Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)Synopsis: Kermit, Pepe, Miss. Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzy, and the rest of the Muppet crew go to the post office to deliver letters to Santa. While there, some mishaps occur and Gonzo forgets to deliver 3 letters. The gang has to find a way to get the letters to Santa and help him fulfill the Christmas wishes.
Review: I am a big fan of the Muppets, but this film was more boring than magical. The sad thing is that the concept has potential: letters to Santa are accidentally left out of the mail and the Muppet gang has to first deliver them to Santa and then help Santa fulfill the wishes.
The problem is this: the film wastes time in the letter delivery process. At the 30 minute mark of the 44 minute feature, Kermit, Gonzo, Fozzy, and Pepe are just arriving at the North Pole. The film spends less than a minute there-- with a beautiful exterior that goes to waste. We meet 1 elf, and never venture inside. Then, it's back to delivering the letters again, and the viewers finally see Santa 10 minutes before the film ends-- rushing the meat of the story: giving Santa the letters and making wishes come true.
If the writers had been more intelligent, they would have spent only 10 minutes on delivery and the journey to the North Pole. The other 34 minutes then could have been spent in hijinks at Santa's Workshop (instead of the Post Office) and going from house to house making 3 or 4 special children's wishes come true.
You might be better off re-watching The Muppet Christmas Carol - Kermit's 50th Anniversary Edition, A Muppet Family Christmas, or even It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (which parodies It's a Wonderful Life). All 3 are gems.
[...].

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Celebrate the season will all your favorite Muppets in this heartwarming and hilarious holiday movie. Whoopi Goldberg, Uma Thurman, Nathan Lane and other sensational guest stars join our friends on a fun-filled Christmas adventure full of sidesplitting laughs and memorable music. When Gonzo forgets to mail three letters to Santa, he convinces Kermit and the gang to help him deliver the notes to the North Pole. Along the way, they discover that Christmas is the time to be with those you care about most, as they dash home to make a friend's Christmas wish come true. Bursting with bonus material and never-before-seen footage, A MUPPETS CHRISTMAS: LETTERS TO SANTA is hours of holiday fun for the entire family!

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Kermit's Swamp Years (2002) Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a huge fan of the Muppets and have been since I was growing up watching THE MUPPET SHOW. I've seen every Muppet movie and mourned on the day Jim Henson died. However, I wasn't sure what to expect with KERMIT'S SWAMP YEARS. I knew it was the Muppets, but it was a direct-to-video release and I haven't seen very many good direct-to-video movies.
Well, I had nothing to worry about because KERMIT'S SWAMP YEARS is a great family movie full of the wit and humor that's so characteristic of The Muppets. The story is a bit cheesy, but much better than most other direct-to-video movies. The editing is great and the soundtrack isn't too bad. The film introduces several new Muppets who are friends from Kermit's youth, including Blotch the bully Bull Frog, Croaker the Frog, Goggles the Toad, Horace the Horsefly, and Pilgrim the Dog.
Kermit returns to the swamp he grew up in and tells the story of the first time he left the swamp when he was 12 years old. Blotch and Goggles get in a fight and are amphibian-knapped by a pet store owner. Kermit and Croaker set out to free their two friends and along the way meet Pilgrim, are chased by a pig, and are almost captured by a mean biology teacher.
The extras on the DVD are a real treat. They include an on set interview with Kermit, a behind the scene featurette, trailers, and a blooper reel. The blooper reel is particluarly hilarious and the behind the scene featurette is hosted by Joe the Armadillo and is really entertaining. Youngsters may not enjoy these extras as much, but older viewers will find them to be a real treat.

