Can’t Improve Perfection: Emmet Otter ‘Reboot’ Planned

I am not least bit embarrassed professing my love for what I believe is a top-5 Christmas movie of all time, "Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas." When I heard that  a 'reboot' of the Jim Henson classic was in the works, I was equal parts excited and terrified. It's with guarded optimism I view tinkering with this personal family favorite Christmas movie. I'm happy Frogtown Hollow is getting some love (and perhaps a makeover), but I don't know how a reboot is necessary.  You can't improve perfection.

Jim Henson and his people actually had to use their imagination creating the characters and the building the set back in the 1970s. Emmet and company are perfectly imperfect in so many ways, I almost prefer it to stay that way. And while we still don't have an exact timeline for when this reboot will happen, we do know this: today's remakes and reboots with their considerable amount of CGI, simply ruin most of the magic and purity of the original. Reboots generate a ton of money (and surely this one will as well) but what they make in cash, they tend to lack in heart.

I like how in the original I can see the wires used to make the puppets move.  When Emmet and Ma walk, it's as smooth and fluid as a marionette trying to ice skate.  The "classic puppet technology" used back then wasn't really technology at all, it was hand crafted imagination.  In fact, it was similar to the way we played with our toys and dolls as kids; by using our hands (and imagination) to move them along.

Feel free to call me a gigantic weenie for having all the 'feels' about "Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas" especially since I'll be the first to tell you that Charlie Brown and Will Ferrell's "Elf" movie did nothing for me. I hope the Emmet reboot is as cute, fun, heart-felt and sentimental as the original, but I'm not holding my breath.

Emmet Otter's Jig-Band Christmas IS the movie my sister and I loved growing up, and still do to this day. Reboot it if you want, but get booted if you screw it up.

Ain't puttin' no hole in this washtub!