Making Sense of Muppets

https://lebeauleblog.com/2021/02/19/making-sense-of-muppets/

Henson produced the first Muppet movie (appropriately titled The Muppet Movie), but it was directed by James Frawley. That title doesn’t exactly suggest there will be sequels. It wasn’t A Muppet Movie or The First Muppet Movie. It was THE Muppet Movie.

The story is pretty meta. The Muppet Movie tells a simplified version of Henson’s path to creating the Muppets with Kermit and Fozie filling in for Henson and Frank Oz. But we’re not just watching a movie about the Muppets. Instead, we’re watching a movie made by the Muppets about how they came to Hollywood to make movies which is actually inspired by the real life story of how a guy came to Hollywood to make movies.

There are running gags and characters who break the fourth wall. And one point, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem just read the movie’s script to get caught up. And the whole thing is bookended with scenes of the Muppets attending the premiere of the movie that they made. For most of the runtime, we’re not actually watching Kermit. We’re watching Kermit play Kermit.

Two years later, Jim Henson got a chance to direct a sequel. Things get interesting with The Great Muppet Caper. In this one, Kermit, Fozie and Gonzo are investigative reporters for reasons that are never explained. (As a running gag, Kermit and Fozie are also supposed to be identical twins despite being different species).

The sequel is basically a heist movie starring the familiar Muppet characters as we have never seen them before. Are we watching another movie created by Muppets? Was Kermit contractually obligated to star in The Great Muppet Caper when he signed his Rich and Famous Contract for Orson Welles?

You could drive yourself crazy asking these kinds of questions. If Kermit and Fozzie are supposed to be brothers, clearly they are playing other characters. But then why are their names still the same? Most audiences just went with it.

Frank Oz took over helming duties for The Muppets Take Manhattan. Like the first movie, this one sees the Muppets trying to fulfill a dream. They are no longer investigative reporters nor are they rich and famous. Instead, as the title implies, the Muppets are trying to make it on Broadway. It even ends with a wedding for Kermit and Miss Piggy.

WHAT?!?

That seems like a pretty big deal, right? Much was made of the nuptials in the movie’s marketing. But it was understood that this wasn’t a real wedding for the Muppets. It was part of the movie in which they played characters who tied the knot. What most people remember about The Muppets Take Manhattan if they remember anything at all is that it inspired The Muppet Babies cartoon.

Unfortunately, Jim Henson passed away in 1990. The Muppets have never really been the same since his passing. Before he died, Henson signed a deal to sell his characters to Disney, but things got complicated. I won’t try to iron out the years of legal wrangling over the rights to The Muppets. Instead, I want to stick with the movies.

The Henson family tried to take control of their father’s legacy with mixed results. Brian Henson directed the next two Muppet features which cast the characters in classic stories. In The Muppet Christmas Carol, we see Kermit playing Bob Cratchit in an adaptation of the Dickens story. Kermit portrayed Captain Abraham Smollett in Muppet Treasure Island.

It’s an odd conceit that would carry over into TV movies like The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz. But it was dropped for the next feature film. Muppets from Space is a story in which we learn the origin of Gonzo. After several movies in which the Muppets were playing other characters, this was a movie about the Muppets themselves. And it wasn’t well-received.

Then there was a dark stretch during which time the rights to the Muppets were fought over and Disney emerged victorious. But Disney didn’t seem to know what to do with the characters once they had finally purchased them. They made multiple efforts to reintroduce audiences to the Muppets, but none of them were especially successful.

In 2011, the Muppets returned to the big screen in their first movie for Disney. The Muppets was a big hit at the time despite criticism from Frank Oz. Among other things, Oz said The Muppets was less of a Muppet movie than a vehicle for Jason Segel featuring the Muppets. I know The Muppets was popular, but I am inclined to agree with Yoda on this one.

Once again, the premise is very meta. Jason Segel and his brother, who is a new Muppet, have to reunite the original Muppets. In this show, The Muppet Show was a real thing that Segel and his brother were fans of. The reboot was followed up with a less successful sequel, Muppets Most Wanted, which had a lot in common with The Great Muppet Caper.