The Muppet Movie (1979)
D: James Frowley.  W: Jerry Juhl, Jack Burns.  M: Paul Williams.  Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Richard Hunt (Muppets), Charles Durning, Austin Pendleton, James Coburn, Richard Pryor, Edward McCarthy, Milton Berle, Dom DeLouise, Elliott Gould, Madeline Kahn, Carol Kane, Orson Welles, Telly Savalas, Cloris Leachman, Bob Hope, Paul Williams.

The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
D: Jim Henson.  W: Jerry Juhl, Tom Patchett.  M: Joe Raposo.  Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Richard Hunt, Steve Whitmire (Muppets), Charles Grodin, Diana Rigg, John Cleese, Robert Morley, Peter Ustinov, Jack Warden.

The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
D: Frank Oz.  W: Jay Tarses, Tom Patchett.  M: Ralph Burns, Jeffrey Moss.  Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Richard Hunt, Steve Whitmire (Muppets), Juliana Donald, Lonny Price, Louis Zorich, Art Carney, James Coco, Dabney Coleman, Linda Lavin, Gregory Hines, Joan Rivers, Elliott Gould, Liza Minelli, Brooke Shields, Ed Koch, John Landis, Gates McFadden.

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
D: Brian Henson.  W: Jerry Juhl.  M: Paul Williams, Miles Goodman.  Brian Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, David Rudman (Muppets), Michael Caine.

The Muppet Treasure Island (1996)
D: Brian Henson.  W: Jerry Juhl, James V. Hart.  M: Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil.  Brian Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, David Rudman (Muppets), Tim Curry, Kevin Bishop, Billy Connolly, Jennifer Saunders.

Muppets From Space (1999)
D: Tim Hill.  W: Jerry Juhl, Jerry Mazarrino.  M: N/A.  Brian Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, David Rudman (Muppets), Jeffrey Tambor, Andie McDowall, David Arquette, Josh Hamilton F. Murray Abraham, Pat Hingle, Ray Liotta, Rob Schneider, Kathy Griffin, Hulk Hogan, Gates McFadden, Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson.
 

    First off, before anyone starts jumping down my throat, I’m not a die-hard Jim Henson devotee.  I respect the man and I loved his work, but I don’t believe that his death in 1990 marked the end of the Muppets.  After all, while Henson created the Muppets, their voices and personalities were formed over the years on “The Muppet Show” not just by Henson, but by Frank Oz, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz and a host of others.  Brian Henson is probably as close to the Muppets as anyone else still living today, and the post-JH films have had a few high points.
    That said, the Muppet franchise is in serious trouble.
    The Muppet Movie was released at the height of Muppet mania, while “The Muppet Show” was still on the air.  It’s the highest-grossing film of the series ($76 million US Gross) and deservedly so.  It’s everything a Muppet movie should be—fast-paced with lots of quick humor and running gags, filled with a smattering of adult (in the mature, not sexual sense) references and oddball postmodern humor, and peppered with quiet moments and memorable music.  The guest stars alone make it worth watching, and many consider it one of Steve Martin’s best film moments.
    Only occasionally does it veer off the path.  Edgar Bergen’s quick appearance comes off as pointless, and the ending may have been a bit too zen to fully embrace younger viewers.  Still, this is the Muppet performers at the peak of their craft.  The characterizations are continued from the series just fine, and the movie-within-the-movie format allows not only several jokes but-god forbid-continuity between the series and the movie.
    Oddly enough, The Muppet Movie is one of two films not directed by a Muppet performer.  James Frowley is primarily a TV-movie director, but his work also includes The Big Bus and The Great American Traffic Jam, two films which, while not immediately recognizable as similar to TMM, share the first Muppet film’s sense of a whole plethora of characters running around frantically from one place to another in the midst of zany hijinks.  Perhaps this experience allowed him to pull the film off not as a Muppet movie, but rather a standard screwball comedy that happened to star a bunch of puppets.  In any case, it’s fully satisfying experience.
 

