Muppet Mayhem (Part 7): Muppets From Space

Gonzo is awaken by a nightmare that deals with him being the only whatever alive and it puts him into an existential funk. Everyone tries to get him out of his depression, but he remains unswayed until his Captain Alphabet tells him that he needs to watch the sky. Meanwhile, C.O.V.N.E.T. (an organization that tries to find extraterrestrial life) and it’s director, K. Edgar Singer (Jeffrey Tambor), find out about the messages that Gonzo has been getting (but doesn’t know how who the recipient was). Gonzo finds out about the alien-themed TV news show that Ms. Piggy works on and goes to send a mission back to his alien family. Edgar captures Gonzo and brings him back to C.O.V.N.E.T. in order to study him and find the other aliens. Edgar reveals himself to be completely crazy as the Muppets set out to rescue Gonzo from the government organization and get him to meet his family.

There are a number of celebrity cameos this time around with appearances by Hulk Hogan, Pat Hingle, Ray Liotta, Kathy Griffin, and Rob Schneider. The problem is that the movie doesn’t really have any place for these actors to really do anything of merit. The story is strong, but the writing isn’t very good and the comedy is weak at best (except for a few jokes here and there). There just really isn’t anything there that really makes this movie seem like a Muppet movie besides the fact that the Muppets are in it. The film just lacks the zaniness and insanity of the other films. Frank Oz even said that Muppets From Space was not “up to what it should have been,” and “not the movie that we wanted it to be.”

Muppets From Space is the first Muppet film to not have original songs. Instead the soundtrack is full of disco and various funky sounding songs and a very mediocre and forgettable score by Jamshied Sharifi. While I do enjoy the funk, the lack of original songs is just another aspect of this movie that does not make it feel like a Muppet movie. It’s very much a “one of these things is not like the other” kind of situations. Also, the funky music just doesn’t really fit with the tone or story of the film in the slightest.

This was the last Muppet film made before the acquisition of the Muppet Studios by the Walt Disney Company in 2004, but this film and Muppets Take Manhattan are actually the only Muppet movies not owned by the Walt Disney Company despite the buy-out. They are still owned by Sony Pictures for the conceivable future.

Overall, is weak. The story is good, but there really is nothing special about the film. The music is mediocre, it’s not terribly funny, and it doesn’t feel like a Muppet movie. I would say that unless you absolutely have to see every theatrically released Muppet film, you should skip this one.

There are going to be two more Muppet Mayhem posts, with my review of the Muppets coming on Saturday rather than on Wednesday when it is released.

Muppet Mayhem (Part 6): Muppet Treasure Island

In the continuing trend of the Muppets adapting classic literature, the Muppets got their hands on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic pirate story and did what the Muppets do best, create exceptionally controlled and hilarious chaos.

Billy Bones (Billy Connolly) tells Jim Hawkins and his friends, Gonzo and Rizzo, about the legendary treasure of Captain Flint and to be wary of the one-legged-man at the Admiral Benbow Inn. When the Inn is attacked by pirates for the map to Treasure Island that Billy Bones has, he gives the map to Jim and tells him to run. The Admiral Benbow burns to the ground in the distance as Jim, Gonzo, and Rizzo set off to find a ship and a crew to find the treasure. The insane Squire Trelawney (Fozzie Bear) and his assistants, Dr. Livesey (Dr. Bunsen Honeydew) and Beaker, sponsor the trip by getting a ship, the Hispaniola, and a crew. The three eventually meet the ship’s cook, Long-John Silver (Tim Curry), and they all become fast friends (despite the fact that Billy Bones told them to be wary of the one-legged-man) as the captain, Captain Abraham Smollet (Kermit the Frog) and Mr. Arrow (Sam the Eagle). They all set off from port for an adventure on the seas until the mutinous pirate crew that crewed the Hispaniola tears the ship apart to get the map and the treasure.

Tim Curry’s Long-John Silver, like Michael Caine’s Ebenezer Scrooge, is pitch perfect. He is able to easily and effectively manipulate the audience to feel whatever they need to feel from his immense acting prowess. If you are acting against the strong character of the Muppets, your performance needs to be overblown if you want to be noticed, and Tim Curry not only gets noticed, but he actively stands out within this movie. Kevin Bishop (Jim), on the other hand, is rather terrible and kind of ruins most of the scenes he is in when he opens his pre-pubescent mouth.

This is honestly one of the funniest Muppet movies out there. The comedy is piled on really heavy throughout with running jokes throughout, but unlike the jokes in the Muppet Movie, a large number of the running jokes usually only last for a scene rather than throughout the entire film (jokes like Mrs. Bluveridge’s, the owner of the Admiral Benbow, omniscient ability to yell something consistently relevant to the situation). This allows the jokes to be much more personal in nature and they never go on for longer than they stop being funny. The movie is also a return to form for the meta humour, with Rizzo commenting on how people dying is something you don’t usually see in a children’s movie, and commenting on the existence of musical numbers and there are plenty of anachronisms purely for the sake of a joke.

