I'm sorry--I just couldn't get through it. Whatever happened to the innocent fun the Muppets brought to these stories?
* Toto as a shrimp? I don't think so. Worse, a greedy, conniving, shrimp? I'm continuing not to think so.
* Rearranging Dorothy's motivations from the original to the "teen music star" fantasy was appalling. Hasn't that threadbare character motivation been done to death already?
* Ashanti's acting skills make Keanu Reaves comparable to Laurence Olivier.
* Changing the encounter with the Munchkins and the Wicked Witch of the East? Not quite blasphemy, I'll grant you, but very muddled.
* The on-camera death scene with Miss Piggy under the house was...well, just not on.
* Kermit as the scarecrow is okay, but not enough to save this.
* The sexual overtones of the nipple business in the TIN shack when the shrimp {shudder} is exploring Gonzo was completely unnecessary. This is Disney, AND the Muppets. They don't DO that sort of thing. How did that get past Standards and Practices? I'm going to have nightmares tonight because of that scene.
* My wife watched it longer than I did, and she was put off by the defibrillator scene in the poppy club. I didn't make it that far into the movie.
* They didn't even have Mabel King singing "No Bad News." (Yes, I know she passed in 1999, but it's the principle of the thing.)
* From what I can see, this was the director's first directing job. I'm voting that it be his last, as well. He's no Sidney Lumet (and you know what Sid did to "The Wiz") but hey, this guy's biggest contribution to the movie business thus far was the role of the boom box punk in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
* Toto as a shrimp? I don't think so. Worse, a greedy, conniving, shrimp? I'm continuing not to think so.
* Rearranging Dorothy's motivations from the original to the "teen music star" fantasy was appalling. Hasn't that threadbare character motivation been done to death already?
* Ashanti's acting skills make Keanu Reaves comparable to Laurence Olivier.
* Changing the encounter with the Munchkins and the Wicked Witch of the East? Not quite blasphemy, I'll grant you, but very muddled.
* The on-camera death scene with Miss Piggy under the house was...well, just not on.
* Kermit as the scarecrow is okay, but not enough to save this.
* The sexual overtones of the nipple business in the TIN shack when the shrimp {shudder} is exploring Gonzo was completely unnecessary. This is Disney, AND the Muppets. They don't DO that sort of thing. How did that get past Standards and Practices? I'm going to have nightmares tonight because of that scene.
* My wife watched it longer than I did, and she was put off by the defibrillator scene in the poppy club. I didn't make it that far into the movie.
* They didn't even have Mabel King singing "No Bad News." (Yes, I know she passed in 1999, but it's the principle of the thing.)
* From what I can see, this was the director's first directing job. I'm voting that it be his last, as well. He's no Sidney Lumet (and you know what Sid did to "The Wiz") but hey, this guy's biggest contribution to the movie business thus far was the role of the boom box punk in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.