Los Teleñecos: Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas

There's a new, October 2005 release of Emmett's Jugband Christmas. This one contains an excellent 'making-of' video, made sometime in 2005. It contains a 'blooper' segment, also. It also contains clips of the pieces edited out of the original over the years.

Kermit has been removed from this version, released by HIT Entertainment (Kermit is now owned by Disney). Highly recommended, though.

Also included in the 'making-of' are the intricacies of having two 'Mom' performers. The singer first recorded the songs, then Frank Oz had to lip-sync 'Mom' to the songs, then Frank did 'Mom' with his own voice, then the singer had to re-do all of 'Mom's lines in sync with the video. Intricate, but it worked really well.

The brilliance of Jim Henson was that he could make schmaltz without seeming schmaltzy. This is an unabashedly sentimental movie (as one would expect a Christmas special to be) and it succeeds in drawing you into its sentiment, but it never loses that quirky edge that made his Muppets so much more interesting than most programming directed (ostensibly) at children. Who else could pull off making the antagonist an evil teddy bear who sings in a heavy metal band? Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas is my favorite Muppet movie.

So what if you can see wires on all the characters, this classic will remain a must view every year for my family and myself. Emmitt Otter's story is one that teaches us all, young and old, that the best things in life are the things that we take for granted. I am glad that my family can say after watching this gem, that "We're closer now than ever before".

I very fondly remember watching this movie when I was little. It never really mattered to me that Emmet and his mother didn't win the contest for the money because I got the brilliant message that it didn't matter that neither of them won the contest - what mattered was they love each other and were always going to be there for each other. The characters in this movie are truly memorable and the music is still some that I sing today. And really who could forget the part when the Jug band finally gets to perform with Ma as their lead singer? I am an avid fan of anything Jim Hensen and I love the fact that he created such a sweet movie that teaches a very important lesson to young children: material possessions are just that; what really matters is you as a person.

Emmet Otter might be dated, but it's one of Henson's finest offerings. Not only is the story well written (without talking down to children), but the level of artistry in the models, backgrounds, puppets, whathaveyou is simply amazing. Frank Oz, Jim Henson, and their crew created one of the pinnacles of "Muppet" based entertainment proving, even after 20 odd years, Henson is STILL the master.