Rating:
This movie is by no means perfect. It takes a really long time to get going and it’s kind of all over the place throughout. But, as is always the case with the Muppets, there is much to love.

It’s Christmastime and the Muppets are preparing for their big holiday show. They’re auditioning acts and building sets and everything seems to be falling into place for one great Christmas extravaganza. Alas, it’s then that the cruel, malicious businesswoman (Joan Cusack) who holds the lease on the Muppet Theater* announces that if she isn’t paid all of the extensive back rent she is owed, she’ll shut the theater down. The Muppets will have nowhere to put on their shows, and I think it’s suggested that most of them live in the theater, so I guess they’ll be homeless as well.

Of course, a way is found to raise the needed money in time. After a frantic rush through busy city streets, Fozzie Bear ends up failing in his attempt to deliver the payment, and things look dire for the Muppets indeed. Kermit the Frog is utterly dejected; he feels that everyone was counting on him to save their Christmas and, consequently, that he let them all down and ruined their lives. Wandering the icy streets alone, he makes that time-honored Christmas wish: that he’d never even been born.

Yes, the framework of the story is a parody of It’s a Wonderful Life, and many of the movie’s funniest scenes come when the helpful angel (David Arquette) is showing Kermit a the world in which he never existed. Sam the Eagle is a raver, Beaker is a ‘roided-up bouncer at an insufferable nightclub, and Miss Piggy is a desperately lonely cat lady who fakes a Jamaican accent to pick up a few bucks as a phony telephone psychic.

Before all the riffing on It’s a Wonderful Life there are other spoofs as well. The Muppets mount an elaborate production (their Christmas Spectacular Spectacular) spoofing Moulin Rouge!. Fozzie is chased through the streets by a man with more than a passing resemblance to the Crocodile Hunter. My personal favorite parody scene involves Fozzie accidentally being mistaken for the Grinch and accosted by a crowd of angry Whos.

But trumping everything yet mentioned in terms of hilarity are all the scenes featuring Pepe the King Prawn, who steals any scene quite handily. His mispronunciation of words and his unwavering confidence, in spite of mounting evidence to the contrary, that his hipness and sex appeal are unmatched make him perhaps the funniest of all the Muppets. He’s come quite a long way since he was an elevator operator on Muppets Tonight.

The movie does have its weak spots. As in all Muppet media, any scene that features only human characters loses your attention quickly, and unfortunately the beginning of the movie is weighted down with such scenes. The picture’s one song, sung by Kermit and a homeless Gonzo in the alternate Kermit-was-never-born reality, is called “Everyone Matters” and the only way to describe it is “lame.” Gone is the jauntiness of “Movin’ Right Along” or “Can You Picture That” from The Muppet Movie, and even though that film’s biggest song, “The Rainbow Connection,” was a sweet one, this song is more sappy than sweet, more cloying than charming.

Fortunately, these complaints are relatively minor compared to the other delights It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie holds. There’s more than enough of the comedy and quality you expect from the Kermit and the gang to make this flick worthy of your attention.

NOTE: It’s a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie was directed by Kirk Thatcher, whose affiliation with the Muppets goes back to 1989 but who you may remember best as Punk on Bus from Star Trek IV.

*Didn’t we learn on The Muppet Show that Scooter’s uncle owns the theater?

If You Hated This, You Will Also Totally Hate:

• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• The True Nature of a Familiar Song
• Mickey’s Christmas Carol
• White Christmas
• Berry, Merry Christmas