As an avid Muppet fan, I’ve decided that I’m going to be reviewing all of The Muppets’ films on my blog. I’ve watched all of them except for Kermit’s Swamp Years, which is the only one I’ll be watching for the first time when making my review. All of these other films I have seen at least once, if not numerous times.
To start us off, I’ve decided to begin with probably the least popular and most widely disliked in the Muppet fandom: 2005’s The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz. There’s a good chance many of you reading this have not seen this film for television. Not to worry, it’s basically just The Wizard of Oz with singer Ashanti as Dorothy and Muppets as everyone else. The main twist other than the Muppety cast is that Dorothy now wants Oz to grant her wish of becoming a musical pop star instead of simply wanting to return home to Kansas.
It was fairly well received when it premiered on television by audiences but has maintained a pretty poor rating from critics. I’ve never seen Muppet fans praise this film, though I am sure they are out there somewhere. So, what’s the deal with this film? Is it really as bad as so many people think or is there something incredible there that everyone is missing?
Let’s start with the good. I was unexpectedly impressed with the costumes and puppet designs of this film. I was taking notes while rewatching the movie and I kept jotting down something along the lines of “this person’s costume looks amazing,” so props to the costume designers. Gonzo, Kermit, and Fozzie all look great with their redesigns to fit their characters of the Tin Thing, Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion. I was especially fond of Miss Piggy’s outfits, who has many opportunities to shine as she plays all four of the witches in Oz. Her villainous dominatrix biker outfit was so good, and I cannot believe people are overlooking this. She wears tall black studded boots for crying out loud!
On that note, I was surprised how raunchy and “adult” this film was allowed to be. Disney had only just purchased The Muppets in 2004, so I’m not sure how much say they had in the production of this film, but I guarantee you we won’t see them release anything like this with The Muppets ever again. There was notably a lot of gay jokes in this film like Pepe saying “he’s not my type” when shown a dressed up teddy bear, Gonzo telling Pepe he is fondling his tin nipples, and Fozzie stating that the group is “friends of Dorothy,” a euphemism for someone being gay. There are also jokes about sexual spanking, “busty” anime vampires, and… a 3D animated sexy chicken-headed woman. I really didn’t need that one, especially seeing how badly she was animated.
Along with being more sexual, this movie also had some surprisingly dark moments, but nothing as haunting as sexy chicken ladies, thank goodness. I much preferred the comedy of these over the sexy women jokes that mostly fell flat in my opinion. My favorite was when Wicked Witch Miss Piggy strapped Dorothy to a table and slowly lowered a saw to cut off her feet at the ankles instead of just taking off the magic slippers she so badly wanted. There’s even dried blood on the saw to show us that she does this all the time. Amazing.
If you did see this movie as a kid, there’s a good chance you remember the even more graphic scene of the Wicked Witch’s biker henchmen literally ripping Gonzo and Kermit limb from limb, decapitating them, and leaving them strewn in pieces on the ground. The scene fades to black as we stare at their seemingly lifeless and destroyed bodies. I’ve never seen something so horrific in a Muppet film before.
Some of my favorite not-so-graphic moments were:
- ”You just gonna pass up an opportunity to audition for The Muppets, the most powerful puppets in Hollywood?” Until this was said, I assumed Dorothy wanted to audition for a girl group or as a backup singer for a pop star or something, but nope, it’s The Muppets, the most powerful puppets in Hollywood. I love that.
- The extreme cut from a fairly calm storm to insane tornado chaos while the townspeople scramble outside seeking shelter.
- The way Dorothy says “Toto” when she sees that her pet prawn is likely dead from the storm made me laugh out loud. She delivered it more like her friend just showed her a really bad tattoo they got and she’s trying to comfort them but can’t help but wince when she sees it.
- All the moments with the rat munchkins. The rats are consistently hilarious and charming in all the Muppet films they appear in. This is no exception, especially when they all show up in tiny gas masks to save Dorothy from the poppies.
Okay, I think that’s enough praise for this movie. Now onto the absolute worst part of this viewing (and listening) experience: the music.
It’s a shame that this is the downfall of this film because I think that if it had a killer Muppets soundtrack like some of the other films have had, so many more people would adore this movie. Ashanti is a great singer and she gives it her all in the songs she sings, but vocals alone cannot save the mess that is the music composition. There are four songs the characters sing in this film, and none are very good. The better ones like “Kansas” and “Good Life” are fine but overall unremarkable and unmemorable. “Good Life” is the finale song but is the shortest of them all and doesn’t have any of the wow factor that most Muppet movie finale songs have. “When I’m With You” is the most Muppety sounding song of the four, sounding eerily like “Together Again” at multiple points. Unfortunately though, the group parts of the song suffer from a sort of “high school production” feel. Like no one can remember their notes quite right.
The worst song of all though was Miss Piggy’s “The Witch Is in the House.” I loved Wicked Witch Piggy, and I love a good villain song so I was so disappointed that this song was pretty much unlistenable. This song has some of the worst lyrics that do not flow at all and a chaotic audio experience that is just not pleasant to listen to. I’m so sorry, Miss Piggy. This is the one song that really features The Electric Mayhem, which is just such a missed opportunity. They also appear in the poppy themed nightclub, which would have been a perfect opportunity for an Electric Mayhem original about druggy poppies. I would have much preferred that over the mess of a villain song we got instead.
I think that when looking at the other Muppet films, this one severely lacks any powerful moments. There’s no dramatic moments of loss and sadness, no larger than life celebration of success, and no heartwarming scenes of deep connection between the characters. The closest we get is a scene where Fozzie is too terrified to cross a suspended log bridge so Gonzo goes back to help him. It’s sweet and it made me wish that we had more moments like that. Without those more emotional scenes, the movie feels empty.
Overall, I think this movie is ragged on way more than it deserves. It’s nothing remarkable, sure, and it doesn’t even hold a candle to the other Muppet remakes of “The Muppet Christmas Carol” and “Muppet Treasure Island,” but I honestly think that if the music was better it would have been farther up on Muppet fans’ personal tier lists. I think that the more “adult” jokes hold true to Jim Henson’s original intentions of The Muppets not being a “just for kids” thing, and most of them are quite fun even if they are dark sometimes. The television budget and the lack of really memorable or heartwarming moments leaves this film feeling pretty “meh” though. I think it’s one of those movies you could have a lot of fun watching with friends, but when compared to the other Muppet films you could be watching instead, it feels pretty shallow and weak.
Maybe if I end up in Oz I could ask the wizard for a better version of this movie.
