When people of a certain age think of The Muppets they nine times out of ten think about The Muppet Show. Which does make sense as that show is there most popular show and was what helped to make them a big name in the first place well now Disney have done the unthinkable and released a revival special for the show and well you all just knew that I had to check out the special the very first chance that I got and so then join me as I give you my SPOILER FILLED review of the special that dares to light the lights one more time with the special in question being called simply just "The Muppet Show" enjoy.
The plot of this special is Miss Piggy finds out that she's being cut from the show due to Kermit accidentally booking to many performers and so will do anything to get on the show. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very special well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very special was in all honesty really good with the specials plot doing a very good job of capturing the pure insanity that is The Muppets whilst also making it feel like the next episode of the show with the only real issue when it comes to the plot being the fact that the episode doesn't really have alot of scenes in it that focus on the plot which is something that does make sense as the original show was also kind of like that as well but here in this special they do actively have Miss Piggy invading one of the episodes performances which is something that does make you wonder why the episode didn't devote more time to this plot as this is something that could have led to some really funny scenes in and yet the makers of this special just felt lime that they were playing it kind of safe with the episodes plot this isn't to say that the plot was bad as it's really not as the plot does allow for all of the typical Muppet mayhem to come into play but it is something that would have been all the more funnier if they devoted more backstage scenes to it as well with the plot of this special being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this special is Bill Barretta as Rowlf The Dog , Dr. Teeth , Swedish Chef and Pepe The King Prawn , Dave Goelz as Gonzo , Zoot , Waldorf , Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beauregard and one of this special executive producers Eric Jacobson as Miss Piggy , Fozzie Bear , Animal , Sam Eagle and The Newsman. Also starring in this special is Peter Linz as Lips , Statler , Link Hogthrob , Robin The Frog and A Brown Creature, David Rudman as Scooter , Janice , Beaker and Miss Poogy , one of this special executive producers Matt Vogel as Kermit The Frog and Sgt. Floyd Pepper , Stephanie D'Abruzzo as Hilda , Bradley Freeman Jr. as Rizzo The Rat , one of this specials executive producers Seth Rogan as Himself , Maya Rudolph as Herself and one of this specials executive producers Sabrina Carpenter as Herself.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very special well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very special was in all honesty really good. With all of the specials actors turning in some really good performances in this special even Matt Vogel who was getting an awful lot of hate online when the trailer dropped for this special does make for a really good Kermit and while yes his Kermit voice isn't perfect he is the new official actor for Kermit and has been doing the role for some years now with him getting better and better each performance with this special being of no exception to that rule with all of the actors that are playing The Muppets doing a really job of playing there truly iconic characters some of whom were even on the original show like for example Dave Goelz who has played Gonzo from the very beginning and is still knocking it out of the park as the character with the specials best actor being Bill Barretta as even tho he doesn't get a whole lot to do in this special he does still turn in a good performance with it being quite obvious that he and the rest of the Muppet actors are having the time of their lives being able to raise the curtain on The Muppet Show tonight one more time with the acting that's n this very special really being helped by the fat that the script for this special is just so good that all this specials actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very special.
The Muppet character are just so iconic in there own right that it really is hard to get them wrong and thankfully this special doesn't get them all wrong as all of the Muppet characters feel like there old selfs. With Miss Piggy being a really over the top diva and Kermit being about one piece of bad news away from having a complete and total melt down this is how these characters were in the original show and it's why the characters became so popular to begin with as they were fun but flawed characters and while it's only really Miss Piggy and Kermit that get the most screen time devoted to them as this episode does feel like an actual episode of the original show alot of the other Muppet characters do also appear in the special as well just in limited roles as we don't get hear Fozzie tell any bad jokes and nor do we get to see Swedish Chef fail to make something that's edible and that's OK as this special was meant to be all about reminding us why we liked these characters in the first and part of that does entail being like an episode of the show and while yes it would have been more fun to see Sabrina Carpenter interacting with more of the Muppet cast outside of Scooter , Kermit and Miss Piggy there would have been no way to do that without repeating yourself alot of the time but at the same time the people that are most likely to watch this special are the fans of The Muppets and sadly we don't get enough of the main Muppet cast in this episode with alot of them being reduced to backstage segments with a few of them coming on stage for the big finale number with them not really getting a chance to show us just what it was that made them so likable in the first place.
SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Believe it or not this is actually the first time that The Muppets have actually down a verity show since 1996's Muppets Tonight. With all of the other shows that they've done since then being either a straight sitcom like 2015's The Muppets a solo show like Muppets Mayhem or an oddly forgotten crossover with various Disney Channel stars in Studio DC: Almost Live and it's kind of odd that that would be the case as the verity show setting is where these characters work best as all of The Muppets characters are meant to be agents of chaos something which we do see in this special as when Rizzo perhaps his musical number we keep on cutting backstage to see Beauregard messing things up or when Sabrina Carpenter is doing her opening number "Manchild" we cut to Crazy Harry going overboard with the wind machine thus causing all of the chickens in the scene to loose all of their feathers which is something that you could see that character doing and yet it is something that does work really well in this special as it's something that does show case just how chaotic that putting on one episode of The Muppet Show could be and that is something that does get lost when you take The Muppets out of the verity show format as while Muppets Mayhem was a really good show that should have gotten a second season it also didn't put the characters into a setting where they were allowed just be chaotic the 2015 Muppets whilst it did give us an update to the verity show format was more focused on all the stuff happening backstage when showing things going wrong on the main show would have been way more finnier to see.
