The Muppet Movie (1979) (1979)

December 31, 2019 6:52 PM

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection; the lovers, the dreamers and me
posted by The corpse in the library (13 comments total)

Kermit to Big Bird: We're going to Hollywood! Do you want a lift?
Big Bird: Oh, no thank you. I'm going to New York to break into public television!
posted by orange swan at 7:17 PM on December 31, 2019 [15 favorites]

It doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test, there’s a Confederate flag in the background, and I don’t know what the youth of today make of Hare Krishna jokes, but otherwise it’s aged really well. I watched it with my teenagers and they were cracking up.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:44 PM on December 31, 2019

"Sure, if you want to do it the easy way."
posted by Rat Spatula at 8:35 AM on January 1, 2020

You should be aware that there's a slightly longer UK cut of the movie. It features a slightly different ending, and an extended version of "I Hope That Somethin' Better Comes Along". (Which is brilliant, considering Jim Henson is doing both voices.)

"Life's like a movie, write your own ending..."

But honestly, I love how sleezy the bar is when Fozzie is introduced. (Also UK extended!) Myth! Myth!
posted by Catblack at 6:50 PM on January 1, 2020 [8 favorites]

I was really surprised Steve Martin didn't do a cameo for the 2011 Muppets.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:59 PM on January 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

The Muppet Movie is currently streaming on Disney+ in the US.
posted by Etrigan at 8:00 AM on January 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

This was the first movie I saw in the theater, at 3 years old, and I've seen it approximately 1000 times since then.

I was a grown-up before I realized that Rowlf's "I'm no Heifetz, but I get by" joke is doubly funny, because Heifetz was a violinist, not a pianist.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 10:05 AM on January 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

I saw it in the theater, too. I remember my parents, or maybe the audience at large, gasping at the magic of it all when Kermit rode his bike.
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:22 AM on January 3, 2020 [6 favorites]

Me too! I was nine, and there was a thick haze of what I later realized was pot smoke in the theater. But it would have been just as funny without the contact high.
posted by LizardBreath at 1:57 PM on January 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

This was also my first movie theater movie. Four years old. And I've also watched it many times since. I love how well they use running gags in it, like the Hare Krishna joke, or "myth! myth!" ... And the meta-joke of handing the Electric Mayhem band the script to catch them up on the plot... Piggy's crazy eyes and Mel Brooks' reaction ("a pig that goes bananas? what is this a luau?) ... Mel Brooks' whole performance actually... ALL THE CAMEOS .... so much to love.
posted by wabbittwax at 4:02 PM on January 5, 2020 [3 favorites]

I'm just popping in here a few years later to say that The Muppet Movie has been my favorite film since I was a small child, and that is very unlikely to change. My favorite line is Dr. Teeth's imitation of Fozzy saying "They don't look like Presbyterians to me!"
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 4:30 PM on June 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

Saw this again in the theaters as it was released for its 445th anniversary. I was 4 years old when I saw it for the very first time. I was absolutely delighted to see it on the big screen again!
posted by miss-lapin at 7:17 PM on June 3 [1 favorite]

Saw this again in the theaters as it was released for its 445th anniversary.

Now I really want to see the 1579 Elizabethan Era version of The Muppet Movie.
posted by fimbulvetr at 9:20 AM on June 4 [1 favorite]