Sunday, November 27, 2011

SEGEL'S CORE MISTAKE IS TO PUSH THE MUPPETS TO THE MARGINS IN A MOVIE DESIGNED TO GIVE THEM THE SPOTLIGHT:  One of the House Next Door contributors didn't like The Muppets, following the headline with this statistic:
Case in point: Of the more than 20 songs in Henson’s three Muppet movies, only one of them has a non-Muppet performer (“Piggy’s Fantasy” in Caper, in which Kermit vies with a voice-dubbed Charles Grodin, which is part of the joke). Yet of the six original songs in Segel’s film, only one of them is Muppets-only. One.
Also, he doesn't care for "We Built This City." Conceded.

16 comments:

  1. To the contrary, I found myself wanting more Segel/Adams during the third quarter of the movie (or so).  Also, my little one and I watched The Muppet Movie later the same day, and, whoever has the songs, there's a LOT of attention paid to the human actors, who have many of the best lines/gags.

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  2. (Also, I should note that when We Built This City came on, I couldn't help but think of you, Adam.  Also should note that I loved, or at least all but loved, the movie.)

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  3. Lou W9:18 AM

    My kids have been bouncing around singing We Built this City all weekend while cleaning up for the Xmas decorations.  It's a cheesy song, sure, but if you think of it as being aimed at pre-teens, its not too bad, and it has been a hit in our house.  Thumbs up Segel.

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  4. Chuck9:54 AM

    Breaking down the analysis by looking only at the songs is silly. I agree with Russ:  I thought Segel/Adams really faded away -- in a good way -- so that the Muppets could shine.  (Hated We Built This City, otherwise pretty much adored the movie.)

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  5. Alan Sepinwall10:16 AM

    Yeah, even factoring in the song breakdown, I would say that The Great Muppet Caper feels much more dominated by its human actors than this movie did. I rewatched that a few years ago with my kids and started to get frustrated with how much Grodin was at the center of everything. (And I love Charles Grodin.)

    I don't know that Gary and Mary - or, for that matter, Walter - need to be in future films, but they worked well here, and didn't overwhelm the Muppets themselves.

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  6. Amy Watts10:59 AM

    If nothing else, you can look at the "picking up the gang" scenes and Segel and Adams are LITERALLY in the backseat.

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  7. Paul Tabachneck11:31 AM

    I loved We Built This City.  I was knee-deep in that hoopla.

    I think the whole point of the movie was that the Muppets were no longer the all-singing, all-dancing hams that they used to be, and the enthusiasm they built in Segel's character through their original broadcasts was what they needed to find that center again.  

    It makes total sense to me.  <span> </span>

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  8. Anonymous12:55 PM

    The cutest gem from the Jason Segal/Nick Stoller Fresh Air interview (11/23) was that in many of the car scenes, Segal and Adams had to be the pupeteers since there just wasn't enough room for the regular pupeteers to crouch down in the car.

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  9. Completely agree.

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  10. isaac_spaceman1:44 PM

    I did not think that anything could make me not want to see this movie, but "We Built This City"?  Now I do not want to see this movie.  I am not kidding, I really do not want to see this movie.  My approximately 39-year love of the Muppets -- which includes my being in the top 1% or so of lovers of Guy Smiley, Don Music, and the round-headed guy with all that restaurant trouble, my having watched the entire run of The Muppet Show in first-run prime time, my turning my nose up at my younger brother's love of Fraggle Rock because come on it's a pale imitation, and my being able to share my first-born's obsession with Grover -- grinds to a halt before the obstacle that is the Universally Acknowledged Worst Sound Ever Made. 

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  11. isaac_spaceman1:46 PM

    Amy Watts, please believe me when I tell you that your avatar just does not read at that size. 

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  12. Anonymous2:41 PM

    I loved this movie, although it needed more Electric Mayhem. Much more Electric Mayhem. 

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  13. Go see the movie and go get popcorn during this part. 

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  14. spacewoman8:05 PM

    It's one song, dude. It does not sully the awesomeness.

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  15. No worries - it's changed now that I've seen the movie - it was my own personal promo on the twitter, which I must've used to log in with on whatever computer that comment was made from.

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  16. Here's the thing - I realized today what makes "We Built this City" even more unbearable as it's used in the movie - IIRC they only use the chorus. The most repetitive part of a repetitive song used over and over again.

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