I've always loved the Muppets. Ever since I was a kid Jim Henson's creations have made me smile, laugh, and sing and have generally been a source of joy. I fondly remember watching compilations of
The Muppet Show on VHS and getting
The Great Muppet Caper and
Muppet Treasure Island (1996) from the local library. Interestingly, I didn't watch
The Muppet Movie until I was in high school.
I think my father was concerned that Doc Hopper's nefarious schemes would give me nightmares. Nonetheless, I think it perfectly captures what I'd always loved about the Muppets as a kid.
There is something truly unique about Henson's creation. Part of the genius of
The Muppet Show was Henson's use of the Variety Show format to "sell" the idea of the Muppets. By eschewing a more dramatic format such as Mr. Roger's "The Neighborhood of Make-Believe" Henson is able to present the Muppets as actual celebrities. Kermit is not a a character on
The Muppet Show, he's a host like Ed Sullivan. Fozzie is a stand-up comedian, Miss Piggy is diva, etc.
Of course this would never work for a movie. For that, some sort of linear storyline is needed. In order to maintain the same sort of sleight of hand that made the show work so brilliantly Henson has the Muppets break the fourth wall. So were not watching the real story of how the Muppets came together but the gang's retelling of that story. So Kermit and company, like a comedian in a Mel Brooks comedy, are able to break the fourth wall and acknowledge that they're in a movie. This make the Muppets, in a sense, feel more real then the movie they're in.
The groundbreaking puppetry of course, is a great help here. Many of the characters are seen as full figures for the first time, rather then just from the waist up. To film Kermit playing the banjo in a swamp, Jim Henson had to squeeze into a metal container with an air hose to breath, a rubber sleeve to work Kermit and a monitor to see the puppet. This scene took five days to shoot. The film's most iconic special effect, with Kermit riding on a bicycle, was actually a relatively simple trick, a marionette with strings, though it took many takes to get it right. They would repeat this trick on a much larger scale in
The Great Muppet Caper.
The Muppet performers of course are all brilliant. By this point they had performed these characters for many years and they all practically inhabit them. It's no wonder that the property has never been quite the same since Henson's death. The cameos are great as well, especially Steve Martin, Mel Brooks and Elliott Gould, who are all hilarious. Orson Welles is perfectly cast as Lew Lord, the Hollywood mogul who makes the Muppets "rich and famous." Edgar Bergen and his puppet Charlie McCarthy, playing judges at the Bogen County Fair, would make their final appearance her as Bergen died shortly after his scene was filmed. Bergen and Charlie had been a major inspiration for Henson.
The story couldn't be simpler. Kermit the Frog, after meeting a Hollywood agent boating through his swamp, is inspired to go to Hollywood and become a star. Along the way he meets and befriends Fozzie, Gonzo, Miss Piggy and Rolf the Dog, who join him on his journey. He also encounters Doc Hopper (Charles Durning) who wants Kermit to become the mascot for his frog legs fast food chain, much to the frog's chagrin. It's a roadtrip movie and a story about pursuing your dreams. Along the way the movie both lampoons and celebrates this idea.
The academy award winning songs, by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher are filled with clever lyrics and catchy tunes. "Movin' Right Along" with its parody of traveling montages, mostly achieved by its use of forced or obvious rhymes ("Hey LA, where've you gone? Send someone to fetch us, were in Sasketchewan!") is also incredibly catchy thanks to its memorable, upbeat melody. "Can You Picture That?" features the kind of absurd lyrics typically of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. "Never Before, Never Again" is so over-the-top in its romantic yearning that it's absolutely hilarious. "I Hope That Somethin' Better Comes Along" is another playful tune that, like "Movin' Right Along" pokes fun at Hollywood conventions, in this case two bachelors commiserating after a romantic rejection.
Contrasting this is "I'm Going to Go Back There Someday" which is heartfelt and sad (it was performed at Jim Henson’s memorial service in 1990) echoing Dave Goelz original sad-sack vision for Gonzo (who had morphed into a more zany, wide-eyed performance artist by this point). The film's main theme "Rainbow Connection" is also incredibly heartfelt and filled with a sense of sincerity and optimism that would seem to contradict the clever satire of most of the other songs. But this gets to the real heart of the Muppets.
Jim Henson does not ignore the cynical nature of the modern world but confronts it with unflagging optimism and a belief in the inherent goodness of mankind. As Kermit tells Doc Hopper in the film's climax. "I've got a dream too. But it's about singing and dancing and making people happy. The kind of dream that gets better the more people you share it with." It's this quality of the Muppet's, their ability to combine biting satire with earnest optimism, that really makes them enduring and this film really embodies that.
This is perhaps best displayed in the final musical number "The Magic Store" where the Muppets, finally having achieved their dream and filming their first movie in Hollywood, proceed to destroy the set they've built as Gonzo crashes into the prop rainbow, only to have a real rainbow shine through the hole they've busted in the roof.
"Life's like a movie
Write your own ending
Keep believing
Keep pretending
We've done just what we set out to do
Thanks to the lovers, the dreamers, and you!"
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