Muppets Haunted Mansion

Premiered October 8, 2021.

One hundred years ago, on All Hallows' Eve, the a magician known as the Great MacGuffin disappeared in a haunted mansion.  In the present day, on Halloween night, Gonzo The Great (Dave Goelz) and his friend Pepe the King Prawn (Bill Barretta) are participating in a fear challenge in the very same mansion, which is believed to be the most haunted mansion in the world.  Gonzo is especially excited about this, since MacGuffin is his favorite magician.  Pepe is along for the ride because he believes the mansion will be filled with partying celebrities.

At the same time, their friends Kermit the frog (Matt Vogel) and Miss Piggy (Eric Jacobson) are hosting the Muppets' annual costume party.  They're disappointed Gonzo and Pepe won't be attending. 

Upon arrival at the mansion, Pepe and Gonzo are greeted by the caretaker (Darren Criss) and several ghosts. 

Inside, they meet their "Ghost Host" (Will Arnett), who gives them a tour of the mansion and explains the terms of the challenge: Inside the mansion's walls, they must face all their fears bravely.  Pepe and Gonzo must stay in the mansion all night but if they fail to do so, they will be trapped inside forever!  The host says the house is filled with spirits that will respond to their "sympathetic vibrations."  

Throughout the evening, they will encounter lots of interesting characters, including:

Madam Pigota, the spirit of a psychic medium who speaks in rhymes.  She gives clues to Gonzo and Pepe that may help them find a way out of the mansion.

Gauzey the Hat Box Bear (Eric Jacobson), a comedian who performs at the mansion's vaudeville show.

Constance Hathaway (Taraji P. Henson), who tells Pepe she wants to marry him. 

And John Stamos! 

Unbeknownst to Pepe, Constance has killed all five of her previous husbands and their ghosts are now stuck in the mansion.  She plans to kill Pepe after marrying him.  Gonzo figures this out and tries to intervene.

However, Gonzo has his own problems.  The ghost host informs him that if he wants to survive the night, he must go to room 999.  Inside that room, Gonzo must face his greatest fear.

Will Gonzo and Pepe make it through the night?  Or will they be trapped in the Haunted Mansion forever?

J.A. Morris says: 

Since the Jim Henson's death, the Muppets haven't always been handled well.  Muppet movies and TV have been very inconsistent in recent decades.  What Henson and his collaborators understood was that Muppets programming needed a combination of child-like sentiment and a little bit of edgy humor.  I'm happy to report that Muppets Haunted Mansion reminds me a lot of the humor of The Muppet Show and the early Muppets films.  

Gonzo and Pepe get the spotlight here, instead of usual "leads" like Kermit or Miss Piggy.  Dave Goelz (of the the original Muppeteers) and Bill Barretta do a nice job carrying the special.  All the other Muppet performs are good as well, especially puppeteers who play the Electric Mayhem band.  Their performance of "Dancing In The Moonlight" is a nice moment.  

The human actors in Muppets Haunted Mansion are also entertaining.  Will Arnett brings just enough spookiness and mystery as the mansion's ghost host.  Taraji P. Henson is great as the murderous Constance Hathaway.  Most of Henson's scenes feature her interacting with Pepe.  It takes a lot of talent to believably interact with a king prawn.  

Lots of famous actors make cameo appearances as ghosts.  I don't have the time or space here to name of all of them, but it's worth noting that the late Ed Asner plays one of the ghosts.  It's one of his final roles and it was nice to see him here

The only problem I had with Muppets Haunted Mansion was the performance of the song "Grim, Grinning Ghosts," a song that originated at Disney's Haunted Mansion theme park attraction.  It's one of the best original songs written for their parks. 

I didn't have a problem with Darren Criss' performance of the song, I just thought "Grim, Grinning Ghosts" deserved a bigger number than what we get here.  The special's major production number is reserved for the original song "Life Hereafter," which I also enjoyed.  

I enjoyed Muppets Haunted Mansion more than any recent Muppet production and I hope it's the start of a new "golden age" of Muppets film and TV.  It's highly recommended to fans of Muppets fans of every age and it's something I figure I'll watch often around Halloween in the future.