Unlike the Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppet Treasure Island is not nearly as close to the original source material. They take a lot more liberties with characters in order to fit the Muppets into the different roles and they don’t always work. Some events also happen differently, such as Mr. Arrow staying alive in the film instead of dying like he does in the book. Some of the changes make the film a bit more entertaining and incredibly sillier than the book. This is not necessarily a bad thing, though, as the Muppet’s natural habitat (besides a Studebaker) is comedy, not drama.

The songs are not overall as memorable as the songs from the Muppet Christmas Carol, but the score more than makes up for it. Hans Zimmer does the score this time around and he brings his usual overblown bombastic-ness to the pirate-y score. It honestly sounds like a proto-Pirates of the Caribbean score in a number of places, which really isn’t a bad thing. The songs “Cabin Fever” and “Professional Pirate” are the real stand-outs in the film and the only one that really doesn’t work is Jim’s “Something Better”, but that’s more because of Kevin Bishop’s irritating voice than it is because it’s a bad song. Tim Curry’s “Professional Pirate” is great as it follows the same train of thought as the rest of his performance, over-sell everything.

Muppet Treasure Island is a very entertaining film, but it’s not the best adaptation of Treasure Island out there. The story is not very strong in places and the songs are somewhat weak throughout, but the writing is top notch and it makes the experience altogether more pleasurable. You should definitely watch Muppet Treasure Island, but only if you want to see a funny version of the classic Treasure Island story.

Muppet Mayhem (Part 5): The Muppet Christmas Carol

I have a confession to make here, so don’t judge me, this is actually the first Muppet movie that I ever saw and it is actually my favourite one. The Muppet Christmas Carol is one of the best Christmas movies ever and I will even argue to death that it is the best adaptation of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol (though many people will and do disagree with me).

This was the first Muppet movie to not have any involvement by Jim Henson and was the first to be distributed by Walt Disney Pictures (but they did not acquire the Muppets yet).

The Muppet Christmas Carol is, as I stated before, an adaptation of A Christmas Carol. It tells Charles Dicken’s (played by Gonzo in the film) timeless tale of redemption, just through fuzzy animals and monsters. Michael Caine plays Ebenezer Scrooge, a stingy moneylender who works his workers, including Bob Cratchit (Kermit the Frog) to the bone with barely any pay. Scrooge had a very hard life that made him completely shut off from the rest of the world, often with violent out lashes against people who are kind to him, and gets especially angry around Christmas. He is visited by his dead former-partners, Jacob and Robert Marley (played perfectly by Statler and Waldorf) who tell him that he is going to be visited by three spirits by the end of the night for his salvation. Scrooge sets off on his journey for redemption, reluctantly at first, with the help of these spirits in the hopes that he can turn his life around. He travels back in time to see how his stony exterior was formed through his schooling, relationships, and jobs via the Ghost of Christmas Pas; travels around London to see the joy that people have on Christmas despite their inherent lack of money, where he of course, sees Tiny Tim Cratchit (Robin the Frog) and his mother, (Ms. Piggy), who serve to warm his heart via the Ghost of Christmas Present (the most awesome of the three ghosts, by the way); and sees the possible future if he does not change via the ghost of Christmas Future.

The story does skip some plot points from the original story such as Scrooge’s sister dying and how that affects his outlook on life, but the main tenants of the story are still there and, despite the film being a comedy, have the requisite emotional effects. Gonzo even quotes the source material quite often in his narrations. It’s rather shocking how closely it does stay to the source material considering how dark the orignal story was. The film actually does not feel like the rest of the Muppet films because of the story. This was the first Muppet movie to not have an original story, and as such, there are no random celebrity cameos. The only human characters in the film are important to the story or are just in the background. Michael Caine plays his role completely spot on, though, with numerous intense emotions coming out from a usually reserved, yet stern portrayal of Scrooge.

As was stated before, the film is mostly a comedy. The Muppet meta-humour is present, but it is much more focused on making jokes about the book or being an omniscient narrator than it is about film (though there are a few in there, mostly commenting on whether or not they should be worried about the kids in the audience, but ultimately coming to the decision that it’s okay because it’s culture). The Muppet characters are very much themselves, they’re just playing a different character, but all of their quirks and mannerisms are still present. Fozzie still tells bad jokes, Statler and Waldorf still heckle, Mrs. Piggy still has anger issues, and Gonzo still chases chickens.

The score by Miles Goodman is rather awesome and sets the tone of the film exceptionally well, but the songs by John Williams (who also did the songs for the Muppet Movie) are what is really special. They’re catchy and are efficient for what they try to accomplish within the film. My personal favourite song in the film is the Ghost of Christmas Present’s song, “It Feels Like Christmas”. It’s bubbly, uplifting, and heart warming, and it will most definitely get stuck in your head. I will say that if you watch this movie on the most recent DVD release, watch the extended edition even though it’s full screen. The widescreen edition, for some reason, cuts out the most emotional song in the film, “When Love is Gone”, and it makes the song at the end of the film, “When Love is Found”, just not have quite the same meaningful effect.

