A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (2008)

The Muppets in NYC are lined up to get their Christmas letters mailed. Gonzo screws up the post office machinery. Little girl Claire gives Gonzo a letter but Gonzo forgets. It's Christmas Eve. The post office is closed and the gang has to deliver 3 letters to the North Pole. Everybody gives up but Gonzo convinces Kermit and Fozzie to try. Rizzo and Pepe come along.I wonder if the post office paid to get the Muppets to do this special. I would have prefer the group stays together. It's always more fun with more Muppets. The cameos are fine but they are not the big draw for me. I'm also not a big fan of Rizzo and Pepe as being the main characters. I love Kermit with Miss Piggy. I like that Gonzo, Fozzie and Kermit are together but I miss Miss Piggy. The songs are OK but nothing special. The letter from the airport security guy doesn't really make sense. It's not the strongest Christmas special but it's still the Muppets.

To be fair, this special was a lot better than "The Muppets' Wizard of Oz," but it's still not that good. There aren't any adult jokes that'll make your kids embarrassed to watch it with you or vice versa, but there are some other things that make this film pretty weak.Following the classic Muppet Christmas special tradition: the premise is pretty simple: after an event at the post office Christmas Eve morning, Gonzo accidentally doesn't mail a letter to Santa Claus for one of his friends. He, Kermit, Fozzie, Rizzo, and...Pepe (I will pay someone to step on him) fly to the North Pole to give the letter to Santa...Yeah, that's it.What's good about this special? Well, it has a lot of nice, tender, heartfelt moments. Gonzo sings the intro to a song in the film; he sings "What's in your heart?" I don't care for the rest of the song, but that part is very nice; I still find myself singing that sometimes. There's another song he shares with Fozzie later called "I Wish I Could Be Santa Claus." To be honest, it really doesn't fit with the scene, but it's a very lovely song. The special ends with all the Muppets gathering together for Christmas; that's rather nice. Also, there are a few funny moments. My favorite part is Nathan Lane's cameo! Not only is he funny, but his interaction with Bobo is funny as well (this is probably the first film I found myself fully enjoying Bobo without him being annoying)!So what doesn't work? Well, for starters, it's slow. Some scenes feel like filer; like the scene where Kermit, Fozzie, and Gonzo are on the roof, or where Pepe talks to the gentlemen in the restaurant. Besides the musical numbers I mentioned earlier, I can't name any other song; they're either annoying or forgettable. Also, why are the Muppets in an urban New York setting here? It seems too weird. Finally, I think it goes back to one of the problems "Kermit Swamp Years" had: it's very childish. There's one adult joke I noticed (of course it came up, Pepe's here!), but other than that I can't really think of any material here that will get adults invested. I will say, though, kudos to this film for having Santa Claus be in this movie without saying Christmas is about Santa! Christmas specials today often do that, and it's really annoying, irritating, and, well, just untrue. Especially with the Muppets conforming their entertainment in their past productions, they could have easily taken that route. I'm glad they didn't.I think this special is cute. It's a nice special kids will enjoy OK; but I don't think adults will enjoy it too much aside from a couple of heartfelt moments and a few jokes. To be honest, this special is kind of forgettable aside from those things. It's cute, but it's not what I want to see from the Muppets. I'd say give this one a pass. BOOYIKA!

With the month of December almost over, I finally decided to watch this Muppet Christmas special that I put off for the last two weeks. In summation, A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa is no great shakes compared to the classic "Muppet Show" that I enjoyed as a kid of the '70s but these creations of the late Jim Henson can still entertain like nobody's business and it was very nice to see the whole gang from that show together again. The songs by Muppet veteran Paul Williams were nicely done though only the Fozzie/Gonzo duet about wishing to be Santa seems like a future classic. The celebrity cameos are hit-or-miss but do provide some amusements especially that of Williams and Nathan Lane. I recognized the kid from that Disney movie that starred Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. It's too bad that Jane Krakowski and Jesse Martin weren't utilized more for their musical talents. Still, if you love the Muppets, you'll be glad to see them in A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa.

The best Muppet material out there is that which the children can "get" on one level and the parents can "get" on another. The movies tend to be hit and miss ("Manhattan" vs. "Space", for example), but the holiday ones over the last decade or so had been winners. This one disappointed. More than anything, it was just rushed and pretty flat. The humor never really took off, although it came close at times, and there were some nice moments. However, the way most of the Muppets were brought in for quickie appearances, the including of the guest stars (Whoopi was worthless and Richard Griffiths just looked and sounded terrible as Santa), the plot seemingly jumping from A to D without much effort into giving us B and C to tie it together smoothly, even the songs didn't hook us like they normally do...this was just a pretty "eh" effort. I hope the writers put more real effort into it next time instead of just wanting to throw a holiday special with the Muppets on TV to do it. I've gone back and watched "The Muppet Christmas Carol" and "A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie" since this one aired and I've forgotten all about the mediocrity that is "Letters to Santa".