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 jack o'lanterns!

RigbyMel says:

Having a nostalgic affection for both the Muppets AND Disney's celebrated Haunted Mansion dark ride, I was quite intrigued when this Muppets special was announced for Disney+.   I was also a little bit nervous about it because, as J.A. Morris points out above, post-Henson Muppets output has been on the uneven side.  

It turns out that this new special contains enough Muppet mayhem and Haunted Mansion spookiness to make my nostalgic heart very happy indeed. 

Not only was the story fun, but there were all kinds of cool little Easter eggs (Halloween treats?) sprinkled throughout.   

For instance, we see Mah Na Mah Na candelabra in the stretching room near the beginning of Gonzo and Pepe's adventure. 

When Statler and Waldorf show up, they heckle the proceedings from a "Doom Buggy" - the mode of transit park guests take during the actual Haunted Mansion dark ride

There are also appearances by some pretty old school Muppets like Wayne and Wanda.   

Plus the "casting" of the Muppets in various ghostly Haunted Mansion roles was pretty darned inspired -- and we even get non-sequitur screaming goats thrown into the mix for good measure!

It is quite evident from all the clever meta-humor and an optimal balance of spooky and funny that the writers (Bill Barretta, Kirk R. Thatcher, and Kelly Younger) love the Muppets and the Haunted Mansion and they've done a great job of bringing the spirit of Jim Henson and his creations to the screen in this special. 

 

Muppets Haunted Mansion is the Muppets/Halloween/Haunted Mansion (monster?) mash-up we didn't know we needed and is recommended viewing for Muppet fans and Haunted Mansion fans of all ages. 

RigbyMel's rating: 

4 jack o'lanterns! 

Announcing Christmas Muppetfest 2014!

We've mentioned before that we grew up the 1970s and early 80s.

Emmet Otter shows off his new Christmas Branch.

This means that the Muppets were a major part of our childhood.  Sesame Street, The  Muppet Show, various movies and tv specials of that era featured Jim Henson's wonderful creations.

Mr. Hooper brings Christmas gifts for Ernie & Bert.

The Muppets also appeared in quite a few Christmas specials and movies as well.  We've reviewed some Muppet programming, but haven't featured any of their Yule-themed offerings...until now!

The cast of Sesame Street at the time of Christmas Eve On Sesame Street. 

During the past two Decembers, we focused on adaptations of A Christmas Carol.  This holiday season we will feature reviews of several of the Muppets' holiday film and tv appearances.

Michael Caine as Scrooge with the Muppets in A Muppet Christmas Carol.

We will start our Muppets Christmas tribute at the beginning...or at least the earliest that's readily available.

The Muppets first came to fame through appearances on variety shows in the 1960s.  They were featured frequently the Ed Sullivan Show appearing more than 20 times, including two of Sullivan's Christmas episodes.

December 24 1967:

Santa, played by Arthur Godfrey, is at the North Pole, getting ready to deliver toys.  He's singing a song called "It's Christmas Tomorrow" when several monsters show up.  Their leader Thudge (Jim Henson) tells Santa they are "a bunch of thugs, crooks and burglers."  They tell Santa they've come to steal toys.

Santa says they can't do that, because he is giving these toys to the monsters.  The would-be thieves are moved to tears by Santa's generosity.  The sketch ends with the monsters joining Mr. Claus for a song.

It's interesting to note that the Muppet monster Gleep would later change color and morph into Grover.

Santa with Gleep

A year later, the Muppets returned for another Christmas musical number.
"Christmas Reindeer" premiered Dec 22 1968.

Dasher (Henson), the boss reindeer says they have a problem -- it's 3 days before Christmas and it hasn't snowed yet.

The other reindeer respond with bad jokes and worse puns about snow and references to Christmas songs.  Finally, one of the reindeer mentions that Indians perform rain dances and suggests they should do a snow dance...

...which makes it rain!

Eventually, we get a happy ending.  The Christmas snow arrives and the reindeer sing a happy song called "It's Christmas Time And We Need Snow." One of the reindeer has a voice that sounds very similar to that of Fozzie Bear, right down to telling silly jokes.  Of course the reindeer is voiced by the great Frank Oz, who would later perform Fozzie.

