BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

ScoobyMint Disappointment for a huge fan!

Asad Almond A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Christmas-Reviewer BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 300 HOLIDAY FILMS. I HAVE NO AGENDA.Following an introduction by Kermit the Frog, the story tells of Emmet Otter and his Ma, a widow who scrapes by on the small amount of money she gets from doing laundry and that Emmet gets from doing odd jobs around their home in the town of Frogtown Hollow despite both of them often being cheated. Some of the people who cheated them are Old Lady Possum and Gretchen Fox (the wife of Mayor Harrison Fox) of Waterville. As Christmas approaches, they hear of a talent contest in the nearby town of Waterville and separately decide to enter to buy nice presents for each other: a nice guitar for Emmet, or a piano for Ma. However, in a twist on The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, they must sacrifice each other's livelihood for the talent contest. Ma hocks Emmet's tools for dress fabric while Emmet turns Ma's washtub into a washtub bass for a jug band. Emmet assembles Wendell Badger, Harvey Beaver, and Charlie Muskrat as the Frogtown Hollow Jubilee Jug Band. There is several versions of this special around. HBO has one version. Broadcast Television has several versions. Buy the DVD however. It has the best version around. It also has an informative making of special!

MartinHafer Back in 1977, just after "The Muppet Show" debuted but before "The Muppet Movie", Jim Henson decided to make a project to help them work out the kinks for the upcoming movie. "Emmett Otter's Jug-Band Christmas" is that project--more ambitious than the show but not a full-length theatrical release like the movie. While the show isn't as as refined as later work (you can see strings when some of the characters move) but they did try some DIFFERENT techniques and styles of puppets. For the most part, it's quite sweet and successful--and mostly it's really, really cute. My only reservation about this sweet show is that there is A LOT of singing and it might have worked better with less. Heck, with just a few less songs I would have given this one a 9--but the songs tended to disrupt the story and seemed, at times, like filler.As for the story, it's a reworking of the O. Henry story "The Gift of the Magi". However, instead of a husband selling his watch and a wife selling her beautiful hair to buy presents for each other, it involves poor Emmett and his mother trying to win a talent show so they can buy each other nice presents. Naturally, it doesn't work out as they expect--but it's all quite charming, nonetheless. Well worth seeing--particularly if you are a kid or a kid at heart.

Woodyanders Cheery Emmet and his kindly Ma are two otters who live in poverty in the quaint rural swampland community of Frogtown Hollow. Both want to buy the other a gift for Christmas, but neither has the money. So they both enter a local talent show contest in order to win the $50 dollar cash prize. This endearingly pleasant and tenderhearted show offers a marvelously delightful wealth of entertainment: the engaging and colorful characters, the brisk pace, the folksy, flavorsome down-home score, the polished photography, the hilarious talent contest show set piece (the split dancing horse is gut-bustingly bad!), the gentle, good-natured humor, the meticulous set and costume design, the catchy and charming songs ("Our World" is an especially lovely tune), the amazingly lifelike and personable puppets (Emmet in particular is adorable), and the sweet, upbeat tone all click just right. The positively astonishing mean'n'growly hard rock harshness of the Riverbottom Nightmare Band rates as a definite highlight. Moreover, the cast voice their parts with infectious aplomb: Jerry Nelson as Emmet, Marilyn Sokol as Ma Otter (her singing voice is truly heavenly!), Dave Goelz as Emmet's amiable porcupine best friend Wendel, Eren Ozker as the snippy Gretchen Fox, and Frank Oz as hostile Riverbottom Nightmare Band ringleader Chuck. But what really makes this program so special and touching is the irresistible glowing warmth that's prominent throughout which in turn makes it a complete joy to watch.

pack_man99 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".