lovable

Few comedy troupes inspire the kind of love that The Muppets do and so it’s safe to say that even the very fact that “The Muppet Movie” gave us muppets on the big screen was enough to give it a certain notoriety. Jim Henson’s puppets are certainly a delightful brood and watching them in this elongated rendition of, as the movie puts it, how they all got together in the first place, there’s an effortless ease to the comedy as well as the heart. They riff and Henson and his crew don’t care if it’s a cheesy dad joke, a bit of wild physical comedy, or a cameo appearance, they keep things moving and us laughing. Is it a great movie? I wouldn’t say so. It stays close to its variety show roots and that can feel a little strained at times. But it survives on likability and wit.


It finds Kermit sitting on a log in a Georgia swamp when who should row by but a Hollywood agent. Turns out he’s always on the lookout for talented frogs who want to be rich and famous. Kermit sees this as a chance to spread some joy to people and so he hits the road, accompanied by other muppets along the way. The dialogue is never better than between he and Fozzie the Bear, both hopping into Fozzie’s Studebaker for the road trip. As Kermit gives direction to “bare left”, Fozzie misinterprets and points out “frog right.” Gonzo joins and winds up in a sticky situation with a gaggle of helium balloons that lift him into the air, one of those madcap moments of slapstick featuring Gonzo that we can’t get enough of. And then there’s Miss Piggy, wonderfully melodramatic as always in her instantly falling madly in love with her Kermie.


I kept forgetting that this would also be the first time many would see the muppets being performed without puppeteers right next to them and in the way Kermit rides his bike or just in seeing these characters stand, it’s a very impressive visual feat that got so much better in time that as a kid, watching some of the latter movies, you don’t even question the movie magic of it all.


This movie also features songs written by Paul Williams, the best of which, of course, is the instantly endearing “Rainbow Connection”, but also so many other cheerful diddies like “Movin Right A Long”. Maybe it’s because I had seen two crappy musicals (“Can’t Stop the Music” and “Xanadu”) before this but there is such a difference from seeing and feeling a character singing a song as opposed to it playing over them and this movie creates and completes that joy better than most live action musicals ever manage to do.


And then there are those cameos: Charles Durning playing a southern fried frog leg fast food magnate after Kermit, Steve Martin playing a snooty waiter, and Mel Brooks really not giving a shit and doing his Nazi doctor routine anyway are some of the highlights in a film that unbelievably seems to have nearly every famous comedian of the time- from Richard Pryor, Bob Hope, Dom DeLuise, Carol Kane, Cloris Leachman, Milton Berle, and Madeline Kahn. It saves the most shocking one for last though. It brings to mind that the Muppets were really The Simpsons of their day- not only do they all mug and mix it up with these felt puppets but they seem overjoyed to do so.


And why not? This is probably one of the wittiest, zaniest movies they’ve ever been in and at its heart, there is a tenderness to it that probably spoke to them all- the idyllic notion that Hollywood is the mecca for people with the dream of getting out in front of people and entertaining them. Sure, there’s a dark side too, but with the muppets, the world just always seems just a little bit brighter.