The film has a very distinctive look to it. The costumes are very much influenced by the time period, but the background and buildings are what are so odd. The buildings have very odd angles to them that make them look more appropriate for Halloweentown and everything is accurately dirty and grimy for the time period, but the levels of all of this change depending on what ghost is present. The Ghost of Christmas Present has London looking relatively normal, albeit very bright, happy, and colourful, but when the Ghost of Christmas Past is on the scene, everything becomes rainy and gray (very much like normal London).

The Muppet Christmas Carol is a wonderful film with fantastic music and is surprisingly close to the source material. I highly suggest it to anyone, especially with the holiday seasons coming up shortly.

Muppet Mayhem (Part 4): The Muppets Remember Jim Henson (and a Jim Henson Retrospective)

On May 16th, 1990, Jim Henson passed away from a bacterial infection at the age of 53, and it was a death that shook the world. Jim Henson died before it was his time to leave this earth. There was so much more that he could have achieved if he was just given the time. When he was on this little blue planet, though, his creations left a lasting impression on the world and as such, there would be a memorial for him, but who would do it? Why not the lovable bunch of monsters and animals that he set upon the world? The Muppets are tasked in the filming of a memorial for Jim Henson, but they don’t know who he is. Through a number of guest stars, they learn about the man who created them and end up putting on a very touching memorial for one of the most creative and important men in showbusiness.

The show blends comedy and intense emotions in a very effective manner. The meta humour reaches a new level of weirdness when the Muppets actually adress the fact that there is someone below them controlling them and even don’t know what a puppet is at one point. They interact with the guest recordings and end up planning one of the silliest shows ever (seriously, it involves Vikings, a tap dancing Whoopie cushion, and accountants) until they find a bunch of letters to Kermit talking about his best friend Jim and how he touched their lives and that they send their condolences. As soon as they pulled out the folder of letters, I said out loud “oh no, oh no no no” as I knew that this was going to be the point that the Muppets made me cry deeply and heavily.

They did not fail at this goal. I was emotionally broken through that segment and the inspirational music number until Kermit came in and told them that they did a great job. The fact that Kermit wasn’t there throughout the entire special gave a weight to it with a thought of “would the Muppets continue after this?” when the special first aired, but he showed up to tell us that “we’ll see you soon with more Muppet stuff, because that’s the way the boss would want it!” All fears were put to rest, and the characters became something more that day. Even more than ever, they were their own people. They weren’t just puppets, they were alive. Even if their puppeteer left, someone else would step in to keep the world smiling and laughing. Jim Henson did not want the world to mourn his death (his wishes were that there would be a dixieland band at his funeral and no one was to wear black), but instead to celebrate his life.

“The most sophisticated people I know – inside they are all children. ” – Jim Henson

Jim Henson was one of the most important people in my life that I never actually met or directly interacted with. He taught me through Sesame Street how to say the alphabet, how to count, how to spell and do math and even about different cultures. Through Fraggle Rock he taught me not to treat people different because of their colour or religion. Through the Muppets, he taught me about the idea of unconventional families and that no matter what, there would always be someone by your side even if you are a weirdo. But most importantly, in everything he did he taught me that someone can find happiness in anything and everything, even a simple piece of felt attached to a sleeve and dowels. Jim and his cohorts entertained me to no end through the puppets he made real.

Even more important that how he affected me was how he actively made the world a better place.

“My hope is to leave the world a little better for my having been there.” – Jim Henson

You did, Jim. Sesame Street is broadcast in 140 countries around the world and many of those countries are ones where children normally do not have any hope for a good education, so Sesame Street is specifically designed to incite a desire to learn in everyone who watches it with the hope that it will actually allow them to have a better life. It gives both the children and their parents hope that the cycle will be broken, and inspiring that level of hope is one of the hardest things to do, but Jim Henson managed to not do it just once, but thousands of times.

“As children, we all live in a world of imagination, of fantasy, and for some of us that world of make-believe continues into adulthood.” – Jim Henson

This is honestly one of the hardest posts for me to write (I’ve actually tried to write a post similar to this in the past, but I just couldn’t finish it). How do you speak about someone who educated and entertained you practically from birth? How do you manage to convey intense emotions into words? To me, Kermit the Frog is not a puppet, he is a living being, and Jim Henson isn’t just the man who controlled him and gave him a voice, he is Kermit’s dad. The Jim Henson company has gone to But I know that Jim did make Kermit the frog we know him as, that he did provide that nasally voice, operated those wonderful flailing arms, and made those amazingly emotive facial movements with his fingers.

Thank you, Jim Henson, for having a profound effect on my life, and thank you for being a source of joy for millions upon millions of people the world over.

Just as a warning, this song will more than likely make you cry like a baby, but it pretty accurately sums up my feelings in a much more coherent manner:

Muppet Mayhem (Part 3): The Muppets Take Manhattan

The year is 1984 and the Jim Henson Company is starting to go in some interesting directions. What they had always been known for, the Muppets, have started to wane in popularity a little bit, and as such, Jim Henson and his puppeteers have started to use their technical mastery of puppets to go to new and interesting places. But if they want to move away from the Muppets, why not leave them on a high note?

