Tag: muppets

The Muppets (2011)

Cal & I were lucky enough to get a few hours to ourselves, and decided to check out a film. Our options gave us a pretty stark choice, and we opted for The Muppets over Lars von Trier’s (supposedly fantastic but probably a wee bit depressing) Melancholia.

This was a good call.

It’s a great film. Sure, not perfect. The pacing felt a little bit *too* rushed at the start, like you were waiting for it to catch up with itself. But all the bits were fantastic. It was classic Muppets action. Lew Zealand got one of the best lines in the film, and you know something’s going right (or terribly terribly wrong) when that happens. Heck, the film trusted its felt talent enough to hand over the screen to its chicken cast, who of course (unlike the other Muppets) cannot speak, only cluck. Everything stopped for a big chicken-only musical number which was performed in its entirety. And it worked.

And I even teared up a bit as the Muppets recreated their classic TV opening.

I only had one complaint about this film, one moment where it kicked me out of the zone. The Muppets are performing probably their most famous song, and it cuts to the audience in the theatre, who are all smiling and swaying along with the music. And I thought, NO! That’s not right. They should be SINGING ALONG!

Anyway. This card-carrying member of the Victoria University Muppet Club loved it.

Bonus: Yesterday I listened to this Q&A podcast with the writers of The Muppets – revelatory and laugh-out-loud funny. Obviously, filled with spoilers, but if you’ve seen the film I highly recommend it.

Also: Chris Cooper’s song in the film is a SHOWSTOPPER.

Tooth Linky


Yesterday, went to dentist for first checkup in 3 years. He said “all good”. A dentist saying “all good” is one of life’s nicest, most reassuring things.

This one goes up the top because it’s amazing. It’s about the colour palette in blockbuster movies. Teal and orange: Hollywood please stop the madness! Lots of great photos to illustrate the point.

See also: the orange/blue contrast in movie posters

Write your own Kung-Fu movie

Cookie Monster and Om Nom Nom. This has been in my linky file for months. It is cool.

See also the Muppet Studio’s Easter special: a rendition of Stand By Me, by Carl

Ian Fleming interviewed Raymond Chandler – BBC archive material on YouTube [edited to add: this interview as one mp3 for download – thanks Matt!]

Fear and Loathing in Farmville – a discussion of how social games on Facebook are claiming the game-o-sphere

If there were websites in 1984, the Crazy Horses would have had this one

Master of Business Card Throwing

Shot-for-shot remake of Goofy movie intro (yes, the Goofy movie – I don’t get it either but)

Ruben Bolling is amused by Obama’s signature

History myths you probably think are true

And finally, invading shapeshifting reptiles are behind James Cameron’s Avatar.
OR
And finally, Satan is behind James Cameron’s Avatar.

High Traffic Linky

So that Wikileaks post yesterday was picked up by Reddit and traffic on this blog went into the stratosphere yesterday. On Weds I had 283 unique visitors, pretty typical; on Thursday that number jumped to 92,487. Whoa. What’s especially odd is that the post in question contained nothing at all new – it just copied and pasted some tweets from the Wikileaks twitter feed. Purely a right place/right time kinda deal.

Anyway. It’s Friday so time for some linky.

A look at all the lies and front groups that are confusing the  public on climate change just like they did for tobacco health risks.

Here’s a great alternative to Wikipedia: Wookieepedia. Surprisingly extensive.

The Guardian takes note of the 20th anniversary of Twin Peaks.

This one has been everywhere this week, and it is far weirder than I expected: Alien vs Pooh. Also related to the incompatibility of the Alien films with childhood, this from io9:  Old Alien toy ads will ruin your childhood all over again. Check out the Predator who attacks with his dreadlocks!

Trace Hodgson’s legendary 80s political/social satire Shafts of Strife. I can remember being astonished that this weird comic strip was running in the staid old Listener! (via Stephen Judd; Shafts of Strife presented online by the lovely Roger Langridge, whose Muppets comics still aren’t available in NZ.)

Scott Pilgrim trailer!

Watch some B-movies on AMC’s site. Streamed without region-lock; I am afraid of how much of my time this could eat. Worth a look just to see the titles of all the movies.

Minuit’s Aotearoa, a great track with lots of images from NZ’s past, has become something of an expat classic. It was mentioned in the DomPost yesterday which reminded me I had it sitting in my Linky folder. Lovely, but beware if you are a NewZillinderAbroad, it may give you a case of the homesicks.

Also NZ-specific is this great post from Reading the Maps last September, looking at whether we NZers are right to feel so distant from the appalling acts of genocide that have occurred elsewhere in the world. Shoulda linky to this ages back but still a great read.

40 inspirational speeches in 2 minutes

While my keytar gently weeps

“When the New Zealander comes“, some post-apocalyptic fiction from 1911, complete with illustrations. (Published in the Strand magazine, what published the Sherlock Holmes stories.)

And finally… the Muppet Wicker Man