It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie - 2nd December 2014

It's the second day of Advent and the second festive film in our countdown to Christmas. This week we are watching; 

It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie

Oh dear, we might have unwrapped the first Christmas turkey of a movie tonight. That was not quite what we expected.

Basically, It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie follows the very weak plot line where the Muppet Theatre is due to be repossessed by the bank due to lack of payments, unless of course they can scrape together the funds with their last show. Of course all of this is happening on Christmas Eve. Luckily, there is a guardian angel watching over them, who implores God (Whoopi Goldberg) to give them a chance of divine retribution on the bossy bank manager Rachel Bitterman (Joan Cusack). And on the way to the inevitable happy ending there is a lot of Muppet mishaps and Christmas craziness.

And there you have it, one thing is for sure, It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie is no Muppet Christmas Carol, which is superb. No unfortunately the Muppet brand is let down badly by this 2002 movie, which seemed to be cashing in with a very weak plot and the gratuitous use of American TV stars making cameo appearances, to bolster a lack of substance between the start and the foregone conclusion of a feelgood finish.

Not to be totally negative, Joan Cusack (seen in previous TNiFN films; The Perks of Being a Wallflower and My Sister's Keeper), was very good as the villainous bad guy of the film, hamming up the tyranny with decent effect. Whoopi Goldberg only featured in a separate thread and never mingled with the Muppets, but was nevertheless OK. Daniel; the guardian angel was played by David Arquette and was just plain annoying. The rest of the cast were made up by the Muppets and were fine, just your bog standard Muppet mayhem. Although there was one major laugh out loud moment when Beaker appeared, said "Mee mee me me mee me mee meee" and that was enough to set us off in a fit of giggles, just not enough to offset the disappointment with the rest of the made for TV movie.

To summarise; a very weak story, insufficient laughs, a modicum of pathos, predictable formula, pointless cameos and a disappointed TNiFN audience. We hope for a better choice next week. Don't forget, we watch these films so you don't have to.

TNiFN Festive Rating 49%

IMDB Link