Immediately after the sketch, Henson makes a rare on-screen appearance.

These sketches can be found two dvds:  one titled A Classic Christmas-The Ed Sullivan Show, and another DVD called Muppets Magic from the Ed Sullivan Show, which is out of print (and VERY expensive).

These two sketches are less than five minutes each, so we won't apply our usual "Candy Cane" ratings in this case.  However, both are well worth seeking out if you're a fan of Henson and the Muppets.

We'll be back soon with more Muppet-themed reviews!

J.A. and RigbyMel

Cee Lo's Magic Moment

Premiered November 26, 2012

R & B singer and judge from The Voice Cee Lo Green hosts his first Christmas special.  It features a concert recorded last October 10 at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.

Cee Lo Green & his band on a very festive stage.

Cee Lo welcomes the Muppets, singers Eric Benet, Rod Stewart and all the vocalists who served as Green's team members on The Voice.

Songs include:

"Santa Claus Is Coming To Town"
"This Christmas"
"What Christmas Means To Me"
"The Christmas Song"
"Run Run Rudolph"
"Merry Christmas Baby" (with Rod Stewart)
"White Christmas"
"Silent Night" (with Eric Benet)
"All I Need Is Love" (with The Muppets & "Voice" contestants)

Cee Lo & Rod Stewart perform "Merry Christmas, Baby".

Between songs, we get some interaction between Cee Lo, Kermit (Steve Whitmire) and Miss Piggy (Eric Jacobson) of the Muppets , who are seated in the front row.  He dedicates his performance of 'The Christmas Song' to them.

CeeLo and Eric Benet sing 'Silent Night'. 

At the end of the concert, Cee Lo invites Kermie and Piggy up on the stage.  They talk about how they just recorded a song together called "All I Need Is Love" for Cee Lo's Christmas album.  They launch into the song and are joined by Fozzie Bear (Eric Jacobson), Pepe the King Prawn (Bill Baretta), Animal (Jacobson, again), Gonzo The Great (Dave Goelz) and the Snowths (Jacobson, yet again).

Cee Lo, the Muppets and The Voice team close the show with "All I Need Is Love"

The song borrows heavily from "Mahna Mahna", a song made famous by the Muppets.  Cee Lo invites his team from The Voice to back them up in a classic variety show "All Hands On Deck" closing number. 

J.A. Morris says:

I suppose your enjoyment of this special depends on how much you like Cee Lo Green's music.  I can take or leave him, but I enjoy some of his songs (especially "F*ck You").  He has a likeable stage persona here as the host.

Cee Lo backed up by his masked drummer.

 Cee Lo is also not above indulging in what could be described as "Christmas schmaltz".  For instance, while singing "The Christmas Song", he changes the lyrics.  Instead of "For kids from 1 to 92", he directs the song to the audience and sings "To each and everyone of you". Cee Lo seems to be channeling his inner Bing Crosby/Perry Como/Andy Williams here, not there's anything wrong with that at Christmas!

I wasn't crazy about most of his guests.  Rod Stewart is someone I can deal with in very small doses, and I don't watch The Voice, so a reunion of Cee Lo's team doesn't interest me.  But I did appreciate the song selection here.  "Run Run Rudolph", "What Christmas Means To Me" and "Merry Christmas Baby" aren't nearly as overdone as other Holiday hits.

But thing that prompted me to watch this was the Muppets.  I grew up with the Muppets and they've long been synonymous with Christmas TV specials.   Even though most of the original Muppeteers have either died or retired, it's always fun to see the Muppets.  Cee Lo has a nice rapport with them, he's not "too cool" to interact with Muppets.  And it was particularly nice to see old school Muppets like the Snowths make an appearance!  If you grew up liking the Muppets' performance of "Mahna Mahna", you'll probably enjoy the live performance here of "All I Need Is Love".

Cee Lo's Magic Moment will be most enjoyed by Cee Lo Green enthusiasts, but if you like the Muppets it's worth watching at least once.

J.A. Morris' rating:
2 and a half candy canes