Kermit is a talented frog who is happy living his life in his swamp until a Hollywood agent gets lost in the swamp and recommends that Kermit get into show biz. Realizing that his would allow him to make millions of people happy, Kermit embarks on a road trip to Hollywood. Along the way he meets Fozzie the bear, Gonzo, Miss Piggy and other Muppets and they all decide to accompany him to California. However, he also has a fun-in with Doc Hopper, the owner of Doc Hoppers Fried Frog Legs restaurants who begins to chase Kermit because he wants him as a spokesfrog.
I love this movie, Jim Henson is an absolute genius and
The Muppet Movie is a film that can be enjoyed by an audience of any age. It is a
family film not a kids movie, and Henson and crew worked hard to put humor for kids and adults in there; it’s the kind of jokes that kids find funny because they are silly and delivered engagingly but adults get the actual joke. This is something that too few people make any more, even the rest of the
Muppet films lost it over the past decades.
Re-watching this film has made me realize that it may have started my love for movies about movies.
The Muppet Movie begins at a movie studio where the Muppets are attending a premier of
The Muppet Movie which tells the tale of how the Muppets were founded. The audience throws things, talks to each other, waits impatiently and then when the movie finally starts the 4ths wall exists even less as the characters (in Muppet tradition) talk to the audience. These are all characters that know they are in a movie and keep pointing that out to the viewers. At one point Kermit & Fozzie even give the script to Dr. Teeth so that they do not have to have exposition that will “bore the audience”.
The Muppets are also known for their guest stars and the movie does not disappoint. It has Orson Welles, Dom DeLuise, Steve Martin, Bob Hope, Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Carol Kane, Richard Pryor & so many more. My stand out favorites would have to be Steve Martin as the bitter waiter & Mel Brooks as the crazy German scientist.
Another Muppet film is about to enter into production and it has been promised that it will ring of the mentality of the old films. I can only hope that it will be able to be loved as much as
The Muppet Movie.
Director: James Frawley
Writers: Jack Burns & Jerry Juhl
Robin the Frog: Uncle Kermit, is this how the Muppets *really* got started?
Kermit: Well, it's sort of approximately how it happened.
