Five Great Muppet Movies

I understand when writing this blog that I’m writing about five great Muppet movies when there are, in fact, only eight official pictures that received a cinema release. However, I’m using this blog as just an excuse to celebrate some of these wonderfully made, uplifting movies that have bought joy and happiness to so many people long after their release dates. Jim Henson and his team truly gave the world something special.

The Muppet Movie (1979)

Let’s start at the beginning with the original Muppet movie called The Muppet Movie. Directed by James Frawley and produced by Jim Henson, it saw the first big-screen appearance of the Muppets who had previously been performing on television’s The Muppet Show since 1976. Yes, this article will contain the word Muppet a lot.

It is basically an origin story of the Muppets, how they meet and become the success that they are. There is a clever framing device where the characters are watching their own story in a movie theatre. We start with Kermit the Frog playing the wonderful song “Rainbow Connection” on his banjo in a swamp before being told by a lost talent agent played by Dom DeLuise to go to Hollywood to make it big.

On the way he meets, Fozzie, Gonzo, Miss Piggy and all the rest of your favourite characters. However, he is being hunted by Charles Durning’s Doc Hopper who is looking for a mascot for his chain of frog’s legs restaurants. It is abundantly entertaining.

There are guest stars galore, which will become a common theme in Muppet movies to come. Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, Orson Welles, James Coburn, Telly Savalas, Carol Kane, Elliot Gould, Richard Pryor, and more. This was at a time when Henson and his team really knew what to do with his guest stars. They utilized these cameos so that they were entertaining and funny but still made the Muppets the real star.

The humour is forth-wall breaking and meta, but it still feels like a real movie that you can become absorbed in. At one point Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem read the script to catch themselves up on events that have led to them appearing in the movie. The characters are also constantly talking to the camera to give the audience little asides, but never to an extent where it gets annoying.

As well as “Rainbow Connection,” the music, written by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher, is wonderful, from Kermit and Fozzie singing “Movin’ Right Along” to The Electric Mayhem’s “Can You Picture That” each song is catchy and will live in your head rent free long after watching the movie.

The Muppet Movie was a financial and critical success and continued to further the legend of Henson, his team, and the Muppets.

The Great Muppet Caper (1981)

Two years after the success of The Muppet Movie, a sequel was made that plunged the Muppets into another adventure. This time Kermit, Fozzie and Gonzo are sent to London by their newspaper, The Daily Chronicle, to interview the glamourous Lady Holiday (Diana Rigg) and end up having to foil a jewel heist.

The Great Muppet Caper is directed by Jim Henson. There is still all the charm of The Muppet Movie and includes the same calibre of great songs, cameo appearances (Including Peter Falk, John Cleese, and Peter Ustinov) and forth-wall breaking jokes. However, it steers away from the origin story basis and the characters don’t share their ‘real’ pasts. They are playing characters of themselves. Therefore, we get the plot of Kermit thinking Miss Piggy is Lady Holiday and going on a date with her. She tells him she lives in a luxury mansion so must break in to pretend that it belongs to her.

The jokes are layered in The Great Muppet Caper with a mix of classic slapstick and wordplay jokes. It is very clever and never talks down to its audience. It seems like Henson thought that if younger audiences didn’t get the jokes, they maybe would do next time they watched it.

Charles Grodin as Lady Holiday’s brother Nicky is superb, so much so that you really believe he’s flirting with Miss Piggy. And although the plot might be seen as a little more derivative than the first film, it is still a fun and exciting heist movie in its own right.

There is plenty to love in The Great Muppet Caper. The scenes in the dilapidated Happiness Hotel and the accompanying song are wonderful, the nightclub scenes are a joy, and the early opening song and scenes set in the editor’s room of The Daily Chronicle are hilarious.

It might not get as much love as some of the other movies in the Muppet back catalogue, but if you haven’t seen it, I’d recommend it. Hopefully it’ll bring you some comfort and joy and a lot of laughs.

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)

When is too early to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol? Ask anyone and you’ll probably get a different answer. It is a movie that has gone beyond the realms of film and has transcended into millions of families’ festive traditions. Some will watch it on the first day of December to get their Christmas off to a great start. Some will watch it on Christmas Eve to get into the mood for the next day’s celebrations. I’m sure there are some who will watch it every single day of advent. Whatever your stance on it, I don’t think it is too farfetched to say I think this has become the most-loved family Christmas film of all time.

Brian Henson takes over directing duties from his father, who we sadly lost in 1990. The premise is simple: Take the most famous Christmas story of all time, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and add Muppets to it. The plan seemed to work and Gonzo takes the place of the Victorian writer guiding the audience through the famous story.

