The Great Muppet Caper (1981)

Muppet Month continues as we go into ‘The Great Muppet Caper’, where we see identical twins Kermit the Frog, Gonzo the Great, and Fozzie Bear travel to London, England in order to report on the theft of Lady Holiday’s (Diana Rigg) jewels.

Just like the last film, this one is fricking hilarious. To be honest I might as well copy and paste my last review, because I’m only going to repeat a majority of that. The acting from the human characters are great, with a special nod to Diana Rigg and Charles Grodin (Nicky Holliday). The cameos were also fantastic, with the likes of John Cleese, Peter Falk, and Peter Ustinov. They even poke fun at the cameos when Oscar the Grouch pops up, as Ustinov asks:

Ustinov: What are you doing here?
Oscar: A very brief cameo.

Ustinov: Me too.

John Cleese should get a special mention as well, since he makes his scene really funny, especially when it moves onto Miss Piggy pretending the house is hers. Without him, I don’t think the scene would’ve been that good. The fourth wall jokes certainly haven’t lost their touch either, such as Animal parodying the MGM lion logo and eating the title card, Kermit, Fozzie and Gonzo commenting on the opening title and credits, or Miss Piggy saying that Grodin’s singing voice was dubbed. I’m not sure if that was true, but it was still hilarious.

And of course the puppeteering is still fantastic. The Muppets still look like they’re actually alive, like they’re living and breathing. The songs aren’t that bad either, with some really catchy songs like ‘The Happiness Hotel’. I must admit, I did enjoy the songs slightly more than the ones in ‘The Muppet Movie’.

The jokes are really good, including the running gags, such as no-one seeing the similarities between Kermit and Fozzie unless Fozzie is wearing a hat, then later references such as the father pointing out to his daughter that Kermit’s a frog because “bears wear hats”.

The effects, well, there wasn’t that many effects used. What little we see though are used to great effect, such as Kermit, Fozzie and Gonzo being thrown from a plane, or Beauregard driving through walls. We even have Miss Piggy drive through a gallery window on a motorbike. I should have known that ‘Resident Evil: Apocalypse’ stole that moment for Alice at the church.

But, while I did enjoy this film a lot, I did find myself drifting from it. I’m not sure why though. I mean, there were some aspects I didn’t like, like Beauregard, or boring, such as Miss Piggy’s fantasy scene. I didn’t mind Miss Piggy’s fantasy at first, but it just went on and on.

But don’t get me wrong, the film is still really good. Is it better than the first one? Hmmmmmm, probably not, in my opinion. But it’s still a strong entry into the Muppet franchise, one which I and many others still enjoy immensely. Like the first film, this one hasn’t dated and is still a great laugh for the whole family to enjoy.