Kermit, Ms. Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Camilla, Scooter, and the Electric Mayhem all go to a college in upstate New York where they are all about to graduate. They wrote a musical, Manhattan Melodies, that ends up being a colossal hit at the school and decide to take the act to New York City in order to turn it into a full-on Broadway hit. Nothing quite works out well for them, and after a constant stream of rejections, they decide to split up and go on with the rest of their lives. All of them head off to different parts of the country, but Kermit stays in New York and starts working at a diner with his new friends Pete and Jenny, all while re-tooling the script of Manhattan Melodies in order to make it easier to sell. The Muppets Take Manhattan is honestly the first Muppet movie to actually feel like a movie rather than a collection of skits surrounded by story elements. The Great Muppet Caper started to move in that direction, but it never quite removed the variety show element.

The movie relies more on your standard comedic writing and timing rather than the running jokes or meta show business humour. Due to this and the more serious storyline makes the Muppets Take Manhattan feel like a very, very different movie than it’s predecessors. This is the first Muppet Movie to be directed by Frank Oz and it really shows. Oz and Henson were fresh off of their experimental and suffocatingly dark feature, the Dark Crystal, and both were wanting to move on to new and even more radical and innovative things with that first taste of something not relating to Muppets. In fact, after the release of this movie in 1984, the Muppets wouldn’t be seen again until 1987 and 1990 after that, both of which ended up being TV specials rather than movies, the next one of those wouldn’t occur until the Muppet Christmas Carol in 1992.

The Muppets Take Manhattan is the first Muppet movie to mix comedy with some serious drama. A large portion of it is surprisingly bleak with them barely living out of lockers in a bus terminal, all of them are unemployed and can’t afford food, and no one is intent on producing their musical. All of this culminates with a scene where all of them are completely broken from the constant stream of rejection and go their separate ways. This is honestly one of the saddest things that anyone who grew up watching the Muppets could ever see, the idea that these characters that we have always seen together all of a sudden going their separate ways to work menial jobs in order to get enough money to survive is completely heartbreaking. You know what, remove the Muppets from the equation and that is still horribly depressing! Mother of god, the Muppets Take Manhattan is preparing children for the crushing reality of life! It’s so brilliantly devious!

The score by Ralph Burns is pretty spectacular, but the songs really stand out and are much more important, as they should in a movie about Broadway. “Together Again” is a wonderfully simple song that is deceptively catchy, which is probably why it was included in the Muppet*Vision 3D area background music. “Saying Goodbye” is completely sad and never fails to make my eyes water up and “I’m Gonna Always Love You” is unbelievably saccharine sweet but somehow charming. Any of the songs related to Manhattan Melodies are wonderful, and honestly, I would love to see a full version of this show put on (with all Muppet performers, of course).

It should also be noted that the Muppets Take Manhattan introduced the world to the idea of the Muppet Babies in one of the cutest segments in a movie ever, “I’m Gonna Always Love You”, and this was the first time that Rizzo the Rat was in a major role in anything related to the Muppets.

A continuing trend in the Muppet movies is the pushing of puppetry to more involved and complicated places. The big jump in the Muppets Take Manhattan is the use of the rat puppets. Rizzo and the other Muppet rats are such small puppets that they are operated solely by the use of wires and strings inside the body in order to make their mouths move, but the step forward is that these characters have a larger number of full body shots and they do more complex things like skating on butter on top of a gril or drumming on pots and pans while hanging in the air on a ladle.

The Muppets Take Manhattan is one of the best Muppet movies for a reason. It has a great story, fantastic and catchy music, and actually reaches some real level of human drama with the idea that dreams do not necessarily come true exactly as planned. Unfortunately, the next installment of Muppet Mayhem is going to deal with some real human tragedy (but there will be comedy as well to balance it out).

 

Adventures of a Lost Boy in Disneyland (Part 15): World of Color

I know some of you are saying “but wait, you have already talked about World of Color on the blog before!” (yay, you remembered!) but after actually seeing the show in person, there are so many things I want to say about it that it really necessitated another post. Also, that last post was somewhat asinine.

When we got to the viewing platform to see the show, I knew that I was in for something special, as plenty of videos of the show had been viewed already, but there was definitely not any expectations as to how I reacted to the show. One thing that surprisedme actually happened before World of Color even started. Mickey’s Fun Wheel is oddly entrancing to watch at night. The lights that run all up and down it are constantly moving in different patterns and changing colours, sometimes being all one solid colour, or maybe all warm or cool ones, or just random combinations of everything. It definitely helps set the mood for what is to come, but no matter how much preparation I had or Disney gave me, the show left me completely speechless throughout and I had to constantly remind myself that breathing is something somewhat important to being alive. The sheer beauty and majesty of the show brought a single tear to my eye and honestly, I am not ashamed to admit that. World of Color is that good of a show.

