Pretty sure the trailer was just meant to be a parody.
The Muppets (2011)
- Thread starter Kai "the spy"
- Start date
"The Fuzzy Pack is back," the tone and look of the trailer? Totally riffing on The Hangover 2.
The whole trailer is a parody of trailers (much like the first trailer).
Moreover, the target audience for this trailer is people who would be old enough to remember some of the older muppet products anyway.
I can't agree with this at all.
It seems clear that the target audience of this Muppet trailer is some subset of the people who didn't automatically tune out all trailers of The Hangover: Part II.
I, as someone familiar with the Muppets since before there was even a Muppet Show apart from Sesame Street, and who on purpose did tune out of the entire Hangover franchise, was completely clueless to appreciate the tone of the trailer. I'm still taking y'all on your word that it references The Hangover: Part II at all, because I'm not even going to bother to check that or ever see a Hangover movie.
But, the first trailer was so brilliant that I'm not going to hold the fact that this trailer was obviously not aimed at me against the film.
It's aimed at people who would be old enough to see an R-rated movie and thus understand the reference.
I didn't like it or get it either, but I suppose it was part of the parody. I think it would have been more effective to have quotes from their past movies flash up on the screen. Or reviews of their past movies too. Come to think of it, I think that's the kind of vibe the teaser poster was going for too. They're in similar poses to this trailer. I just hope the movie doesn't devolve into stupidity and bathroom humour instead of witty writing.
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I don't see how the target audience for this trailer and the target audience for the Muppets would overlap to any significant degree. The Hangover? From what I gather about that film (and presumably its sequel), it represents a far more crass brand of comedy than the Muppets.
That's what worries me. The style of crude, grossout-driven "humor" that seems to dominate movies these days is not the sort of thing I want to see the Muppets reduced to.
Srsly.
The first 'Hangover' made like half a billion dollars at the box office, and the sequel is expected to open at over $100 million. Damn straight you want your trailer in front of it, even the Muppets.
It's a legitimate worry. I don't begrudge the popularity of The Hangover, but the types of humour between the two are completely different in past Muppet movies. Even being a parody trailer, one can understand that there'd have to be something in the Muppets movie for that target audience, otherwise they wouldn't be doing that trailer at all. The Muppets haven't been on the big screen in almost 20 years, which has seen a lot of trends come and go. So, with that in mind, it's not totally unreasonable to think they might add some of this bathroom humour in order to fit the current trend.
It's a bit like the Shrek movies. The first two Shrek movies were brilliant as they were cleverly written. The 3rd and 4th had different writers who devolved the series into a series of poop and puke jokes, which are akin to cutting corners when writers can't find anything clever to write. The 4th movie was only 90 minutes because it didn't really have anything else offer due to the weak writing as it devolved to become a parody of itself. The 4th movie had some great ideas that were badly executed. I would have loved to have seen the same idea as written by the original writers who wrote the first two movies instead of something that felt trite.
Anyhow, I'm going off-track, but my point is that the humour is like apples and oranges. But it stands to reason that they would likely put in apples with those oranges because they think something might be gained from it. I doubt that this is just a trailer for a random audience, but rather that the movie does in fact contain grossout humour. In any industry, you don't do something without expecting some kind of payoff. There has to be some kind of intrinsic reason or connection for it. Then again, I may be completely off-base here. But the feeling I get is that they're doing some cross-marketing effort due to that kind of humour being present.
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Oops, Double post due to a server burp.
My concern has nothing to do with where the trailer is attached, since it's not like I'd ever see that movie so I wouldn't even have known the trailer was attached to it if it hadn't been mentioned here. My concern is that the writers of the film are apparently known for several of the movies in the currently popular style of film comedy characterized by extremely raunchy or tasteless content, or at least that's my impression. Now, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, to hope that they understand what makes the Muppets funny and will let them be themselves rather than trying to "modernize" them to fit the current fashions of film comedy. But I can't help being concerned about the possibilities.