    The Great Muppet Caper continues on many of the themes started in TMM, adding to them a bit more of a plot.  It’s the first Muppet film where the Muppets play characters other than themselves—though they have the same names, the relationships between them are different.  Kermit and Fozzie, for example, are brothers (nice touch), and the green guy’s first meeting with Piggy sets off a similar burst of emotions at TMM, albeit sans musical number.
    Perhaps that’s why TGMC seems a bit on the derivative side.  While the human performers are fine (Charles Grodin in particular is loads of fun to watch), it’s essentially repeating itself.  The “it’s just a movie” mentality is till there, as is the Sesame Street cameo (Oscar in place of the first film’s Big Bird), but the running gag this time (“We’ve got to catch them red-handed!” “What color are their hands now?”) isn’t very funny the first time.  The musical numbers are pepped up by turning each production number into a full-blown spectacle, but Paul Williams’ absence is notable and the songs themselves just don’t have the same punch.
    The second movie in the series and the franchise was already running a little bit low on energy.  The film tries to top the earlier movie’s Kermit-on-a-bike moment by having all the Muppets ride bikes.  It’s the mentality of “adding more of the same” rather than “being creative,” and it’s one that’s bound to hurt a successful series.  Just ask Kevin Williamson.
What’s odd is that TGMC is the only Muppet film directed by Jim Henson himself.  Henson is, of course, first a puppeteer, and this could be part of the problem.  The puppeteer work is excellent, and the elaborate production numbers are real show-stoppers, so it’s obvious his efforts were more focused on the look of his creatures rather than such concepts are “treading new ground.”
    This doesn’t make TGMC a bad movie.  It’s still frequently funny, never dull (just mundane), and the cameos, especially the John Cleese bit, are hysterical.  Co-writer Tom Patchett worked on The Muppets Take Manhattan before going off on his own Muppet-esque route, writing Project: ALF.
 

    If The Great Muppet Caper is running low, The Muppets Take Manhattan is the engine conking out and the driver trying to remember how far it was back to the last gas station.  Frank Oz takes over the reigns, and he gets off on the wrong foot almost immediately.  The Muppets, you see, have graduated college (!?) and the film opens with a bland production number and Kermit’s speaking to the audience after the show about their future prospects.  Here Kermit has some funny lines, but they’re washed out by the laughter of the on-screen audience, an odd, laugh-track producing effect that the Muppets don’t need in their movies.  Besides, Kermit’s assessment of Gonzo as a “whatever” is less a joke than a character trait, a natural thing for a fellow like Kermit to say.
    Things do get better after that, but they never quite reach any more than scattered moments of genius.  The Sesame Street cameo is there (Cookie Monster), as are the celebrity appeances (Elliott Gould becomes the first human actor to appear in two Muppet films, though he fails to make an impression here either), but there’s an odd cloud cast over TMTM, and a vague notion of melancholy falls over a majority of the proceedings.  When the Muppets split up after giving up on their dream, the unbelievably morose “Saying Goodbye” begins, and it’s the single-most depressing montage sequence in Muppet history.
    The film also suffers from “Marx Brothers Syndrome.”  In most successful Marx Brothers movies, it’s mostly the group themselves, with the plot carefully ushered to the side.  In later efforts, producers forced them to add a love interest to the film, resulting in an odd mixture of Marx humor and star-crossed lovers that seem to belong in a different movie altogether.  Here the problem comes in the form of a young waitress and an equally young producer destined to end up together.  While the romance aspect is kept to a minimum, they, along with the restaurant’s owner (an Italian stereotype, the only time a Muppet movie has degenerated into such) and the over-prominence of Rizzo the Rat, distract from the, well, real Muppets.
    (A side note about Rizzo the Rat.  I don’t like Rizzo as a lead character.  He’s best on the side, running around and being a pest on brief moments.  Who’s idea was it to push Rizzo into the lead?  Who knows?  Perhaps voice Steve Whitmore has the goods on someone—it’s his only major character.)
    Of course, this sounds like TMTM is a colossal waste of film.  It is, in fact, just a sign of the series running low on ideas.  The film does have strong moments.  The ad agency scenes are great (Kermit’s fellow workers going “hmmmm” just as he does is perfect), and the film actually manages to give in to Kermit’s wacky side, especially as he poses as a showbiz agent in an attempt to get his script read.  But it’s mostly Kermit’s show, and the other Muppets get a little left on the sidelines.
 