Videos do not do this show justice whatsoever. The show had me taken aback by the sheer size of it, the effect of the show is almost like seeing a real IMAX film, it literally covers your entire field of vision. The viewing platform is right up against Paradise Bay and the fountains cover almost the entirety of said body of water, not only that, but the lights around the Paradise Pier (especially the ones on Mickey’s Fun Wheel) are used as parts of the show. It is almost a 360 degree experience and it can definitely be a sensory overload. The close proximity to the show ends up making the experience supremely personal with mist from the fountains hitting your face (which feels great on some warm California evenings) and forces you to feel the heat of fire (a la Fantasmic across the way) when they erupt (and feels distinctly less awesome on warm California evenings).

Unfortunately for me, the section that I was most excited to see (“Firebird Suite”/”Hellfire” and “Night on Bald Mountain”) was excised from the show in order to extend the Pirates of the Caribbean section to include footage from On Stranger Tides. When this news found it’s way to me (which oddly enough was when I was walking around the San Deigo Zoo), I was crestfallen. The combination of the “Firebird Suite” and “Hellfire” was such a compelling idea, and the music actually worked well together. I thought that the tie-in wasn’t going to work particularly well with the rest of the show and I really wished that they would hav added it to the end of the show like they did for the TRONcore, but as soon as I saw the show, those feelings went away. The expanded segment was very fun to watch and featured one of the best new pieces of music from the film, “Mermaids”, and featured a lot of cool fire effects. Actually, the segment was basically all fire all the time, which was actually rather terrifying. The flames were so incredibly intense that I actually started to sweat a little bit during the show.

There are some rumours floating around the internet that World of Color might be coming to Walt Disney World. When I heard this, my first thought was where would the show go? Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom don’t have bodies of water large enough to hold the show (also Animal Kingdom’s limited hours make having a nighttime show almost impossible except during the winter months) and the only place that the Magic Kingdom could do it would be in the Seven Seas Lagoon outside of the park (which would cause a logistical nightmare). The only park that actually has the necessary elements to run it would be EPCOT on the World Showcase Lagoon, but World of Color doesn’t really fit into the whole theme of World Showcase and would clash with the rest of the park. The answer to where it would be put came with the announcement that Disney was going to rework some of it’s plans for the upcoming redux of Pleasure Island called Hyperion Wharf.

The plans for the area involved new shopping and dining experiences along with an apitheatre-styled park overlooking the water, an area that is conspicuously similar to the Paradise Park viewing area for World of Color at California Adventure. Whether or not this will happen and how it would be implemented remains to be seen, some arm-chair Imagineers have speculated that there might be some sort of additional fee for the show like with the Characters in Flight Balloon that operates off of the body of water, but Disney has done free nighttime shows outside of a park before with the Electrical Water Pageant at the Contemporary.

If you have not seen World of Color and you have the means to get to California Adventure to see it, you definitely should. It is the best nighttime show that Disney has ever put on and is almost guaranteed to be something that is unlike anything you have ever seen before.

There is going to be a hiatus from the weekly Disney related posts until December as I collect data for my next weekly project. This slot will be filled with other content for the rest of the month (probably some posts about the other part of my California trip).

Muppet Mayhem (Part 2): the Great Muppet Caper

The Muppet Movie and the Great Muppet Caper are in many ways the same movie. They have the same characters, the same humour, similar music, and a very similar look (despite the switch from the more natural locations to urban ones in the Great Muppet Caper). That being said, the Great Muppet Caper has a much more involved story and a lot less celebrity cameos (John Cleese does make an appearance, though, which makes me very happy).

The film centres around someone trying to steal Lady Holliday’s Baseball Diamond and three reporters, Kermit, Fozzie (who are supposed to be identical twins in the film), and Gonzo travel to England to try to interview her in order to save their job (as they are somewhat terrible at their jobs). Kermit meets Ms. Piggy and mistakes her for Lady Holliday (and she says nothing to the contrary) and the two go out for dinner where the real Lady Holliday’s diamonds get stolen by her brother, Nick (who has the most ridiculous socks ever, seriously look at them when they are in the restaurant), and Ms. Piggy is blamed for it. It’s up to Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, and all of the inhabitants of the Happiness Hotel (the hotel where they are staying) to find the diamond and get Piggy’s name cleared.

As stated earlier, the Great Muppet Caper has a lot of similar styled humour to the Muppet Movie. The film blatantly points out their plot exposition, and the running jokes get piled on heavily, even the opening credits are a joke with Kermit, Fozzie, and Gonzo flying in a hot air balloon, commenting on the credits before it crashes and their is a completely random and superfluous musical number (the best kind of musical number). There are parts where the Muppets comment on each other’s acting abilities (or lack thereof) and when the Muppets break out of being the character they are playing in the film and become the characters we know and love. Despite the fact that the movie doesn’t have the same variety show style as the Muppet Movie, it actually manages to make more references to skits from the Muppet Show, such as the existence of the Newsman and the Muppet News Flash for a throwaway joke.

The music is a somewhat mixed bag. Some of the songs are great, some are mediocre, but that’s more-or-less par for the course in movies like this. The score by Joe Raposo is fantastic, though, and covers a wide variety of styles. There is some very bluegrass sounding pieces with some heavy and prevalent banjo, and some pieces that sound more jazzy, there’s even some music that sounds like it would be found in a James Bond movie. The best songs in the film are the first two, “Hey, a Movie” and “Happiness Hotel” and just like in the Muppet Movie, they are incorporated into the score for the movie in numerous sections.

