A Very Henson Christmas - It’s A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie

I was in two minds about whether to actually to include this one. On the one hand, it’s maybe a little less celebratory than some of the other posts. On the other hand, it’s probably going to grate a bit to have five soldi days of unremitting cheer so let’s go with it. Plus I said I would do this one yesterday so I’ve kind of made my own bed on that one.

It’s A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002)
In A Nutshell:- It’s effectively a Muppet retelling of "It’s A Wonderful Life", showing Kermit what would happen if he had never existed, but what people tend to forget about "It’s A Wonderful Life" is that it’s quite miserable for much of its running time…

The Background:- We’re on a bit of a wilderness period for the Muppets here, sitting a few years on from their last big screen outing which was not the success that was hoped (Muppets from Space) but still nine years away from their resurgence on the big screen with The Muppets. It’s also a transition in another sense - this TV movie marks the first time that Fozzie, Miss Piggy, Animal and any other Frank Oz characters are not performed by him as Oz had decided it was time for him to retire as a Muppet performer - Eric Jacobson takes them over for the first time (with Elmo performer Kevin Clash taking over for Sam The Eagle).

Muppetrivia:- There are a couple of nice nods to The Muppet Movie - a statue of Kermit has lyrics from Rainbow Connection inscribed on it and, in the dystopian Kermit-less world, Doc Hopper’s French-Fried Frog Legs are a popular fast food (selling a “frogleg burger on a fried green bun” as described in Doc’s ad in The Muppet Movie).
It’s got the least music of any Muppet film with only the Moulin Scrooge parody and the song “Everyone Matters” (which isn’t very good), reprised at the end.

Is It Any Good? There are moments of humour and the occasional nice touch but the whole thing falls a little flat (with occasional dips into just outright depressing) with not even star power managing to save it. For every Whoopi Goldberg, Joan Cusack and even the voice of Mel Brooks, there are US-centric celebs that don’t really mean anything outside the confines of a US TV special (I had to look up who Kelly Ripa and Triumph The Insult Dog were). Even the sequence with the cast of Scrubs feels joyless and done purely because the show was at the time also on NBC. It’s not terrible but it doesn’t live up to the quality standards set by previous productions and so suffers by comparison. A rare misfire in the world of Henson Christmas specials.

(Side Note:- There are a number of similarities between this TV movie and the next big screen outing, The Muppets - struggling to save the theatre, Kermit losing his faith in the gang, having to put on a show to get the money in time. What this highlights is that it’s not the elements that you have but how you put them together that counts. What’s really missing here is heart which is what The Muppets has by the bucketful - plus great songs too, another thing missing here.)

Next Time:- Let’s close off our week with… well, gosh, I wonder what it could be…