    1990 brought about the death of not only Jim Henson, but also Richard Hunt, the voice of Beaker, Scooter, Statler and Sweetums.  Henson’s final performance as Kermit was in Muppetvision 3-D (I have no idea what this is), and his son replaced him as head of the future of the Muppets and the voice of Kermit.  The Muppet Christmas Carol was his turn at the directorial reigns, and while the film itself isn’t a success, it represents a welcome new approach.  At 8 years, it's the longest gap between Muppet films, so there's bound to be some new ideas floating around.
    Brian Henson’s idea was to use the Muppets in adoptions of classic literature, and Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is certainly a work everyone is familiar with.  Unfortunately, it’s not exactly an ideal source for a Muppet film.  It has only one lead character, and he’s hardly an adequate for a Muppet to play.  Kermit would be too nice, and any of the grumpier Muppets (Stantler and Waldorf, for example) are best relegated to the background.   So instead of a Muppet movie, we get a Michael Caine movie with Muppets in supporting roles.
    The postmodernism of the Muppetry is established entirely by the narrators, Gonzo and Rizzo, with nobody else in on the joke.  Gonzo comes off as a bit off here, not so much out-of-character as restrained, keeping his weirdness to a minimum.  While Paul Williams returned from the first film and the music is better that the previous two entries, there’s a blandness to the tunes that make them less than memorable.  Many major Muppets aren't featured at all, and several non-"Muppet Show" based critters (such as the ones of direct-to-video Muppet offshoots) show up.  Other incidental Muppets sound the same as the real ones.  (Listen to the fruit seller in the beginning--he sounds exactly like Fozzie.)
    The younger Henson, it seems, is more interested in making things cute rather than funny.  The film has virtually no jokes, and Caine’s brooding, humorless portrayal doesn’t really help.  It’s watchable, sure, and a perfectly fine kids flick, but it seems to be Henson getting his feet wet rather than actually trying to make an entertaining movie.  It is, at least, something different.
 

    While MCC represents a practice swing, The Muppet Treasure Island lands a decent-sized base hit.  The source material may not lend itself to loads of characters immediately, but Jerry Juhl and James V. Hart (who’d previously updated classic literature in Hook and Bram Stoker’s Dracula) throw in enough parts to support pretty much all the Muppets.  In fact, a joke about the prominence of the stock characters is made in passing when we see the Swedish Chef as a cannibal cook (if indeed Muppets can be cannibals) late in the first act and it’s remarked, “Well, we had to fit him in somewhere.”
    Tim Curry, the adult lead, seems a lot more at home with the Muppets than Caine.  Curry is, in many ways, a human Muppet anyway, at his best when gleefully chewing up scenery.  The inclusion of Kevin Bishop as Jim Hawkins (a part which could have easily gone to a Muppet) is the first time a little kid has shows up in a major role in a Muppet film, and amazingly enough, he’s not annoying and has an amazing voice.
    The music is better this time around, too.  Gone are sappy melancholy ballads of the previous two entries, replaced by high-energy numbers (“Cabin Fever” and “Sailing, Sailing” are two highlights) by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, creators of several girl-group hits (“Uptown,” “On Broadway” and “Blame it on the Bossa Nova”).  There’s a real sense of fun, and it’s obvious that everyone had a good time working on the project.
    While the humor treads on similar turf as the earlier films, it doesn’t duplicate itself.  Everyone’s in on the “it’s just a movie” joke this time around, Jennifer Saunders and Billy Connolly have entertaining bits and even when jokes don’t work, all the Muppets seem genuinely in character.  Miss Piggy, unfortunately, is left to a final-third entrance, and this time she brings up the series’ first genitalia joke, albeit a small one (“Hello, Looooong John!”) that would probably pass by most of the film’s kiddie audience.
    It’s no big surprise, then, that MTI did the best box office of the three post-Jim Henson Muppet films, grossing $33 million, over MCC’s $27 million and more than twice the $16 million earned by the series’ most recent, and most terminally misguided entry, Muppets From Space.
 

