So much average

One of my all time favorites.

It is a performances centric movie

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

In 2011, Disney released a movie called simply "The Muppets". It got mixed-reviews for a number of reasons. This little gem from 2002, is often shown around Christmastime on cable stations. It is a lot like the newer film. In both movies, the Muppet Theater is about to be foreclosed because some evil scrooge-like person holds the mortgage. All the Muppets want to do is put on a show to raise enough money to save the theater.In, typical typecasting, Whoopie Goldberg plays God! Kermit does a really short version of "It's a Wonderful Life-frog style". In this film, the (2002) "Molin Rouge" remake is spoofed and the Salvation Army ends up with all the money! The Muppet Theater is almost turned into a Disco with "Beaker-on Steroids" as the bouncer! Gonzo sings a duet with Kermit on a park bench. It's cute and often overlooked, as it was made for TV and not released to theaters.Plays like a good Muppet movie should. The human stars stay in the background. Joan Cusak really does make a good villain and she is quite funny. "Pepi the Prawn" makes a great "hunch-shrimp" and looks absolutely ridiculous in a suit! Shorter, because it was made for TV. More fun than the recent 2011 Muppet "revival" film.

Given the fact that The Muppets had already tackled the Yuletide perennial "A Christmas Carol" in 1992, this would seem like a redundant effort (even if we stick to a contemporary setting now, with the various popular characters playing themselves rather than re-incarnated as literary figures) – which may also explain its relegation to video. Incidentally, the star cast (including David Arquette as an angel and Whoopi Goldberg as God!) roped in for this venture is perhaps the least impressive ever, with only Joan Cusack as a Scrooge-like tycoon entering into the spirit of the thing (since she gets the sole substantial role here). The premise, as can be gathered from the above description, is a variation on that other Christmas classic IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946), so that we have Kermit The Frog being shown what life would have been like without him after wishing he had never been born; as would be the case with THE MUPPETS' WIZARD OF OZ (2005), which I watched recently, the climax involves a duel between the villainess and Miss Piggy (where she was actually the baddie) – and, once again, the one to get the most screen-time is Pepe the playboy-ish and laid-back King Prawn (which is not in itself a bad thing). Tolerable enough as a kiddie film, then, but a long way from the best Muppet movies out there.

This is one of the best Muppet movies that I have seen. It was not as childlike as other Muppet movies. I was older when this movie came out it still made me laugh. I loved all of the characters in this movie because despite was anybody says on the forum, Pepe is so funny to me. Has anybody seen Pepe on Weezer's video ,Gone Fishing? Pepe is hilarious on the New Muppet Show that aired on TGIF in the late 90's. Miss Piggy is still her high-maintenance self. The only thing that had me shocked is Kermit saying, " I wish I have never been born." It was heartbreaking because Kermit has always been my favorite Muppet and always will be. I taped this movie on VHS when it first aired on NBC. I was excited when the premiere came on. Unfortunely, I was about 20 years old when it came out. They need to show this movie at Christmas again on NBC.

If you tire of "It's a Wonderful Life" copycats around Christmas time, then you don't want to watch this...because it's exactly what it is.It's very unoriginal in terms of story (I was hoping for something BUT a Wonderful Life copyoff). Basically the Muppets run a theater (unlike that of Muppets Tonight, since this is a post Muppets Tonight TV film...or should I say 2hour special) in danger of being bankrupted on Christmas. Alongside the muppets is you stereotypical villain: a greedy banker at Christmas time who wants to do nothing but bad things. And a nerdy misfit angel who comes to the rescue. Yeah...uh where's Jim Henson? Oh yeah he's dead. No wonder this was so lame!The only likable elements are the parodies and spoofs. Unfortunately the storyline of this movie was so terrible and so predictable that they were hard to notice and you only care about watching the end to find out (yes, indeed a "Wonderful Life" copyoff crossedover with a bit of "Hey Arnold: The Movie"). If you seen the Hey Arnold movie then you know that the endings to that and this are no different.The lessons taught are bankers are evil, cheerful people around Xmas time are good guys, and life is worth living. I want a new kind of Christmas movie/special for once! Something different! But trust me, this ain't it. Lord knows how NBC got its hand on the Muppets for this temporary amount of time, but I seriously hope that ABC does better with the Muppets with its Oz movie next year. If not, then I demand you take me back to the golden age of Jim Henson...I'm talking about the late 70s and 80s!!!