The Muppet Movie

This month is going to be a very special month because I will be dedicating it to the Muppets. I think I might have mentioned them briefly, but now I will talk about some of the films they have done. Let’s start this month with the 1979 classic, “The Muppet Movie.”

There was a time where doubters thought a Muppet film couldn’t work and only humans could be in successful films. Jim Henson and his team proved them wrong. “The Muppet Movie” was really successful when it was released and had several sequels in the coming years.

“The Muppet Movie” is basically a road movie. After meeting a Hollywood agent and hearing a big film studio has auditions, Kermit the Frog, played by Jim Henson, gets in his car, picking up all his friends on his way. First he meets Fozzie Bear, played by Frank Oz, telling jokes in a bad café. Then they meet Dr. Teeth (Henson) and the Electric Mayhem (Oz, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz and Jerry Nelson), then Gonzo (Goelz) and his chicken friend Camilla (Hunt), then the unique Miss Piggy (Oz), and finally Rowlf the Dog (Henson). All of these Muppets decide to drive to Tinseltown to make it big. However, there is a problem with the shady Southern businessman Doc Hopper. He wants to open a chain of frog-leg restaurants and wants Kermit to be his spokesman. Doc won’t take no for an answer and tries about everything he can think of to get what he wants.

The Muppets themselves are great, Charles Durning as Doc Hopper is, as Tom Stockman says, “a suitably hissable bad guy,” and the celebrity guest actors who cameo are all great, mainly Mel Brooks as a mad scientist and Steven Martin as an incredibly ironic waiter. The best part of the movie is hands down the songs, the main ones being the Oscar-nominated Rainbow Connection and Gonzo’s song I’m Going To Go Back There Someday (which gave the plot for “Muppets From Space”). “The Muppet Movie” is great for the whole family and Jim Henson smartly had jokes that both adults and kids would enjoy. Stockman admitted, “For instance the joke, “Turn left at the fork in the road” cracks me up every time.” The sad part about watching “The Muppet Movie” 39 years later is seeing how many of the cameo actors (not to mention Henson himself) have passed away. In fact, most of them have: Orson Wells, Edgar Bergen, Milton Berle, Richard Pryor, James Coburn, Bob Hope, Telly Savalas, Dom DeLuise and Madeline Kahn have all passed. Fortunately Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, Elliot Gould, Cloris Leachman and Carol Kane are still alive. Also Rainbow Connection should have won the Oscar for “Best Original Song” in 1979. Stockman asked, “I mean does anyone remember the winning song from NORMA RAE?!”

If you are a fan of the Muppets and have not seen this movie, why are you reading this review? What were you watching in your childhood instead of this classic with the whole family sitting together? You have to see this movie, especially if you grew up with the Muppets. Then again, who hasn’t seen the Muppets in their childhood? Everyone that I know of grew up watching the Muppets and Sesame Street, as they were the ones who introduced everyone to the Muppets. This one is a family classic that everyone will adore, I promise.

Now that we have talked about this classic film, check in next week when I look at the first sequel to The Muppets franchise in “The Muppets Month.”