Runtime: 95 incredibly charming minutes
Directed by: James Frawley
Starring: The usual Muppet performers plus Charles Durning, Austin Pendleton and an amazing amount of cameos
From: ITC Films
This might as well have been a first time watch for me; for certain it was something I experienced via VHS as a small child more than once but it has to be at least 30 years since the last viewing. Only tiny fragments were left in my mind by the time I pressed “play” on Disney+. I will have some time while on vacation in Kansas as my nephews are all still in school and it seems like a good usage of my time.
It is a simple yet effective origin story for the Muppets; Kermit is spotted singing The Rainbow Connection in the swamp by agent Dom DeLuise, who shows him an ad in Variety that frogs are wanted in Hollywood. He soon meets Fozzie Bear at a sleazy bar run by James Coburn, and off we are on a pleasant set-up of road movies where the duo meet Miss Piggy, Gonzo, and all the other famous Muppets while trying to avoid Charles Durning and his dim-witted sidekick Austin Pendleton as the former has a chain of frog leg restaurants & he wants Kermit as their spokesman.
I probably thought the film was fine as a kid; as an adult, it is more appreciated. Some of the funniest moments were ones that must have flown over my head as a little tyke. There's actually a nice scene where everyone's down and Kermit talks to himself about feeling disappointed in their failures, but everyone still “believed in the dream.” There were some nice serious moments to go alongside the wackiness of the shaggy 70's band Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem & getting to meet all the different Muppets throughout the journey. That's not even counting the cameos from a panoply of different actors... besides the names already mentioned, there's everyone from Milton Berle, Elliott Gould, & Steve Martin to Madeline Kahn-who sounds exactly like Lili Von Shtupp and fricking Orson Welles. Where else will you see Bob Hope for a minute then thirty seconds later, a minute of Richard Pryor?
The lovely little songs from Paul Williams are a key component in making the viewer enjoy a tale where the fourth wall is broken occasionally but that never comes off as cloying or irritating. As the magic that allowed for the Muppets to appear “real” is still an illusion that isn't broken, that further made me enveloped in this world where Kermit the Frog riding a bicycle was literally done as a flex by Jim Henson... and it's still a great flex.
No comments:
Post a Comment