The Muppet Movie

Kermit the Frog & Fozzie Bear - Moving Right Along
Originally uploaded by Kimberly and Marc

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.

Blazing Saddles

There are two rules in my world that apply to comedies: 1 – there are very few genuinely good comedies & 2 – no one does comedy like Mel Brooks. I think Blazing Saddles is a perfect comedy, one of Mel Brooks best. By any other filmmaker this film would be an insanely racist film, yet because Brooks doesn’t make fun of one race, he makes fun of everyone – Jew, African, Chinese, Irish, American – Brooks doesn’t care.

Blazing Saddles is one of the only movies I can recite almost word for word; when I watch the film it is practically a sing-along. The entire concept of the film is funny to me; the pioneer town of Rock Ridge gets the first black sheriff because the lt. governor wants to piss off the residents and drive them out so the rail road can go through the town, this sparks madness in all the best comic forms.

My favorite character in Blazing Saddles has always been The Waco Kid (aka Jim) played by Gene Wilder. Wilder starred in several of Mel Brooks films and his style of comedy perfectly blends with Books; Wilder has a sense of understated exaggeration in Blazing Saddles that makes him the perfect partner for Cleavon Little’s Sheriff Bart.

I challenge anyone to watch Blazing Saddles and not laugh hysterically at the end of the film. Brooks somehow manages to make breaking the fourth wall logical to his world, carry on the comedy in a way you didn’t expect and then push you back into the original film world without skipping a beat. It all works because of how much Brooks commits to it; it’s perfectly summe dup by Slim Pickens when his character tells another actor “Screw you, I work for Mel Brooks!”

Director: Mel Brooks
Writers: Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor & Alan Uger
Bart: Cleavon Little
Jim: Gene Wiler
Taggart: Slim Pickens
Hedley Lamarr: Harvey Korman
Lili Von Shtupp: Madeline Kahn
Gov. Lepetomane: Mel Brooks
Mongo: Alex Karras

Bart: Are we awake?
Jim: We're not sure. Are we... black?
Bart: Yes, we are.
Jim: Then we're awake... but we're very puzzled.