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It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002) Review

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(More customer reviews)I did my footwork before purchasing this disc, so I wasn't expecting a classic - I was merely expecting the Muppets to show up.
And show up they did. It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie is a decidedly mixed bag which will entertain longtime Muppet fans and impressionable rugrats, but anyone else is going to be mildly amused at best and flat-out bored at worst.
Listed as a 2002 production, the film showcases what's left of the faded energy of the old school Muppets ensemble: Steve Whitmire (as a sharp Kermit), and to a lesser extent, Dave Goelz (as Gonzo in more of a supporting role). The "newcomers" provide life to the cast, but also reveal the that these are not the Muppets of our youth - while Eric Jacobsen does a fantastic job filling in for Frank Oz's roles (Piggy, Fozzy, Sam, Animal, even a cameo by Yoda) and Bill Barreta's Pepe is as sly and funny as ever, other classic characters such as Scooter, Janice, and Rowlf are noticeably different, or even silent altogether. While the differences in the older Muppets are a result of the puppets suffering the death or retirement of their main puppeteers, some of the newer characters are as cringe-inducing as ever. Johnny Fiama, I'm lookin' at you.
The spotty lameness extends to the human roles, though not in places you might expect. David Arquette is surprisingly not completely irritating in his role, and Joanne Cusak is appropriately nasty as the villain. But Whoopi Goldberg makes an uniteresting God (who does make an interesting God?) and Matthew Lillard's turn as a French director, is, well, um, he tried. Yes, he tried.
The film itself (or, the TV Movie itself) is not bad, providing decent pacing, excellent production values, breezy, smart writing, and even some treats for Muppet fans. There are several sweet in-jokes, such as when God rewinds to the beginning of Kermit's story, she stops at the tail end of an interview with -ugh- Carson Daly, and Kermit says "...and that's why I wear this funny green collar!" Kudos for the subtlety of Scooter's lame boast at the theater Christmas party, "My uncle used to own this theater, you know!"
Additionally, a few surprises await, and the only one I'll give away is that Fozzie has an action sequence. Yes, an action sequence. It, like so much else in the film, is decent while hovering perilously close to being bad. But, to its credit, it's something new, and nothing is more new than seeing the hard-luck Muppets of a "Kermit-less" universe, a twisted world where Piggy is a Miss Cleo-like psychic living in a small apartment with twenty cats.
Of final note are the sheer amount of Muppet cameos in the film. Sweetums, Lew Zealand, Crazy Harry and even Beauregard - BEAUREGARD - make appearences, sometimes even with lines. It was a trip to see characters long since retired shake the dust off at least one last time.
All in all, this is worth seeing for the casual Muppet fan, but perhaps only worth owning for those still entranced by talking pieces of felt with googly eyes. For this franchise to survive, they're going to have to take more risks, and It's A Very Merry Muppet Christmas is a good first step.

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Have yourself a very merry MuppetÂ? Christmas with this all-new holiday movie starring KermitÂ? the Frog, Miss PiggyÂ? and the whole MuppetÂ? gang Â? plus a celebrity cast featuring David Arquette, Joan Cusack and Whoopi Goldberg, with cameos by Matthew Lillard, William H. Macy, Carson Daly, Kelly Ripa, Joe Rogan, Molly Shannon and the cast of "Scrubs"! 'Tis the night before Christmas and the Muppet Theater is in danger of being torn down. And when bad goes to worse, Kermit begins to believe the world would be a better place if he'd never been born. But don't worry! With heavenly help and hilarious send-ups of just about every holiday movie ever made, Kermit and the Muppets discover what matters most is their love for each other.Featuring show-stopping musical numbers like "Moulin Scrooge!" (starring Miss Piggy as 'Saltine'), this "charming and clever" (The San Diego Union-Tribune) holiday classic will have the whole family laughing!