If there's one thing that The Muppets are k own for it's there heart this is something that you see even in The Muppet Movie. With it being something that does come back in this special as right at the end of special when Kermit has to choose just one of his friends to go out and be the big final act he can't do it and so he gets up on stage and starts singing the song "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen as a way to get all of his friends on stage with them all joining him for one big rocking musical number with Dr. Teeth And The Electric Mayhem of course providing the backing for the song which to be fair is a good number to go out on but it's also something that makes you wonder how they managed to get Disney to agree to putting that song in this special as when you look up what the song is about you start to realise that it might be a bit to adult even for The Muppets and yet it's also a rather fitting way to end this special as it does come across as The Muppets being rebellious and outright telling people that no matter what your going to do to them you'll never be able to stop them as they'll always come back in some way shape or form and given that one of there more famous songs is a cover of the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" also by Queen and has alot of adult themes in that song as well it does make sense that they would end this special with another Queen song while it is of course impossible to say if Jim Henson would have ended on that song for this special it does seem right as The Muppets are characters that will never go away as they'll always be someone somewhere willing to talk about them and the fact that they managed to bring back alot of characters including ones that haven't been seen for decades and one who hasn't spoken a single line of dialog since the first season of the original show does show you that the makers of this special really are Muppet fans.
There was one joke that was bit to adult for me even for The Muppets which is after the end credits for the special have finished playing but before the company logos play they straight up hint at Statler having a heart attack. Which was a bit off putting to see as while The Muppets have never really shied away from doing adult themed jokes in the past they always left it up for interpretation which was something that always made it feel like that the kids would get the joke on one level and then the adults would get the same joke on another level whereas here it felt like they were straying a bit to far into the adult world which was something that Jim Henson would never do and heck it's even something that the Disney Muppets would never do as well which makes that joke about and old man dying feel even more out of place with that one bit of the special being the only time where I questioned what was actually going on in he special this would have been something that wouldn't be an issue if they revealed that his arm was numb and he was having these chest pains because of the fact that he did genuinely like the special and play it off more as being a heart warming moment but they don't do that and given the fact that they straight up killed of and then brought back to life Maya Rudolph in the special as well it is something that makes you wonder if they were planning on killing of Statler in this special as that is something that wouldn't go down well at all with the fanbase and is something that i'm glad that they didn't do if that was the original plan as it would have caused this special to end on a rather sour note as only hinting at him having a heart attack yes is still a weird way to end things it also allows the character to show up in other Muppet projects as they can just say that he better.
Now then this special has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly thirty minuets and ten seconds. Which to be fair is slightly longer then what the average running time of the original show was which is something that does make this special feel more special as it gives us time to really soak in the fact that we are seeing these characters back home where they belong and while the episode really doesn't have alot of plot there to really cover tat amount of running time in the first place this is something that is not a huge issue as the show is all about giving us unique acts and isn't focused on giving us alot plot with the episode really using it's running time really wisely as while the special really doesn't have alot of plot there to begin with it's plot is as simple enough as you'd want it to be with alot of the fun and the joy coming from this special coming from the fact that we are seeing The Muppets back home on stage at The Muppet Theater once again and to be fair that is something that doesn't really require alot of plot or alot of plot development either with the same thing even being true for the specials character development as we already know how Kermit and co are meant to be and therefor the only character that needed character development was Sabrina Carpenter herself and that's it and to be she does come across as well developed character with her being a die hard Miss Piggy fan and that's it and to be fair that's all she needed as none of the shows other guest stars would get character development as they all just play themselves and that's it but I really will admit that this special really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy thats actually featured / presented to us in this very special well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very special was in all honesty really good. With the special having alot of really good jokes in it all of which feel true to who The Muppets are as characters be it from Kermit booking one to many acts to Miss Piggy getting an even bigger ego when Sabrina says how much she meant to her and even modelled her look after her which Miss Piggy says that both she and her lawyers have noticed and will be in touch with Sabrina saying her lawyers would be honored to talk to her lawyers which is a really good joke as it is something that Miss Piggy would do with the best joke in the whole entire episode funnily enough also being a Miss Piggy joke as when she finds out that she's not doing another number on the show she straight kicks down Sabrina's dressing room door as Kermit is right on the other side of the door with her not even seeing him there in the first place with the two of them then having a chat about how Miss Piggy inspired her in the first place with Sabrina forgetting all about Kermit and only getting him out of the door when Miss Piggy has left which is a really good joke made even more funnier when you take into account that the joke plays to Sabrina's strengths as a comic actor with her and Miss Piggy having some really great comedic chemistry together somethin which we do see come to play in alot of there scenes together as that's were we get to see some really good and funny jokes with the special having alot of painfully jokes in it all of which feel true to who these characters are as characters in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall go right now and watch this special on Disney+ and then tell your friends to go and watch and get them to tell there friends to go and watch it as Disney needs to see that people do still care about The Muppets and with the special being this good it does deserve to be seen by as many people as is humanly possible in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this vey special in this very review and as such that really does mean that this veery special really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly an 8.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Amazon . Co . Uk , IMP Awards . Com an Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very special that I used in this very review being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very special with alot of them being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.