JediKermit's Full Review: Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas
Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie''s plot.
Yall know that Im a Muppet freak. And I have been since I was just a pup. Many people think that Muppets are just entertainment for kids, and either your kids outgrow them or society does and its time to move on to more violent ventures. I dont agree with that. The Muppets were first introduced as entertainment for adults on The Ed Sullivan Show, Jimmy Dean Show, and other programs, and although they were usually appropriate for the family, they werent expressly for children. The Muppet Show was more of a comedy than a kids show, and yet theyre labeled as kiddie fare by most people. It was a source of frustration for Jim Henson, and it is for me too.
I dont know where I was going with that, it was just something I had to get off my chest. Sorry. The subject of this review is actually a Christmas Special televised in 1977, just after The Muppet Show had started its run, and even though it has a leisurely pace, its appropriate for childrenperfect for families to watch together.
The program is Emmet Otters Jug-Band Christmas, and I watched it yesterday all the way through for the first time. Ive made two other attempts, but turned it off early in the program. My mistakethe real gems of the piece come after the first fifteen minutes of the show. This is touted as a Muppet production, but if youre looking for Kermit, Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear etc., youll be disappointed; Kermit is pictured on the cover of the DVD, and is billed as narrator, but hes in less than five minutes of the fifty-minute program.
The story follows Emmet Otter and his Ma, as they try to scrape together enough money to buy each other nice presents for Christmas. They live a simpler life, somewhere in the back woods of the United States, near a little town called Frogtown Hollow. Emmet is a sweet little boy otter, and is friends with a porcupine, beaver, and other creatures. The climax of the program is a talent show, with the award being fifty dollars, which would go a long way in the Frogtown Hollow economy.
The story is by Lillian and Russell Hoban, authors of the Frances books, and the adaptation from their stories is faithful. The puppets are more realistically animal looking than the Muppets you probably remember from The Muppet Show and Sesame Street, and you cant deny theyre dang cute. The sets are elaborate, although there are places that either the low budget or the experimental puppetry show.
Coming relatively early on in Hensons never-ending quest for new puppetry technology, theres more marionette puppetry in Emmet Otter than in any other Muppet production. This includes Kermits first time on a bicycle, which is good, but unintentionally funny as you can clearly see the strings/wires connecting him to the rigging above him. Hes stiff and doesnt look as natural as he does riding bicycles in The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper. The other time you really see the strings is when Emmet and Ma go to the Otter Slide and go down it when they do, the strings are again so obvious that I winced but it was almost 30 years ago, and Im willing to let it go. There are some other things that it looked like they were experimenting with that would become part of later Muppet movies--how to do puppetry in water, radio control puppetry, and other experiments.
These minor quibbles dont diminish the greatness of the story. I mentioned before that I stopped watching early on last timeif you can get past the first 20 minutes, youll be wrapped up in Emmet Otters world, and this is largely due to the rich performances of the puppeteers. No one deserves more credit than Jerry Nelsonone of the unsung heroes of the Muppets. Jerry is the man behind (or underneath) The Count, Herry Monster, Sherlock Hemlock, and other characters on Sesame Street, Gobo Fraggle on Fraggle Rock, and Robin the Frog, Floyd, Crazy Harry, and Lew Zealand on The Muppet Show. He performs Emmet here, and although the voice is somewhere between Gobo and Robins, he gives that little furry puppet a personality and warmth it wouldnt have had in other hands. I love Jerry Nelson. Hes great.
The songs are the ultimate expression of the characters feelings in Emmet Otter, and there are several numbers that will stick with you long after the program has ended. My two favorites are When the River Meets the Sea,, which you may know from the John Denver & the Muppets Christmas Together Album the other is Bar-B-Q which will stick in your head as much as the sauce mama makes just stays there forever if you dare to get it under your naaaaails! The songs are from Paul Williams, who later wrote the songs for The Muppet Movie and The Muppet Christmas Carol and theyre some of the best the Muppets have ever gotten to sing.
If youve never seen this, I recommend hunting it downafter I got past what I considered the primitive puppetry, I found a gem of a Christmas special that Ill be watching year after year.
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