The Muppet Movie 1979
I saw this movie when it came out in 1979 and remember liking it. Maybe I had seen it on television since then. I wound up ordering it for free with Disney Movie Rewards points because it seems like a classic and I had already ordered the newer The Muppets having never seen that one. I wanted to watch this one again before watching the new one so I would have a comparison. This movie was made while The Muppet Show was on TV and I was a regular viewer of that show, loving stuff like Pigs in Space and newer characters (at the time) like the Swedish chef, Animal, and Professor Honeydew. I still like the Muppets, but re-watching this movie it was a little disappointing. It is a pretty straightforward road movie and doesn’t have a huge number of funny parts, though I still enjoy the meta humor like looking at the screenplay to see what happens. I enjoyed seeing some of the cameos I had forgotten about like Steve Martin, Richard Pryor, and Orson Welles and the songs were pretty catchy, though “The Rainbow Connection” wore thin from being overplayed. The plot moves along pretty quickly, but the thing with Charles Durning hunting down Kermit doesn’t work that well, nor do some of the smaller parts like Steve Martin as an angry waiter or Mel Brooks as a mad German scientist. And the rest of the movie is mostly just filling the car up with Muppets we already know and some songs. It is harmless enough for kids and may be a good introduction since The Muppet Show isn’t on anymore.
Written: 17 Mar 2019
Owned on: Blu-ray, Digital