BEFORE: A relatively short film tonight, since I'm losing an hour - I'll spare you my bi-annual rant about why I hate Daylight Saving Time (and yes, its "Saving", not "Savings"), but since it's an election year, I'll restate my claim that I will support any non-Libertarian candidate at the local, state or national level who's willing to work toward abolishing it.
"The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" is my lead-in to a chain of seafaring films. In taking personal inventory for this project, I realized I'd only seen one Muppet movie (the first one, back in 1978), so I'm planning to watch the others. Still, I had to decide where to include this one - with the Muppet films, or with the pirate films? Which element is more important? I suppose I could have used it as a link between the two topics, but I'll have to pass on that idea, and hit the other Muppet films later.
Linking from last night's film, Liam Neeson also appeared with Frank Oz in a sci-fi film of some note whose name escapes me...
THE PLOT: The Muppets' twist on the classic tale, as Kermit the Frog and his colleagues go on a warfare against ruthless pirates.
AFTER: Well, I guess we can add the Muppets to the list of things I outgrew years ago. Though I know some adult hipsters who are into the Henson films hardcore, for the most part I regard them as for kids only. It seems a little arrogant to me for someone to take a classic novel like this, and decide that what it really needs is a bunch of puppets, and some peppy songs. Oh, and a lot of inside jokes.
If I've got issues with Disney adding singing gargoyles to "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", and changing the ending (a big classic lit no-no, if you ask me), then I've got to take issue with shoehorning Miss Piggy into the plot by changing the gender of a major character. I thought no women were allowed on board a ship! Or pigs or frogs, for that matter. Rats do make some sense, however.
Now, I admit that some of the jokes do land. I guess if you throw enough of them out there, some of them are going to stick. And the human actors do a fine job, I'm just not buying into the rest of it.
Starring Tim Curry (last heard in "Queer Duck: The Movie"), Kevin Bishop, Billy Connolly (last heard in "Open Season 2"), Jennifer Saunders, and the Muppets (duh).
RATING: 5 out of 10 skeletons
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