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Sesame Street: Love the Earth (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)In comparing both of Sesame Street's recent Elmo-Earth releases, while "Being Green" had a more humorous presentation, "Love The Earth" is more thoughtful and probably better because the messages stick. Most parents would agree that there are many helpful lessons on either video... in fact if you look hard enough you can find them packaged on the same disc.
Whether or not this 45-minute episode on its own is worth $10 is a little harder to answer. When my two-year-old watches Sesame Street, he pays close attention when the main characters are on the screen, but he loses interest during the interstitials... the format of the show is usually so fast-paced though that we come back to his friends often enough, and he keeps watching. With "Love The Earth" they basically filmed 15 minutes of new material of Elmo and the gang, then filled the other 30 minutes with old non-Elmo segments, which are totally educational but are played two or three in a row before we get back to the main story.
I would say that many of Sesame Street's DVD releases seem to be more compilations of old material then completely new productions, and I would not be complaining if that material mostly involved the character on the front cover of the DVD. But he's only around a third of the time, and that is kind of lame.

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Elmo, Zoe, and Baby Bear venture into Bear National Park with Papa Bear in search of the elusive Blue-Feathered Swallowing Swallow so they can earn their Bird-Watching Badges. While looking for the swallow, they have fun discovering beautiful things in nature! They also learn that there are some simple things they can do to keep nature beautiful and clean: putting trash where it belongs, recycling, reusing things and saving water.

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Sesame Street: Elmo's Animal Adventures (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)I did not care for this particular Elmo video but my child likes it enough...And I can get dinner made

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Join Elmo and his friends as they embark on 3 fun-filled adventures. Help Elmo and Tilly find Little Bo Peep\'s missing cow by following clues and working together as a team. Use animal facts to help Elmo & Abby succeed in the "Find The Amphibian Game" and join Elmo in a camping adventure as he learns that sharing is fun and discovers the different types of food that animals eat.

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The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm the first person there would be to step up and defend the Muppets. I will not defend this movie. It is disgusting what has been done to this once great franchise. I was not dissapointed when I watched this movie when it first aired, I was angry. Jim Henson would never allow a movie this bad, this unimaginative, this unfunny to ever be made. The Muppets represented the greatest in all imagination. There in no imagination present in this steamer. Shame on you, Frank Oz, for participating in this film. You of all people should've known better. The Muppets mixed with the Wizard of Oz had so much potential but ended up being the worst Muppet project I've ever seen. Don't buy this movie. Don't buy this movie. Don't buy this movie. If you don't believe me, rent it first. When you do rent it rent something good that the Muppets did so you can wash that taste out of your mouth after you watch it.

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Join Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, and all the Muppets as they turn everyone's favorite classic tale into a musical madcap adventure that shines brighter than Emerald City! The fun starts when the Muppets team up with an all-star cast that includes Grammy Award winner Ashanti, Oscar(R) nominee Queen Latifah (2002, Best Supporting Actress, CHICAGO), David Alan Grier, Academy Award(R) winner Quentin Tarantino (1994, Best Original Screenplay, PULP FICTION), and Jeffrey Tambor. Ashanti sparkles as Dorothy, an aspiring singer whose dreams of fame and fortune seem worlds away from coming true in the Kansas trailer park where she lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. But when a tornado transports her and Toto (Pepe the King Prawn) to the magical land of Oz, Dorothy meets the Wizard, who promises to make her a superstar -- if she and her wacky new friends, the Scarecrow (Kermit), the Tin Thing (Gonzo), and the Cowardly Lion(Fozzie), can defeat Oz's #1 diabolical diva, the Wicked Witch of the West (Miss Piggy)! Featuring original music, hilarious performances, and 20 minutes of never-before-seen footage, THE MUPPETS' WIZARD OF OZ will lift your spirits and blow you away!

