Trailer
Plot summary
Kermit the Frog plays his banjo in a Florida swamp until Bernie, a talent agent, suggests he try show business. Kermit sets out for Hollywood and picks up companions along the way: Fozzie Bear, a stand-up comedian, Gonzo and Camilla the Chicken, Scooter, who manages Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, and Miss Piggy, whom he meets at a county fair. Doc Hopper, who owns a chain of restaurants selling frog legs, wants Kermit as the face of his menu and trails the group with his assistant Max. Kermit turns him down, and Hopper's efforts to change his mind become more forceful.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Muppet Movie (1979)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- To perform Kermit sitting on a log, Jim Henson squeezed into a sealed metal container with an air hose, a rubber sleeve for the puppet and a monitor, and stayed underwater; cups of iced tea were passed to him through the sleeve, and rescuers stood by in case the tank leaked. The scene took five days to film.
- The closing reprise of "Rainbow Connection" used more than 250 Muppet characters, virtually every Muppet created up to that time, performed by 137 puppeteers recruited from the Puppeteers of America, who worked in a pit 6 feet deep and 17 feet wide after Henson gave them a lesson in cinematic puppetry.
- For Kermit's full-body bicycle ride, a puppet with legs was posed on the seat with its limbs attached to the pedals and handlebars, and an overhead crane with a marionette system pulled the bicycle along on strong strings invisible to the camera.
- Austin Pendleton, who played Max, called The Muppet Movie "a very unhappy set" because director James Frawley was unhappy making it, and noted it was the only time the Muppet performers used an outside director; afterwards the films were directed by Jim Henson or Frank Oz.
- Edgar Bergen, Jim Henson's idol, died shortly after completing his cameo as himself and Charlie McCarthy at the County Fair in September 1978; Henson was asked by Bergen's family to say a few words with Kermit at the memorial service, and he dedicated the film to Bergen's memory.
- "Never Before, Never Again" was originally sung by Johnny Mathis, but Jim Henson changed it to Miss Piggy because he thought it would be funnier if she sang it to herself; Mathis later sang the song in the TV special The Muppets Go Hollywood.
- The Muppet Movie held the record as the highest-grossing puppet film for 32 years, until The Muppets came out in 2011.
- One of the two 1951 Studebaker Commander sedans used for the driving scenes is displayed at the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana; its front seat bottom was removed so puppeteers could lie on the floor, and it was driven by an operator in the trunk using remote controls and a hidden camera feed.
