Review of The Great Muppet Caper (1981) by Joe W — 22 Sep 2012

So far, the only Muppet movies I've seen are this one, "Christmas Carol", "Treasure Island", "From Space" and the 2011 one. This I would rank as number 4 on that list.

A lot of scenes I found funny were the Happiness Hotel song, Miss Piggy's fantasy, the part where Fozzie puts sugar in champagne, drinks it and says "You know if you put enough sugar in this thing, it takes like ginger ale." (when I tell people that joke, they laugh. You can't show champagne in a family movie now. Although Tintin had an alcoholic captain) and some nice 4th wall jokes.

But not all the jokes are funny, there's a moment where Kermit, Fozzie and Gonzo are in boxes are are dropped from a plane and land in London. A man sees them and says "The forecast said it was going to rain cats and dogs." That joke doesn't work in the slightest. Another scene I hate is John Cleese's cameo where he plays the really boring husband to the really boring wife and all they do is talk about the weather. This scene goes on and on and gets really boring. It was just an excuse to get John Cleese in the movie. Also, the line "We're gonna catch these thieves red handed." "What colour are their hands now?", that joke only works the first time but not when it's used the second and third time. The moment where Gonzo yells "Stop the presses!" for no reason is also pointless. Why did they film that? Frank Oz appears in the background of that scene.

There's a really nice moment where we see all the Muppet riding bikes and I still have no idea how they did that. Even the filmmakers won't tell. It's one of the most impressive special effects shots of all time and it holds up really well after 31 years.

Overally "Caper" is a nice addition to the films, not as strong as the other ones but defiantly better than "Space".

Look out for the Jim Henson cameo.