The Muppet Movie

21 years, 5 more muppet movies, and several Presidents later, this movie remains a classic and, in my opinion, the best of all Muppet Movies.

The entire family can enjoy this movie, and that's lost in current movies. Something that you would take your 6 year old to wouldn't really hold your interest, and vice-versa. The characters are in danger, but no real harm can be done. The characters are in stressful situations, but they don't shout profanities. What less would you expect from the beloved Muppets?

I find myself cracking up at the running gags and little implied jokes in this movie. The funniest are heard under a character's breath. Not only that, but it has an absolutely inspired musical score. Never since this movie have the Muppets shown such a broad range of emotions through their music.

All the Muppet movies are good. Even Muppets from Space, the least entertaining of the lot is fun. But if you want a really good time, get the original. You can watch it over and over...

We all lost something important when Jim Henson died. But his magic alone wasn't sufficient to do more than clever skits, both before and after this gem. Some fated match of director, writers, songwriters and puppeteers came together to create an underappreciated masterpiece.

Forget the kids -- this is a great work, period. Among the best story-films ever. And nowhere is the enfolding of reality and fantasy more rich than here. Naturally, you have the mix of humans (accented by celebrity cameos) and puppets. And some puppets are of humans, some of human-like animals, and some of animal-like animals. But that's just the tokens.

The real novelty comes in the story. It is a film about the making of itself, with a wonderful sequence at the end where the film is represented in cartoonish props contrasted with a `real' rainbow. Throughout, one weaves between being in the story and observing the story. Kermit (Henson's alterego) says `I hope you appreciate I'm doing my own stunts.' Think about it.

The songs, themselves self-referential, are important frosting: `why are there so many songs about rainbows?'

`Life is a movie, write your own ending, keep believing, keep pretending...' You don't get that in common fare. If you have kids, this is the most educational exposure you can give them among the kiddie offerings. There's nothing more powerful than the ability to perform abstract reasoning and the foundation of that is the play between what things are and what things represent them. Thanks and God bless you, Jim.

There's just something pleasantly memorable about a little green frog singing and playing a banjo in the middle of a swamp. The opening scene is a wonderful introduction for this truly excellent film.

My favorite of the Muppet movies, this has excellent songs, some truly funny running gags and one-liners (and some that are absolute "groaners", but they're still deserving of a chuckle.), and a fun group of Muppets and celebrity cameos. Jim Henson is, and always will be, the definitive voice of Kermit. The film itself is very gentle in tone without getting too syrupy, and truly entertains all the way through.

With all of the "quality" children's programming that comes out these days, I can't help but wonder why more "family" films aren't actually made for the entire family like this film was. This is a real keeper, although it seems a little hard to find at times in the stores.

Y'know, it's very interesting watching this... half the people involved with it are now dead...

Anyways, it's been a long time since I've watched anything Muppet related, but this stuff is pure gold. I'm a great fan of puns, and this movie has them quite well placed, but one of the amazing aspects of it is its pacing: it's not really high-speed children's pacing where the filmmakers just randomly decide to move the story along without giving the character's depth, it's just kind of moves along with the characters wherever they want to go.

Kermit the Frog is just an awesome character. His voice and the expressions on his puppet-face are fantastic. But above all, he points out why he's popular--"he can sing and make jokes too!"--but more appropriately why he's so endearing--he, without any effort, inspires everyone to search for their dreams. In the meantime, he also has to deal with himself, which is an uncommon theme in family movies.

It also contains quite an ensemble of comedians making appearances here and there, some to great effect, others to a little less (I think Mel Brook's part was just a bit overplayed, do you?). Some parts of the film are just kind of odd. But it's highly imaginative and takes itself to the same destination from a very different direction.

Moving right along...

--PolarisDiB

A bunch of full-length movies featuring the Muppets, created by Jim Henson & Co, have been made, but "The Muppet Movie" was the first one of them all, and the first in the original trilogy, which also features "The Great Muppet Caper" and "The Muppets Take Manhattan". It was released seven years before I was born, so I obviously didn't get to see it at the time (nor did I get to see its two successors when they were first released). However, I saw a lot of the Muppets during my childhood, mostly after Henson's premature death in 1990. I finally got around to seeing this movie for the first time around the mid-nineties, after hearing the soundtrack. Unsurprisingly, I liked it at the time, and revisiting it in recent years hasn't exactly been disappointing.

One day, while Kermit the Frog sits in a swamp with his banjo after singing "Rainbow Connection", a Hollywood agent named Bernie comes by in a boat and urges him to pursue a career in Tinseltown. Kermit takes his advice and goes west. He soon meets Fozzie Bear, an unsuccessful stand-up comedian in a restaurant, and convinces him to come along. The frog is also noticed by Doc Hopper, the owner of a frog leg restaurant chain who wants Kermit to be his mascot. As a frog, Kermit is disgusted by this, so he refuses and leaves with Fozzie. On their road trip across the country, Kermit and Fozzie meet other Muppets who join them, including Miss Piggy (who soon becomes Kermit's love interest) and Gonzo. Unfortunately, as they all try to make their way to Hollywood, Doc Hopper, assisted by Max, is willing to do anything to force Kermit to become his restaurant chain's mascot, so Kermit finds himself in increasing danger!

One thing many people praise this film for is the songs, and I can understand why. There is, of course, the Oscar-nominated "Rainbow Connection" at the beginning, and more good tunes follow, such as Kermit and Fozzie's catchy road song, "Movin' Right Along", and "I'm Going to Go Back There Someday", a poignant ballad sung by Gonzo. "Never Before, Never Again", the song Miss Piggy sings when she first sees Kermit, is the only one I would consider rather weak, and their romance seems awfully sudden. The Muppets in this movie are generally lovable, just like they are on TV, and some of them provide a lot of the humour, including Fozzie, making his first appearance in the film hopelessly trying to entertain people in a restaurant with his stand-up, and, well, if you're familiar with these famous Muppets, you should know what to expect from each of them. Some of the live actors who appear briefly in the film can also be funny, such as Dom DeLuise as Bernie the Agent and Steve Martin as the "Insolent Waiter." Also, it's not 100% comedy. There are serious parts of the film which they also did well.

Watching this original Muppet movie again this year was my first time watching any of them since seeing "Muppets from Space" (one of the Muppet movies made after Henson's death, released in 1999) for the first time last year. I was very disappointed when I saw that film, which had never happened before when I watched any film or TV show featuring the popular puppet characters! Not only is that movie not very funny, I also think it's a tad too dark and cruel for the Muppets, as I stated in my review of it! However, I can't say I think the same of any of that movie's predecessors, including this one, released twenty years earlier. "The Muppet Movie" seems to be the most popular of the bunch, and since it has so much to like, not just for kids, that's understandable. I highly doubt there's much left to say about "The Muppet Movie" that hasn't been said at some point in the past thirty years, but today, it remains good family entertainment.