The puppetry used a number of the techniques that Jim Henson and his puppeteers learned from the Muppet Movie, but they pushed the craft even farther with this newer movie. The bike riding from the first movie is back, but in a much larger capacity, as in the majority of the Muppets join in on their own bikes. The movie is much more action packed and has a significant increase in dance numbers (and even a synchronized swimming section surrounding Ms. Piggy, which ends with a spectacular that the ending of Muppet*Vision 3D was definitely inspired by).

The Great Muppet Caper is a wonderful follow up to the Muppet Movie that is just about equal in quality. You should definitely see it if you haven’t already.

Muppet Mayhem (Part 1): The Muppet Movie

Considering the fact that there is a brand new theatrical Muppet movie coming out at the end of the month (on the day before my birthday), I thought it would be special if I were to review all of the theatrical Muppet movies (and two specials in the middle) over the course of the next few weeks. This is not going to be another 51 Days of Disney thing, so don’t be expecting daily reviews. Why not start with the beginning if you’re going to start at all?

The year is 1979 and the Muppet Show is in the height of it’s popularity and Sesame Street had been on the air for a decade, so what is next for the world’s favourite puppet performers? Why the big screen, of course!

The Muppet Movie opens with the Muppets in a screening room about to show an admittedly fictionalized account on how the Muppets were started. The movie within the movie begins with Kermit in his swamp where he meets Bernie the Agent (Dom DeLuise), who tells him that he would be great in show business. So Kermit leaves his home to begin his journey across the country. His journey first takes him to the El Sleazo Cafe where he bumps into a woman who tries to pick him up (Madeline Kahn), the piano player of the reputable estate (Paul Williams, who also did the music for the movie) and Fozzie the Bear, who proceeds to join him on his journey (“A bear in his natural habitat: a Studebaker”).

Kermit is persued throughout his journey by Doc Hopper (Charles During) in an attempt to get Kermit to be the spokes-frog of Doc Hopper’s chain of fried-frog legs. On their travels, they bump into Big Bird, get helped out of a jam by Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, bump into Gonzo and they all decide to get a bigger car from Mad Man Mooney (Milton Bearle) and his jack, Sweetums, and drive to a State Fair where they meet Ms. Piggy, all while being pursued by Doc Hopper. The Muppet Movie essentially jumps from silly situation to silly situation all while bumping into big stars of the day like Mel Brooks, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Edgar Bergman and Charlie, Bob Hope, Cloris Leachman, and even Orson Welles.

The Muppet Movie is exceptionally well written, perfectly capturing the bizarre irreverence that the Muppet Show was known for and somehow managing to write a coherent story. They constantly break the fourth wall (either by directly addressing the audience or by making very meta in-jokes), have plenty of absurd running jokes (like the myth/miss and “have you tried Hare Krishna?”), and the film even manages to capture some of the guest star’s particular breed of humour or their personal act into their cameos. Some of the throwaway word play in the movie is easily some of the funniest, though.

The music done by Paul Williams is overly cheerful, with lots of chimes and piano and the songs for the movie are exceptionally well written. “Rainbow Connection” is easily the best song in the film and really sets the mood and theme for the entire experience. With the quality of the song, it’s not surprising whatsoever that the song became the “When You Wish Upon a Star” of the Jim Henson company. “Movin’ Right Along” is a fun travelling number that I can’t help but listen to whenever I’m on a long car ride and ends up being the driving theme for the entire film. “Can You Picture That” is a fun Electric Mayhem song that feels very different from the rest of the songs in the film, but still manages to fit due to the sheer absurdity that is present in any Muppet property. The only song that I don’t particularly like is Ms Piggy’s song “Never Before” but that’s probably more due to the fact that I’m not the biggest fan of the pig.

Honestly, the real reason that this movie is special, though, is just how advanced the puppetry is. Jim Henson and his crew pushed themselves to the extent of their perceived abilities and then some to get the movie to look the way it did. For instance, the “Rainbow Connection” scene forced Jim Henson to fit into a metal tube submerged under the surface of the water in order to get Kermit to sit perfectly still on the log. What is even more amazing is that it took 5 days to film that one scene. The film even showed us a side of the Muppets we had never seen before, or as Roger Ebert put it: “The Muppet Movie not only stars the Muppets but, for the first time, shows us their feet.” They even managed to show a car that was literally driving down the road that looked like it was being driven by a Muppet, and to make it even more amazing, at the beginning of the film Kermit rides a bicycle and we see him actually pedaling it down the road. The final scene of the film had over 200 Muppet characters all being performed at the exact same time, which was something that had never been seen before at that point in time. Jim Henson managed to take everyone’s expectations on how the movie would look and turn them on it’s head.

The Muppet Movie is a funny musical romp that manages to push the field of Muppetry and somehow managed to be a movie that perfectly captures the feeling of the Muppet Show without just being the Muppet Show.