    “Desperate cash-in” is the only way to really explain the plot, a mishmash of science fiction movie clichés that involves Gonzo becoming depressed over his lack of identity, so he gets visited by aliens who want to take him home.  Not only does this compromise the character (Gonzo, by definition, is a weirdo, and becomes more ecstatic the stranger things become, and becomes depressed only when forced into normalcy, for Chrissakes), but it forces Gonzo to have an origin, a prospect so irrational in nature that it completely destroys the uniqueness of the character.
    The music is not Muppet-themed at all, but 70’s funk (!?) in which the Muppets willingly participate.  (Including, speaking of character compromises, Sam the Eagle, who would logically think dancing is silly)  A sub-plot involves Miss Piggy trying to become a TV anchorwoman (if this is supposed to be in “Muppet Reality,” why is there no mention of her prior TV experience?) by beating out Andie McDowall, best known for playing the Same Damn Character in That Other Romantic Comedy With Andie McDowall.  Kermit says “Way to get down with your bad selves.”  The inclusion of the sex-crazed reggae-influenced Muppet (voiced by-wait for it-Steve Whitmore) who says really dumb things, the near-absence of virtually every other original Muppet other than Kermit, Piggy, Gonzo, Animal and Fozzie, and the presence of David Arquette don’t help matters.
    Gone completely is the adult humor, though some z-grade Porky’s-style slapstick is thrown in for good measure.  Watch Piggy kick Josh Charles in the balls!  Watch jokes that aren’t funny in the first place get dumbed down and repeated out of fears that kids won’t get them!  Watch endless references to other Sci-fi films (and The Shawkshank Redemption!) that kid’s definitely won’t get!  Watch Piggy become mean-spirited rather than entertainingly above-it-all!  The Star Wars-inspired poster art says it all—this is a Muppet movie that relies solely on absorbing dumb gags from other movies, even to the point where a joke from the first Muppet Movie is repeated verbatim without a hint of irony.
    It’s hard to believe Jerry Juhl had anything to do with this (perhaps co-writer Mazarrino did most of the work), but what’s more unbelievable is how Brian Henson let his father’s creations fall this hard this fast.  Why he handed over the directorial reigns to first-timer Tim Hill (who’d never worked with the Muppets before) is beyond me.
    Is Muppets From Space a total loss?  No film is a total loss, and MFS has one good point.  When Gonzo sees aliens for the first time, the visit him in the form of “Cosmic Knowledge Fish.”  They are fish.  They are funny.
    I liked the Cosmic Knowledge Fish.
    I hated Muppets From Space.
    The next project, Muppet Haunted House, doesn’t look very promising either.  Early reports make it out to be similar to MFS in that it’s a series of escapades based on other films.  When will film-makers learn that basing a film on other films not only immediately dates it, but generally makes the scriptwriters so lazy because they can simply make fun of things rather than having to come up with something on their own?  (The exception to this is Airplane!, which works fine even if you’re not familiar with disaster films.)
 

    The Muppet franchise is in trouble.  Hey, Brian Henson!  You were doing fine!  I’d rather see A Muppet Crime and Punishment than more of this trash.
 

Links:

 Muppet Central is a fine site with loads of Muppet and Jim Henson info.