It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (2002)

I had to get this one through Blockbuster since Netflix doesn't even list it. Swap Kermit the Frog and the Muppets for George Bailey and the townsfolk of Bedford Falls, throw in Whoopie Goldberg as God ("Daniel's boss" in the credits), then -- unfortunately, in the I-wish-I-had-never-been-born segment -- "update it" with an urban postmodern mentality until it desecrates all that is truly Muppetdom. That's how to bowdlerize a list of 5-star movies (The Muppet Movie, It's A Wonderful Life, The Muppets Take Manhattan, Back to The Future, Moulin Rouge) and some lesser ones (Oh God!, Bruce Almighty) to get this disappointment of a movie -- and that's putting it as nicely as possible. See it if you count as humorous a snoozer of a takeoff on Moulin Rouge with Miss Piggy as Saltine, if you would chortle (instead of choke) at Miss Piggy's "phone acting" gig ($2.99 a minute), if you think that her falling from the balcony onto a tuba is funnier than a mere pratfall. Even her throwdown karatefest with villain Joan Cusack was the worst martial-arts tussle of all Muppet movies. Quibbles abound but only thanks to the latent Muppet joi de vivre could I give this show 3 stars.