#12 - Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas

Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas seems like something Rankin/Bass would do in the 1960's but with Jim Henson in the director's chair, the sentimental tone of the special is taken to an all-time high. But that's okay, because Emmet Otter is a moving take of The Gift of the Magi.

I first became aware of this special as a youngster when the Hensons used a song from it on a Muppet Sing-Along video. I have memories of Nickelodeon running the special every year when they owned the rights to the Muppet specials, but that's very vauge and a bit before my time. My full-time exposure to Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas came when Disney finally released it in 1996 as one of the final Jim Henson Video titles. As an five-year old, the lack of Kermit the Frog even though he was prominantly featured on the VHS box and thus was rather bored by it. As I've gotten older however, I've realized what a moving special this is.

Serving as a test for many of the puppet special effects and sense of detail that would come to good use the following year for The Muppet Movie, Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas feels very theatrical and at the same time keeps a classic quality to it. Perhaps a comparison to Thorton Wilder's play Our Town is in order between that play's setting of Grover's Corners and the settings of Frogtown Hollow and Waterville. Our Town is for the most part a straightforward play with very, very subtle humor. Emmet Otter is the same way and that helps the special, the typical Muppet humor wouldn't have worked in this special. The always-excellent Paul Williams score also helps this special. It's impossible not to be moved by the song most associated with this special, "When the River Meets the Sea". It's easy to see why this show was adapted into a stage musical, playing yearly at the Goodspeed Opera House. Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, check it out.

You can buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Emmet-Otters-Jug-Band-Christmas-Goelz/dp/B002LII6D2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1260829937&sr=1-1