Adventures of a Lost Boy in Disneyland (Part 13): Aladdin: a Musical Spectacular

“Welcome to the Hyperion Theatre, you’re about to embark for the land of the Arabian nights. A land of magic and mystery, a land of no visual lighting, flash photography, cell phones, or pagers, so please do not interrupt our journey with such distractions.”

California Adventure never got the crowds that Disney wanted it to, hence the redoing of the park. When Aladdin: a Musical Spectacular opened in the Hyperion Theatre in 2003, replacing the Blast! show that never really got the audiences to fill the 2000 seat theatre that Disney wanted, it started showing off the future of the park back when the future of the park was completely uncertain. It quickly became the best attraction in the park and developed a substantially large fan base that would see the production every time they went into the park. This fanbase was actually so large that when Disney announced plans to replace the show with Toy Story the Musical from the Disney Cruise Line, there was an overwhelming amount of backlash and Disney put the plans on an indefinite hold.

The show is a 45-minute long Broadway-style retelling of the Aladdin film that manages to cover the story fully in a condensed manner. They did this by shortening the time between major plot points (for instance, Aladdin meets Jasmine and they immediately bump into the palace guards and Aladdin is saved by Jafar in disguise all within a manner of 3 minutes and in one setting). They also removed the character of Abu completely, which was disappointing the first time I saw the show, but it was quickly realized that his character is rather superfluous and it allowed the producers of the show to shorten the story to a manageable point for the actors to perform it 4 times a day.

One of the aspects of the show that makes it very special is the character of the Genie. Most of his lines throughout the show are completely ad-libbed, which makes it so that the consistently pop-culture aware Genie to riff off of current events. Popular topics in the 3 times I saw the show while I was at California Adventure this trip were Lindsay Lohan (“Where’s all my stuff? I had a whole bunch of stuff here and now it’s just rocks. Did Lindsay Lohan take all my stuff too?”), Avatar (“Are you kidding? I’m blue, I have pointy ears! I’m your Avatar!), Pirates of the Caribbean, the Godfather, Star Trek (“There’s no wishing for more wishes, capische? I just can’t do it, captain! I don’t have the power!”), Dr. Phil and the Kardashians (“Just like Dr. Phil, I can’t make someone fall in love with you. I used up all that magic on the Kardashians.”), and the iPhone (“I can’t bring people back from the dead, but if you have an iPhone there’s an app for that!”). Also note that all of these jokes happened between when the Genie first appeared and the beginning of “Friend Like Me.” The actors who play the Genie manage to pull off Robin Williams’ quick-fire machine gun style of comedy perfectly and it really adds a lot to the show. Some of the actors even interact directly with the crow by reacting in humourous ways to their responses.

The best line the Genie got off, though, was “You guys are just like Bella and Edward from Twilight, except you’re not depressing!” There is also a line about Iago being a “Tiki Room reject”, which at this point in time is made even funnier with the Enchanted TIki Room: Under New Management being completely gone.

The music in the show is the music from the film almost to a “t”, with only a few small changes here and there to help the shortened running time flow better. The biggest departure music-wise is the inclusion of a new song written by Alan Menken. The song was written for Jasmine and uses her theme from the movie, “To Be Free” is a surprisingly sad song about how Jasmine has everything in the world at her beck-and-call, but what she really wants is to be free and live her own life. This song really adds to a strengthens the whole theme of being trapped from birth in your life and the desire to become something more.

The sets are the real star of the show here, though. They manage to pull of the over-blown and grand style of old-school Broadway shows perfectly (which will fit perfectly into the 1920’s styling coming to California Adventure in the near future). The sets range from being deceptively simple flat shapes, to exceptionally gaudy light-up stair-cases, to surprisingly convincing giant tiger-headed entrances to certain Cave of Wonders. The sets look very good “up close, but they look even better from Jafar.” The show also uses puppets very well with both Iago, puppets representing different countries in “A Whole New World”, and a giant snake puppet for Jafar’s transformation at the end.

Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular, even with all of the changes going on at California Adventure, continues to be one of the best attractions at the park and is probably in the running with Festival of the Lion King for best stage show at a Disney Park (at least state-side. I can’t say anything about the international parks). Now if you’ll excuse me, “I’m going to go find Nemo.”

Adventures of a Lost Boy in Disneyland (Part 11): the Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure

Sorry about the lack of posts over the weekend and on Monday, there was a death in the family an that took up all of my time that weekend.

Moving onto happy things now, last week I covered some of the cosmetic changes going on in California Adventure, this week it’s finally time to start talking about some of the attraction changes. I’m starting with one that is one of the most entertaining: The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure.

As you walk towards the building, the first thing you will notice is the massive size of the show building and it’s general opulence, the building is meant to be reminiscent of aquariums from the early 20th century, and they definitely captured that concept. The entire building is covered in nothing but a sandy tan, blues, aquas, and bronze paint and fixtures and features numerous sweeping and arching forms that not only sell the idea of water, but manage to fit in with the rest of Paradise Pier through similar architectural forms and the use of a massive amount of lights at night. It manages to look incredibly regal, but also fit in with the boardwalk theme.

