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The Muppet Movie
It's wonderful to report that even with all the advances in the field of children's entertainment in the past 40 years, that the genius of Jim Henson can still provide viable screen entertainment with his 1979 winner The Muppet Movie.
Three years after the enormously successful syndicated variety show The Muppet Show, premiered, the big screen beckoned and we were treated to this delightful comic road adventure that, just like the TV series, found the muppets in the middle of a story interacting with actual human actors and the effects can have the viewer rolling on the floor one minute and discovering a lump in the throat the next.
The story is pretty straightforward...Kermit is contently sitting on a lily pad singing about rainbows when a vacationing Hollywood agent (Don DeLuise) informs Kermit that he should attend a big audition in Hollywood soon for frogs offering "the standard rich and famous contract." En route to Hollywood, just like in The Wizard of Oz, Kermit meets Fozzie Bear, Rowlf the Dog, The Great Gonzo, a rock band called Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, and, of course, the flighty and self-absorbed Miss Piggy, who all decide they want to be Hollywood stars as well. Their journey is complicated by Doc Hopper (Charles Durning), the owner of a string of french fried frog leg restaurants who wants Kermit to be his new national spokesperson.
Jack Burns, one of the creators of the Muppets TV series, along with Jerry Juhl have constructed a clever screenplay that takes all of the characters that were part of the television series and given each character their own backstory that allows each character to take their own place in Kermit's very special journey to Hollywood. The screenplay, under the guidance of direction James Frawley, allows dozens of muppet characters and dozens of human actors a chance to shine where muppets and human form a delicately balanced cinematic world that provides pretty consistent laughs for the young and young at heart.
The melodic score is provided by Paul Williams (who also appears in the film) and Kenny Ascher, who had just finished working with Barbara Streisand on her remake of A Star is Born. The score includes "Can You Picture That?", Never Before and Never Again", "Movin Right Along", "I'm Going Back", and, of course, the Oscar-nominated "The Rainbow Connection."
If you pay attention, along the way you can also catch Bob Hope playing an ice cream vendor, Richard Pryor as a balloon salesman, Elliott Gould as a beauty contest MC, Madeline Kahn as bar patron, James Coburn as a nightclub owner, Mel Brooks as a mad scientist, and Orson Welles as a movie studio head. It was a little sad to note how many of the human actors featured here are no longer with us, but it didn't do too much to deter from the show this winning comic romp still provides.
It's wonderful to report that even with all the advances in the field of children's entertainment in the past 40 years, that the genius of Jim Henson can still provide viable screen entertainment with his 1979 winner The Muppet Movie.
Three years after the enormously successful syndicated variety show The Muppet Show, premiered, the big screen beckoned and we were treated to this delightful comic road adventure that, just like the TV series, found the muppets in the middle of a story interacting with actual human actors and the effects can have the viewer rolling on the floor one minute and discovering a lump in the throat the next.
The story is pretty straightforward...Kermit is contently sitting on a lily pad singing about rainbows when a vacationing Hollywood agent (Don DeLuise) informs Kermit that he should attend a big audition in Hollywood soon for frogs offering "the standard rich and famous contract." En route to Hollywood, just like in The Wizard of Oz, Kermit meets Fozzie Bear, Rowlf the Dog, The Great Gonzo, a rock band called Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, and, of course, the flighty and self-absorbed Miss Piggy, who all decide they want to be Hollywood stars as well. Their journey is complicated by Doc Hopper (Charles Durning), the owner of a string of french fried frog leg restaurants who wants Kermit to be his new national spokesperson.
Jack Burns, one of the creators of the Muppets TV series, along with Jerry Juhl have constructed a clever screenplay that takes all of the characters that were part of the television series and given each character their own backstory that allows each character to take their own place in Kermit's very special journey to Hollywood. The screenplay, under the guidance of direction James Frawley, allows dozens of muppet characters and dozens of human actors a chance to shine where muppets and human form a delicately balanced cinematic world that provides pretty consistent laughs for the young and young at heart.
The melodic score is provided by Paul Williams (who also appears in the film) and Kenny Ascher, who had just finished working with Barbara Streisand on her remake of A Star is Born. The score includes "Can You Picture That?", Never Before and Never Again", "Movin Right Along", "I'm Going Back", and, of course, the Oscar-nominated "The Rainbow Connection."
If you pay attention, along the way you can also catch Bob Hope playing an ice cream vendor, Richard Pryor as a balloon salesman, Elliott Gould as a beauty contest MC, Madeline Kahn as bar patron, James Coburn as a nightclub owner, Mel Brooks as a mad scientist, and Orson Welles as a movie studio head. It was a little sad to note how many of the human actors featured here are no longer with us, but it didn't do too much to deter from the show this winning comic romp still provides.