Even aside from concerns about the style and taste of the humor, there's simply the fact that these people have never written the Muppets before. They're untested, unproven. And some of the recent Muppet productions haven't been up to par. The 2008 Christmas special was pretty lame. And I don't recall much about The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, the 2005 TV movie, but I think I was lukewarm about it.
Only a dozen years, actually, since Muppets from Space (and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland) in 1999.
Checkmate
Commodore
Man, it's amazing how people can switch their declarations of absolute hatred (oh I'm sorry, "concern") for something they haven't even seen in the blink of the eye.
"RAWR! The trailer is a parody of a movie I claim not to have seen but know that I hate! Ergo, it will be just like it! RAWR!" <blink> "RAWR! My seething hatred has nothing to do with the trailer at all, but the people behind the scenes! RAWR!"
Absolutely amazing. If you're going to be so spiteful about something you're completely ignorant of, at least have the decency to keep it consistent.
I hope that the Muppets are updated to be relevant to contemporary fashions. I want to see Sesame Street blow up, Miss Piggy have an inappropriate sexual relationship with Oscar the Grouch, Fozzie strangle Kermit for no apparent reason, Gonzo get drunk and puke all over himself and Cookie Monster blow cigarette smoke in the face of a pregnant Janice. And Rowlf should die an arbitrary death.
And hand-held cameras. There must be hand-held cameras.
And hand-held cameras. There must be hand-held cameras.
And orange and blue. Lots of orange and blue.
Huh, I didn't even know about The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. Was that a TV movie?
Either way, I agree with you. I'm remaining cautiously optimistic, however there is a legimate concern, and you point out yet another reason for this concern.
I'm not remotely worried about the "Hangover 2" parody trailer. I've got a feeling that from here on out, we'll see the Muppets in parody trailers of just about every major film scheduled to come out between now and when the film actually opens. In June, I expect to see The Muppets in a Micheal Bay-like parody of The Transformers. When I go to see the final installment of Harry Potter this July, I fully expect to see wand-wielding Muppets in a trailer parodying "The Deathly Hallows". And to see Avenger-esque Muppet superheroes in the trailers before "Captain America".
The question is: Will "The Count" put in an appearance if and when they have a trailer parodying the remake of "Fright Night"?
The question is: Will "The Count" put in an appearance if and when they have a trailer parodying the remake of "Fright Night"?
I saw the actual trailer and then the "Hangover II" parody trailer...and loved them both. I was hesitant about seeing this movie at first but now I'm sold, and yes Amy Adams is hot indeed. I agree that Peter Segal and Amy Adams were perfect to play the humans.
So, you really have no idea what you are talking about. While the humor of such films as Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek, and The Hangover (which, to the best of my knowledge doesn't share the creative staff with The Muppets) is edgy, those films also have a lot of heart, warmth, generally good characterization (which I honestly believe is why those films were as successful as they were). They were not 90 minutes of dick and fart jokes with no redeeming value.
If anything, I believe The Muppets will also have a lot of heart and emotion which is a key component when tackling a franchise like this. Also, Jason Segel (co-writer and star) has been very outspoken about his love for the Muppets since starting to work on this project. He even goes to the length of hoping it will be able to stand up against some of those early Muppet movies. Clearly, this is a labor of love for him, and it make me doubtful that he'd turn the Muppets into a series of dick and fart jokes.
Honestly, read the Wiki Entry. If that doesn't give you any reassurance, nothing probably will.
You surprise me, Christopher.
They are successful professionals which not only gives them some clout to make this movie, but some degree to suggest they know what they are doing. It is not like the creative staff involved are complete nobodies who haven't "proven themselves" at all.
Suddenly, I feel as if I have been swept back to 2006 and some guy named Abrams was announced as the guy in charge of Star Trek.
Which has nothing to do with this movie.
Wouldn't the Elmo movie be more of a Sesame Street movie? But I guess that's just splitting hairs.
And lens flares!