Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Ease on Down the Road...
This weekend marked the world premiere of ABC’s new original movie, “The Muppet Wizard of Oz.” To those who are not aware, this film is the first major Muppet project produced since they were purchased by the Walt Disney Company over a year ago. Since that time the Muppets have seen a revival of sorts, making various appearances on commercials, daytime television, and prime time variety specials. This is a major push to put Miss Piggy, Kermit and Crew back on the map, and remove the taint of being faded pop culture icons.

Is it working? I think so; since a fair number of my friends and family were, at the very least, aware of “The Muppet Wizard of Oz.” Three years ago NBC produced a Christmas-themed Muppet film, and it seemed as if I was the only one who knew it even existed. Of course awareness is only one step to reviving a franchise like the Muppets, since the quality of Muppet projects since Jim Henson’s death have been mediocre at best. If Disney is forcing new Muppet movies and television series onto the general public, they better damn well be of quality.

Sadly this is the area where “The Muppet Wizard of Oz” falls short. As a Muppet film, it is one of the weakest entries in the series and lacks the humor, heart, creativity and production values of anything that has preceded it. This is probably just the shattering of a childhood dream to me, but this was the first time I’ve ever looked at the characters like they were puppets. No, scratch that, the current puppeteers operating the Muppets simply aren’t very good at what they do anymore. Their movements are broad, vaudevillian, gestures and lack any of the humanity or subtlety of Jim Henson, Frank Oz or the originals. But perhaps the humor itself is too broad, and lends itself to such poor performances. Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith had some of the most talented actors of our time in one film, and their performances as a collective sucked various forms of ass due to issues with the script. The same might be the problem here, since this story itself seems to suffer from too many different ideas being forced together.

For months I had heard rumblings that this was going to be the most loyal translation of L. Frank Baum’s original story ever produced, and with the Jim Henson Company’s proud line of fantasy films, it seemed like a perfect match. Nobody but Jim Henson, or perhaps, Peter Jackson could pull off the dark undertones of Oz in a loyal and visually appealing way.

Sadly those reports were a complete lie, and this film walks a fine line between throwing out the original story all together, and trying not to get sued for ripping off certain elements of the classic MGM picture. Things like the Field Mice and the Kalidahs are just so cool, it’s a shame that this is the only way they will probably ever be presented to the general public. Being a fan of the original books, I still found myself struggling to make sense of what was going on. I can’t imagine anyone who hasn’t read the original book will find entertainment value in this movie.

As for the human aspect of the picture, I quite liked Ashanti as Dorothy Gale, since she added a different kind of dynamic that hasn’t been seen before in a lot of Muppet projects. No, it’s not just that she’s black, but she’s a strong female lead and really both of those things are severely lacking. She has a real star quality about her, but never comes across as being too big for the room. One should never try to upstage the Muppets (and that’s a strong word of warning to Mr. Quentin Tarantino, who cameos in this.)

The music is sufficiently peppy and upbeat, but there aren’t any breakaway hits like “The Rainbow Connection” to note. Why people insist the Muppets themselves always sing and dance is beyond me; with the type of star talent they manage to attract I think that screen time could be better devoted to the guests than stuff like Miss Piggy’s “The Witch is Back.”

My strongest complaints about the film come from its direction and visual style. The Jim Henson Workshop contains some of the most talented artists on the face of the Earth, and yet this thing just looked terrible. I remember a decade ago watching Mr. Henson explain the magic of blue screen technology on his “Storyteller“ series. Had he known it would someday be used to place his babies on a poorly rendered backdrop of Oz, I’m pretty sure he would have just destroyed the devices right then and there.

I think part of the appeal of the Muppets is that no matter how ridiculous the characters themselves are, they are just as human as you or I. They have dreams, aspirations, flaws… they even fall in love. When placed on the streets of Manhattan, or working in a crappy fast food restaurant they don’t seem all that out of place, because real life is just as absurd as what happens down in “Fraggle Rock.” That humanity and that warmth is lost in “The Muppet Wizard of Oz,” as it’s such a poorly constructed and jumbled story to begin with. By attempting to poke fun at itself, the suspension of disbelief in the film is completely lost and so is much of the emotional depth that may have been there. “The Muppet Show” got away with winking and nudging at the audience every so often because the series itself took place on a stage. It was a show within a show, and much of the humor was drawn with a seemingly dull theater getting turned upside down by cannons, chickens, or any number of catastrophes that happened during the program. Breaking down the fourth wall is always risky, and you can’t get away with that kind of self-aware humor in a hideous blue screen fantasy world.

This entire project feels counterproductive, as so little is fresh or innovative. Where the Muppets were always experimenting and pushing the limits of humor and technology, this feels like a terrible cop-out. the Muppets interacting so heavily with CGI is the only thing worth noting, but that in and of itself is nothing new to audiences. Thousands have been watching the same thing for years at Disney World and Disney’s California Adventure on "Muppetvision 3D." Even Waldo, the most heartless and annoying of all Jim Henson creations, seems pleasant in comparison to the stuff seen in this latest ABC movie.

In closing, I hate this film with all my heart. If you have any positive feelings towards the Muppets, do them a favor and pass up on “The Muppet Wizard of Oz.”

Nerd? You better damn well believe it...
Comments (8)