Michael Caine plays Scrooge wonderfully. He takes it as seriously as he would if he was starring in a cast full of real actors. He portrays the cold-hearted and miserly protagonist as well as anyone and you really feel for him as the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future take him on his journey throughout the course of one night. The designs for the ghosts are all unique and full of character. The Ghost of Christmas Future was so scary as a child that I was well over the fear of cloaked spectres by the time the Ringwraiths entered my sphere.

It goes without saying that the songs are wonderful. You could probably hum or sing any number of them off the top of your head. The score was composed by Miles Goodman and the original songs were written by Paul Williams, who had been working on numbers for these films since The Muppet Movie. If you seek out the official soundtrack, there are even more tracks that did not make the cut and a reappearance of “When Love Has Gone” that has been inserted and cut from the movie to the chagrin of many. As it stands, you can watch a version on Disney+ with the original song in. But there’s still plenty of tracks to love, such as “Scrooge,” “Marley and Marley,” “It Feels Like Christmas.” We are truly spoilt by the music in Muppet Christmas Carol.

There is sadness, there is happiness, there are lessons learnt and songs to sing along to. It has everything that anyone of any age can enjoy. It really is a complete Christmas movie, and some would say a complete movie.

Muppet Treasure Island (1996)

Another classic of English Literature adapted with the Muppet characters in many of the key roles and another directed by Brian Henson. Muppet Treasure Island does not have the same legacy or success of The Muppet Christmas Carol but is still hugely enjoyable and funny. It was the first Muppet movie I saw at the cinema and so it holds a place in my heart. I can still rewatch it, and have done recently, and enjoy it immensely.

Muppet Treasure Island is loosely based on the 1883 Robert Louis Stevenson novel and retains a lot of the same characters. Jim Hawkins is an orphan in the Muppet version and the character of Ben Gunn is changed to Benjamina Gunn, among many changes, but most adaptations have picked and chosen what they want from a novel. It still feels like a great swashbuckling pirate adventure.

The real standout is Tim Curry’s Long John Silver who is enjoying every moment as the infamous pirate. His performance of “Professional Pirate” which is ‘My only number’ is wonderful. Again, the songs are memorable such as “Cabin Fever” and the opening “Shiver My Timbers.” Hans Zimmer’s score is also every bit as memorable and kinetic as The Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

The film is maybe a bit darker than many other Muppet films and shows, and it seemed like that was the direction Brian Henson was going for with the Muppets Tonight TV show striking a more grown-up tone. However, in this instance it is indicative of what the subject matter is, and Stevenson’s books has many swordfights, gun battles and death. This is reflected on in Muppet Treasure Island as Billy Connelly’s Billy Bones is close to death as Rizzo exclaims, “He died? And this is supposed to be a kid’s movie.”

It is a good adaptation with the emotional heart provided by a young Kevin Bishop playing Jim Hawkins. Originally, the protagonists were going to be Gonzo and Rizzo playing two characters called Jim and Hawkins, but it was thought necessary to have a human character who can carry some of that emotional heft that is needed to sustain a movie.

The Muppets (2011)

After several years away from the big screen after Muppets From Space (1999) was the first Muppet movie to lose money at the box office, over a decade later the Muppets returned with the team behind Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008).

Written by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller and directed by James Bobin, The Muppets took us back to why we all loved the Muppets in the first place. Mirroring real life, the Muppets have faded into obscurity and their old theatre is going to be demolished by Chris Cooper’s Tex Richman. It is up to muppet Walter (Peter Linz), Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) to get the Muppets back together to put on a show that will raise enough money to save the theatre.

It's a nice simple premise that reflects the idea of The Muppet Movie in which the characters have to get together again. Every character has something to do and their own arc, especially Walter, who must come to terms with whether he is a man or a muppet.

Talking of “Man or Muppet,” the songs are obviously fantastic. Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords was bought in to write the majority of the songs. He was rewarded with an Oscar for “Man or Muppet” for Best Original Song. But there are other triumphs such as “Life’s a Happy Song.”

They really went all out on the marketing for this movie too, releasing so many trailers that were spoofs of other trailers at the time including Green Lantern (2011), The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011) and Puss In Boots (2011). It must have helped because the film was a success at the box office.

Interestingly, there was a little criticism from some, including Frank Oz, who did not think the film was edgy enough for the Muppets. However, he did concede that the fact that it bought the Muppets to everyone’s attention again was a great thing.

And yes, this movie is the reason we still have Muppet productions coming out to this day. It really showed us what we had been missing from some of our favourite characters. Whether you enjoy the new content from Disney + such as Muppets Now or The Muppets Mayhem, at least they’re here to stay.