Muppet Treasure Island (1996)

Oh my God, I love this film. ‘Muppet Treasure Island’ is definitely my personal favourite. Well, that or ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’. Anyway, with the highly successful ‘(The) Muppet Christmas Carol’, the franchise decided to follow that up with another novel adaptation, this time of...well...Treasure Island. And my God, was this an awesome film.

Firstly, the songs are fantastic, we open up with ‘Shiver My Timbers’, which actually provides a great introduction to the background of the story, while we also some awesome and catchy songs such as ‘Sailing For Adventure’, ‘Cabin Fever’ and ‘Boom Shakalaka’. ‘Professional Pirate’ gives us a great insight into Long John Silver’s (Tim Curry) character, while ‘Love Led Us Here’ was a nice romantic song.

Oh God yes, Tim Curry. I have been thinking of putting together a list entitled ‘Top 10 Actors Who Automatically Make a Film Awesome’, and, if I do, this is a spoiler, Tim Curry is (most likely) number one. In pretty much every single role he does, whether it be Dr Frank-N-Furter from ‘The Rocky Horror Show’, Pennywise from ‘Stephen King’s It’, or Arl Rendon Howe from ‘Dragon Age: Origins’, you can tell he has a lot of fun and puts a lot of effort into his roles, and it’s no exception here. He makes Long John a great and complex character, he can give the right emotion and can sing!

The other human actors were really good too. Jennifer Saunders was great as Mrs. Bluberidge, Billy Connolly was simply perfect as Billy Bones, and Kevin Bishop was pretty good as Jom Hawkins. Yes, Kevin Bishop, that guy who starred in ‘Star Stories’ and ‘The Kevin Bishop Show’, where he plays completely different characters. It’s even more surprising when you hear him sing in this film. No wonder Blind Pew thought he was a girl.

Once again the puppeteering was great, while the effects were fantastic, as per usual, with effects including cannons, explosions and any scene where we see the ocean. The chemistry between the human and puppet characters are truly spectacular as well, the main examples being Hawkins, Gonzo and Rizzo, and Silver and Polly the Lobster. Incorporating the Muppets into characters from the book were pulled off brilliantly, even Gonzo and Rizzo even though they were given specially created roles after their success from 'Muppet Christmas Carol'.

The film also manages to create some eerie scenes, such as Dead Tom rising from his coffin during the ‘Cabin Fever’ song, Samuel Arrow (Sam the Eagle) pretending to be a ghost (Yes, he’s pretending, yet it was still pretty creepy) and Silver, Hawkins and the other pirates coming across dark markers on their way towards the treasure.

The jokes are simply brilliant. The fourth wall jokes are back, with some classics such as “He died?! And this is suppose to be a kid’s movie!”, and “Well, it’s too late to save the movie!”. I also like how random jokes also come back later in the film, such as Gonzo saying that he has starfish in his pants, then he uses said starfish towards the end of the film to trap a lobster pirate onto the side of the boat.

You know what, this is pretty much going to be another small review, but can you blame me? How many times can I repeat ‘this is awesome’ over and over again? The acting is brilliant, the puppeteering is great, the effects are excellent, the songs are fantastic, the jokes are awesome, seriously, if you don’t love this film, there’s something wrong with you.