Since I feel that ABC Family has poor taste in their selections for "25 Days of Christmas" viewing, I've decided to take matters into my own hands. Now through Christmas, I'm going to watch at least one Christmas special/Christmas movie/Christmas episode of a TV show and blog about it.
Emmet Otter is the Muppet Christmas special I have the least emotional attachment to, largely because I saw it late in childhood. I remember finding it on TV at some point (it had already started and I didn't see the intro), and spending most of it trying to figure out if it was made by Jim Henson and Company or if they were off-brand Muppets. The Kermit narration finally assured me that they were Muppets. Of course, Kermit's involvement has been completely wiped from the dvd because copyright issues are a bitch, and that automatically makes me like it less.
I also have to wonder if the budget was lower on this one than other Muppet specials-- the sets and even the puppets themselves seem stiff and more amateurish than usual.
As for the storyline, it's relatively simplistic. Widowed otter and son live meagerly, doing laundry and odd jobs for the neighbors. In a twist on Gift of the Magi, mother and son each enter a talent contest to try and win money for the other's Christmas gift. In a particularly bizarre twist, they each damage the source of the other's livelihood to do so-- Emmet puts a hole in his mother's washtub to use it as a bass, and his mother hocks the tools he uses for odd jobs in order to have a dress to sing in.
Emmet Otter and friends prepare a song about bar-b-q, which then ends up being performed by another contestant, so they come up with another song on the fly-- just as it happened on Glee!
Realism rears its ugly head and neither Emmet nor his mom wins the talent contest-- losing to a rock band from a faraway town. The presence of a rock band seems bizarre, and the fact that the wholesome country woodland creatures enjoy the rock music (with its lyrics about not liking anyone or anything and not wishing to learn) even more so.
What's nice, and makes me like this special more than I'm otherwise inclined to, is that the otters aren't bitter after they lose. They talk it over and conclude that they feel good, and that they did what Pa would have done. It's a nice little family moment. And they do get a happy ending-- they combine both of their songs into a duet just as a consolation prize for themselves, and then a benevolent restaurant owner hears them singing and offers them a job singing in his restaurant-- which, if they work regularly for regular pay, will eventually amount to more money than the talent contest.
Ratings:
Visuals: 2 out of 5
Music: 2 out of 5
Spirit: 4 out of 5
Nostalgia: 2 out of 5
Overall: 3 out of 5
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