I may have seen this movie more than I've seen any other, largely because we had it on tape when I was a kid and I would watch it over and over (and over and over, my parents would add). I recently got the dvd as a gift (thank you, A), and as it had been a few years since I'd seen it all the way through, I was was a bit anxious to see how it had held up.

It has held up just fine, and here's why: this is a movie entirely without guile. In spite of its stars being made up of fur, rubber, felt, wire, etc., you will rarely run across a film filled with more genuine human emotion. In spite of the movie telling you, frequently (and often, hilariously), that it is a movie, the story has a feel of authenticity as much as any human drama. When Kermit muses upon the words of a (not too) sleazy Hollywood agent, "You could make millions of people happy," it's evident that a chord has been struck.

This isn't Barney pap, either. Rowlf sings about drinking beer (then taking himself for a walk), Gonzo ogles the ladies, and Kermit gets, well, pissed at the obsessive Doc Hooper. The songs range from the cheery road theme "Movin' Right Along" to Gonzo's wistful song of separation, "I'm Going Back There Someday."

Most of all, it's funny. The puns, the deadpan deliveries, the repartee, Kermit's facial expressions, not to mention a host of cameos, highlighted by Steve Martin's shorts-wearing waiter and Mel Brooks' mad German scientist, provide start-to-end laughs. This movie is the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.