and he also had to endure some burns on his fur from laser beams in front of Bitterman's office entrance (allusion to Mission Impossible ). When Kermit goes to Bitterman herself and pleadingly reminds her that the theater is the Muppets' dream, she sends him away with a vicious laugh ( Kermit, you are ruining your life and the lives of your friends with your ridiculous dreams of the theater ). Sadly, Kermit then sits down on the bench in the city park and freezes to death, like at the beginning of the film.
The boss and Daniel saw this with horror and agreed to send an angel downstairs. She wants Daniel and, since he wasn't prepared for the job, gives him the book Creating Miracles for Dummies with on the way. Daniel Kermit thaws on earth, but he wants to be left in peace and calls out: “I wish I had never been born” ( I wish, I'd never been born ). Daniel throws snow in Kermit's eyes and shows what if he were never born. The city park has now become the Bitterman Plaza shopping center , Gonzo is homeless and tries to get money from people with the "dancing stone Amy". Kermit sees Rizzo in Fear Factor . In the show, the candidate is confronted with the rat, if she is afraid she has to eat the rat. Dr. Teeth and the band are now Riverdancers and Doc Hopper (from The Muppet Movie ) now has a restaurant for frogs' legs, which Kermit is particularly scared of because he does not understand at first that the world is here without him.
But the biggest shock is that the theater has become a nightclub. Dr. Honeydew stands at the entrance and checks the guest list. Scooter is a cage dancer, Sam is also a dancer. Johnny Fiama is a bartender and Robin the frog carries the trash and bottles back and forth. Waldorf and Statler buy women drinks, but cannot pay them. When Kermit tries to speak to Miss Bitterman, he and Daniel are kicked out by Beaker, who is now with security. Then he meets Fozzie, who is now a pickpocket. Miss Piggy is an old maid and works as a telephone operator at home by playing a Jamaican girl.
Now that Kermit gets it and Daniel is looking to get his life back, he sees Gonzo complaining about his life in the song Everyone Matters . Kermit sings along and tries to give him strength in his text and to convince him of the opposite. Daniel appears and brings him back to his old life with a kiss ( the trick came from the boss ). Full of joy and new experiences, Kermit runs to the theater and wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and even kisses Miss Piggy on the face, which gives her new courage.
But then Miss Bitterman appears and demands: “Money! Exactly, I said money! ”Miss Piggy stands in front of her and wants to throw her out, which turns into a karate fight in which Kermit is hit in the neck. Pepe arrives and has good news for the Muppets: He brought the money he received from Bitterman to the city and received a certificate that the Muppets' theater is now confirmed as a historical landmark and must not be changed or removed. Rachel Bitterman leaves the theater furious.
As a happy ending, the Muppets gather in front of the theater with a lot of other people and sing We Wish You a Merry Christmas .
In heaven the boss and Daniel talk about what people really need. The boss replies: "Daniel, I work with mysterious means."
The film ends in front of the theater and the crowd sings the song Everyone Matters with the Muppets .
criticism
"Delicious fun enriched with many guest appearances with the familiar Muppet dolls, which offers ravishing parodies of relevant classics and current films 'Isn't Life Beautiful', 'Moulin Rouge', 'The Grind'."
"A nice mess with many guest stars."
The users of IMDb were divided. Some found the film a worthy and timely successor to the Muppet Christmas films. Some found him to be an insult to Jim Henson, especially when puppets who had been silenced by the death of the puppeteers suddenly spoke again, e.g. B. Rolf (played by Henson), who only says a few words at the end of this film (“Hey Kermit” and “Yes”).
Web links
- It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Article about the film in the Muppet Wiki
Individual evidence
- ↑ The greatest Muppet Christmas spectacle of all time in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on August 15, 2008
- ^ Film review , Cinema , accessed August 15, 2008