As the resident Muppets expert here at Movie Buzzers (heck, I’m the only one here who has actually interviewed a Muppet!), there was little question who would do the review for the first-ever Blu-ray release of The Muppet Movie. Originally released in 1979, Disney has decided to put the Blu-ray version out now — perhaps to prime the pump for the March release of the next Muppets film, Muppets Most Wanted — with some cool extras.
Robin: Uncle Kermit, is this how the Muppets *really* got started?
Kermit: Well, it’s sort of approximately how it happened.
As Kermit the Frog tells his nephew in the film’s opening, The Muppet Movie tells the story of how The Muppets came together, starting from Kermit playing his banjo in the swamp and going all the way to Hollywood. Along the way Kermit makes friends with all of the various Muppet characters and encounters dozens of guest stars. Sadly, many of those guest stars are no longer with us — although also sadly most of the original main Muppeteers are no longer with us (as of 2013, only Dave Goelz — who performs Gonzo and Dr. Honeydew — continues to perform his characters on a regular basis).
Produced in the middle of the run of the original Muppet Show, many still cite The Muppet Movie as the best of the Muppet movies, and while it’s impossible to argue against this film’s brilliant soundtrack, I think The Muppet Movie was later surpassed by The Muppets Take Manhattan and The Muppets. However, The Muppet Movie serves as a template for how the Muppets could work on the big screen, and it remains an absolutely wonderful movie. Yes, some of the jokes are extremely dated (the Hare Krishna running gag is so 1970s), but generally the humor is timeless. And as I mentioned, The Muppet Movie features songs that are among the best ever done by all those wacky characters — including “Moving Right Along,” “I Hope That Something Better Comes Along,” “Can You Picture That,” “I’m Going to Go Back There Someday,” and, of course, “The Rainbow Connection.” Had the Muppets not broke out of the gate with such a great movie it’s likely they would have never remained popular all these decades later.
The Disc
The presentation on Blu-ray is better than the previous DVD version, but it isn’t perfect. Unfortunately, this is not the extended UK cut, which features a few longer songs and a handful of extra jokes. The colors of The Muppet Movie were always a bit washed out, and while it looks better than it ever has on Blu-ray it still doesn’t pop off the screen like one would expect Jim Henson‘s colorful world would.
The original DVD releases of the Muppets films never had many features, which is an absolutely shame. Yes, these are primarily children’s movies and children don’t tend to watch behind the scene features, but that didn’t stop Disney from including plenty of features on the home media releases of their animated classics. So while the handful of features on this disc are a blessing, it’s still not the comprehensive package Muppet fans would want it to be.
Jim Frawley’s Extended Camera Test – Nearly 18 minutes of Frawley’s never-before-seen home movies of the Muppeteers goofing off and improvising. The most amazing part is because of its informal nature you can actually glimpse Frank Oz operating Fozzie and Jim Henson operating Kermit in some instances, something that’s extremely rare. Sweetums ends up being the butt of most of the jokes and Miss Piggy pops in for the last few minutes to pester Kermit about marriage and buying a house (and Henson has to stifle his laughter). Another funny part is that Fozzie’s hat keeps falling off by accident. Another highlight is Kermit and Fozzie arguing over whether or not Fozzie is a real bear (Fozzie: “But I feel it in my bones!” Kermit: “You don’t even have bones!”) That’s especially surprising because one of the cardinal rules of the Muppets is that they are never acknowledged to be puppets, yet here is Henson himself breaking that rule! Features like this make me wonder what else is sitting in the Henson archives.
Frog-E-Oke Sing-Along — Here are well-done karaoke videos for three of the film’s songs — “Moving Right Along,” “Can You Picture That,” and “The Rainbow Connection.” I’m not sure what the rewatch factor on things like this are, though.
Intermission — Okay, the Intermission feature on The Muppets Blu-ray is awesome — when you put the movie on pause, you see dozens of wacky clips of the Muppets goofing off. The Muppet Movie‘s packaging promises to repeat this fun feature, but really all you get is a repeat of the karaoke music videos with a few bumpers. So you end up having one feature listed as two on the case — not cool, Disney!
Doc Hopper’s Commercial — Doc Hopper’s full 1 minute French Fried Frog Legs commercial. Slightly longer than the version in the movie.
Original Trailers — Almost six minutes of various promotional spots for the movie. It’s very funny how the voiceover announcer plays the material straight (“It’s more entertaining than was ever HUMANELY possible!”), but there’s nothing new here that you don’t see in the movie.
Pepe Profiles Presents Kermit – A Frog’s Life — A six and a half minute feature hosted by Pepe the Prawn that tells Kermit’s life story. It’s a more modern clip (Kermit is operated by current puppeteer Steve Whitmire), but it’s still entertaining.
Of course, it’s also full of all kinds of Disney trailers for you to watch. Still, that’s not a lot of features (besides the camera test there is no new archival material), and it’s a shame that the Muppet movies always seem to get shortchanged on features.
Movie Rating: Not only is this one of the best Muppets films, it’s a great film all around (9/10).
Disc Rating: Though better than previous releases, true Muppet fans will want more (7/10).
The Muppet Movie Nearly 35th Anniversary Edition will be released by Disney on Blu-ray on August 13.
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