Hacker Cinema
The Muppets
2011 · Film · 103 min
Directed by James Bobin
When Kermit the Frog and the Muppets learn that their beloved theater is slated for demolition, a sympathetic human, Gary, and his felt-faced brother, Walter, swoop in to help the gang put on a telethon show and raise the $10 million they need to save the day.
1 positive3 neutralfrom 4 commenters
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4 comments on Hacker News
There’s a clear thread of human effort and presence from The Muppets to Space Jam to Dune that this Odyssey movie’s creators understood. People want Amelié, not Avengers. It’s fine to use so much CGI that your film can’t be re-exported in 4K (yes, that’s why) so long as you have people wearing stuff and standing in front of other stuff. It’s not fine to film your entire movie with mocap bodysuits on green backgrounds and having them perform to a tennis ball as co-actor that will be AI-generated from a dead actor later. I probably won’t watch the Odyssey but I will absolutely celebrate this aspect of it to others now that I know.
About half way through I accepted the likelihood that there would be no muppets. Then I was surprised that this was an ad, and not an art film about Orwellian offices.
As usual Matt Levine writes great articles.
In a footnote (Matt loves footnotes) he cites one Financial Times article from 2012, regarding when a Goldman Sachs employee said that clients were referred to as "muppets". Apparently GS investigated and found:
Goldman responded by launching an investigation into what was nicknamed internally “the muppet hunt”. The investigators interviewed dozens of staff and sifted through millions of emails, finding about 4,000 “muppet” references. But they said 99 per cent of those referred to last year’s movie of the same name.
To which one comment about the FT article said:
I didn't realise the film was that popular!! It must have something of a cult following at GS.
Other comments were a bit more direct:
Really…How can GS proffer this rubbish? This should make the public loathe them even more. Good job GS!
Ahhh, good times. Remember when everyone hated GS?
BTW You need a password to read the linked FT article. But when you sign up you get a small number per month for free. You then also get to read FT Alphaville for free (it has market commentary).
Also, many people have home theaters that provide a very nice movie-viewing experience. So whereas a family of four might go see a special, well-reviewed movie like "The Muppets" in the theater, they may wait to see "We Bought a Zoo" when it comes out on video.