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Sesame Street: Old School, Vol. 1 (1969-1974) (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)After many years of fans begging the Sesame Workshop (formerly the Children's Television Workshop) to do a major release of "classic" material from the archives, it appears that they finally relented! I think the success of the Electric Company Set from several months back paved the way...
Let me start out by saying that I'm 29 years old and have been collecting this material for years. The bulk of what I've obtained came from the Noggin channel which was playing old episodes of Street from 1969 to 1989 until they stopped airing them a few years back.
I imagine most of the people interested in this set are familiar with the early years of Sesame Street. It was a chaotic, brilliantly conceived show from day one... very much a product of its time (the late 60s), and although the show was devised to teach kids, it was in its own way as revolutionary in format as Monty Python's Flying Circus was... extremely fast paced and chock full of highly imaginative, trippy animated segments (such as, for example the Racecars Spies number series, best described as a psychedelic freak out with dreamlike, surreal animation regarding numbers one through ten and sung by Grace Slick, then of Jefferson Airplane, in her own inimitable way)... And that's just the tip of the iceberg. For those of you who grew up being hypnotized, and yes, often frightened by the many strange, often subversive animated segments of the show (many of which are permanently etched in your brain; you'd be amazed how vividly some of these clips come back to you even after not seeing them for 25 years or more), still recall with affection the brilliant jazzy orchestrations of show composer Joe Raposo (who wrote the most sophisticated music ever devised for children's TV), remember hanging out with Mr. Hooper and a Gordon who actually had hair (there were actually two other actors who played Gordon before the current bald one we know and love), and loved the rougher, edgier quality of those early muppet segments, this is the release for you. After many years of Schoolhouse Rock being available for purchase (which I love too, but the early Street material is even better in my opinion), we can now look forward to this:
7 hours of classic content
5 complete hour-long episodes (slightly edited due to music rights issues)
Over 54 bonus segments, including:
The original pitch for the show - first time available anywhere!
Celebrity appearances from James Earl Jones, Jesse Jackson, Johnny Cash, Jackie Robinson
Classic segments every parent will remember: "I Love Trash," "Rubber Duckie," "C is for Cookie"
Original animations including Ladybug Picnic, Alligator King, King of Eight
Hopefully this will be the first of many releases of classic Sesame Street! The second volume of the Electric Company will be released in November.

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Studio: Genius Products IncRelease Date: 10/24/2006Run time: 300 minutes

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Sesame Street: 40 Years of Sunny Days (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)This DVD set was nostalgic and at times almost brought tears to my eyes. For those parts (The ladybug picnic, The pinball counting to 12, the cartoon typewriter, the cast iron "I", etc) I would give it ten stars. Sesame Street literally shaped my life as a young child. I watched it religously until age seven (I'm thirty-five now). The reason for my three star rating is because of the lengthy songs and dull skits, which unfortunately took most of the time. Leena Horne singing didn't do it for me at five and she especially doesn't do it for me now at thrity-five. Sorry, but same to you Diana Ross. I wanted to see more of the aliens ("yep, yep, yep...nope, nope, nope"), Bert and Ernie, Super Grover, and the Tiddly-winks (who were suspiciously absent).
Watching this DVD made me realize how they should now call Sesame Street, just plain Elmo's World. That's who it's really all about now anyway. I loved the good old days when ALL the characters received equal billing. Now it seems like the first forty minutes of Sesame Street is just filler until Elmo, the big star, shows up. Don't get me wrong, I like Elmo, and so do my three little ones, but all the other characters have their own personalities and ability to teach as well. This DVD is a reminder of that.
So CTW if you're reading this, I would buy every single episode of Sesame Street from 1974-79 if you put it out on DVD. Stop teasing us with these short DVD releases showing only clips. To those of you who are thinking of purchasing this DVD set, I would get it, it is worth it. You're sure to see something that will bring back a memory.


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Relive your favorite Sesame Street moments with this one of a kind Sesame Street Collection! Everyone remembers the familiar words to the Sesame Street theme song, and the even more familiar tune, but how much do you really know about the world's most famous street? When did Elmo first begin speaking in that world-famous falsetto? Can you name the musician that sang Slimey into space? Which Muppet was most distraught by Mr. Hooper's passing? Who is the voice behind Abby Cadabby? Can you guess which clip was voted the fan favorite in an online poll? Find the answers and much, much more packed into this special anniversary DVD set, which includes clips from all 40 seasons, interviews with cast and crew, including Jim Henson, as well as amazing behind-the-scenes peeks at how Muppet magic is created.

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