Yahoo Movies Was the Original ‘Muppets’ Ending Better?
"The Muppets" opened over Thanksgiving and did excellent business, thereby making a couple generations of Jim Henson devotees very, very happy. But were they happy with the movie's ending? We won't get into specifics if you haven't seen it yet, but we will say that we found the finale somewhat disappointing after everything that came before. (Dear lord, how we love '80s Robot.) But now we're hearing there was originally a different ending for the film. We're not convinced it would have been better.
(OK, if you haven't seen "The Muppets," maybe you should stop reading this post right now. There are spoilers ahead.)
Badass Digest has heard from "sources" that an alternate ending was shot but not used. It still involves the Muppets' attempts to raise the money to save their studio, but it gets resolved very differently:
The endings diverge when the big tote board comes up one dollar short. In the released film Fozzie bumps it and we see they're actually millions short. In the original film they're always one dollar short, and when it looks like all hope is lost Waldorf and Statler pipe up from the balcony. "That wasn't so bad after all," they say, and toss down a dollar. The Muppets are victorious.
There must have been a good reason to change that ending because for my money it's way better than what they ended up with. Most importantly it redeems Waldorf and Statler, who at the beginning of the movie are helping Richman find a loophole in Kermit's contract. What's more it cleanly wraps up the story, and it does so by involving characters who are rarely directly involved in Muppet adventures. It's a good, strong ending.
Maybe yes and maybe no.
Having Statler and Waldorf be the ones who save the day is sweet and unexpected, but it also feels a bit like a cheat because the big triumphant moment has nothing to do with anything that Kermit or the rest of the gang did. Personally, we really like the current ending for one reason: The Muppets realize that they can start all over again now that they're back together, which is a pretty heartwarming message and also plays up the crew's lovable-underdog status. What we would have preferred, though, is that the credits didn't show how the Muppets eventually get back their studio thanks to Gonzo. That really feels like a cheat and undermines the all-we-need-is-each-other sentiment that had just been established. So rather than an alternate ending, we would have rather gone with less ending.
The Original Ending Of THE MUPPETS [Badass Digest]