If you look at the roof over the area where the main entrance to the building is, you will see the statue of King Triton that used to reside in Ariel’s Grotto in Disneyland until the Disney faeries forced the mermaids out of their home. One can also view various bas reliefs of mermaids on the arch that holds Triton and even some conch shell/trident weather vanes on various points on the building representing Ursula and Triton and their troubled relationship in the past. Throughout the queue, you can see touches of various aspects of marine life such as bubble designs in support arches with bronze clamshells connecting both ends, the main entrance to the building features a massive window that has beams running across it simulating waves, inside there are chandeliers made to look like bronze seaweed and paintings, murals, and even tile work representing different forms of aquatic life. Of course, the main eye catcher in the inside section of the queue is the massive mural of the characters from the film on the wall of the load area.

When I was going through the queue, I was geeking out and only wondered how the attraction itself would be able to hold up against how beautiful the queue was, and it makes me exceptionally happy to report that the attraction did not let me down in the slightest.

The attraction starts with your clam shell omnimover entering the ship-wreck of Prince Eric’s ship only to find Scuttle sitting amongst the ruins trying to tell Ariel’s story, but not quite knowing where to start. This is actually brilliant from a constantly moving ride perspective, as the Imagineers managed to create an endless loop that doesn’t just say the same thing over and over and over again, but actually manages to get the main information told no matter which section it is. The late Buddy Hacket was not able to reprise his role as Scuttle, but Chris Edgerly (who also voices Timothy Q. Mouse on Dumbo the Flying Elephant and voiced Peter Potamus on Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law) does a fantastic impression of the late comedian. After passing Scuttle, our clamshells submerge and we encounter Ariel, first as a projection, and then in her grotto singing “Part of Your World”.

The Ariel audio-animatronic is absolutely amazing. It moves fluidly and realistically and the Imagineers even managed to animate her hair to make sure to sell the idea that we are under the sea. What is even more astounding is that the Ariel figure is only about 2 or 3 feet away from you. Some taller guests could probably reach out and touch her if they were so inclined and wouldn’t mind being ejected from the park. If you look throughout the scene, you’ll see items that actually populated the area in the film, and you can also see Sebastian popping out of various areas with a condescending look on his face. Jodi Benson actually came back and re-recorded all of her audio for Ariel for the attraction and that woman still has it. She can make herself sound almost exactly like she did almost 25 years ago and because of that the inclusion of Benson really adds some serious credibility to the attraction. Our clamshells then move right into the biggest scene of the attraction, “Under the Sea”. There must be at least a hundred animatronics in this scene, there is just so much going on that it would be impossible to see everything the first time through, and Sebastian is conducting all of it from a raised platform in the centre of the whole party. If there was a character in the “Under the Sea” scene in the movie, then they are in it in the attraction, so even my favourite clam drum playing lobster is present. There is even another Ariel audio-animatronic, but this one is rather weird as she looks like she has a beehive hair-do, I fully understand that this is something direct from the film, but it looks very bizarre when translated to a 3-dimensional attraction.

Unfortunately, the party is ruined with the arrival of Flotsam and Jetsam and the entering of Ursula’s lair, but this isn’t a problem as the Ursula animatronic is easily the most impressive one in the attraction. The Sea Witch stands at around 8 feet tall and is able to squash and stretch exactly like she did in the movie, the programers of her even managed to fully replicate her unique facial expressions and ticks such as the very particular way she smiles. There is even a massive amount of variation throughout her loop that has her arms doing various different movements and her hands making different gestures. This honestly is the best part of the attraction, which makes it so disappointing that it is as short as it is. I unfortunately got stuck on the attraction right as we were transitioning between the “Poor-Unfortunate Souls” scene and the upcoming “Kiss the Girl” one. I really just wish that I could have stopped in front of the Ursula figure so I could watch her movements more.

The attraction just movies downhill from here, but don’t get me wrong it never gets bad, it’s just impossible to follow up the 8-foot-tall Ursula. The “Kiss the Girl” segment is surprisingly static, but I very much enjoyed the fact that Sebastian is using a reed as a microphone, that the fish are creating fountains by spitting water out of their mouths, and that the kiss-y faced frogs and duck drummers are present. Ariel and Eric keep almost kissing, but Eric always pulls away and the Ariel figure actually manages to show visible rejection on her face, which is rather astounding as it was not present when they were about to kiss. After this scene, Ariel gets her voice back and we see a massive Ursula in the background, but no Eric/Ursula fight or even any sight of Ursula being defeated, it just moves right into the marriage scene. This part really isn’t anything special, but it marks the first time we have seen King Triton in the entire attraction and there is another appearance by Scuttle, which is always entertaining.

The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure is a master-work. It managed to knock Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular out of it’s rank as best attraction at California Adventure, which is really saying something. The version coming to the Magic Kingdom is going to be essentially the same attraction, but with a completely different external and internal queue, and this is going to really be something for us East Coasters to look forward to when it opens in late 2012 as part of the New Fantasyland.