Saw THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER tonight. It is a ton of sweet and clever and shameless fun, complete with exceptional co-stars Charles Grodin (as Kermy's rival for Piggy's heart =) and Diana Rigg and great cameos from the likes of Peter Falk and John Cleese (opposite that woman w the hearing aid from FAWLTY TOWERS =). A classic ensemble tongue-in-cheek "road movie," done Muppets-style. I guess that IS Muppets-style, actually, eh? I'm gonna hafta see about getting MANHATTAN and CHRISTMAS CAROL watched sometime soon. Yup, I do have some odd little blind spots in my movie viewing.
Frack. I don't know how I passed this movie up when it was in theaters during my kidhood. Maybe I thought I was growing out of the Muppets then? That would've been third or fourth grade, and I really don't think I ever counted the Muppets as uncool. Although... Maybe being in military school in Texas might've turned my head around a little round that time... Hrmm...
Even though for a while I did fight over the TV with my sister on early Saturday evenings to watch SPACE: 1999 instead of THE MUPPET SHOW (there's a strong association between them in my head cuz of the spinning ITC logos they both closed their credits with), I'm pretty sure we both watched just about every episode. Almost as much as Looney Tunes did for classical music, the Muppets introduced me to more contemporary classics, of all kinds. Who doesn't have "The Devil Went Down To Georgia," "Close To You," "Manah-manah (Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo)," that "Tally Me Banana" song, and "Jaberwocky" burned into their brain thanks to Henson and company?
Yeah, I have no idea how to spell that "Manah-manah" thingie... =)
I really don't feel like I ever outgrew the Muppets. I'm not exactly "up" on all the latest additions to the Sesame Street neighborhood now - I sorta zoned out when other grouches and Elmo appeared on the scene, bleah - and being a cable-less kid, never got in on the FRAGGLE ROCK thang, but I do know that there's a mountain range in Hawaii that has the same silhouette as Mr. Snuffle-upagaus! =) And in general, I feel I've got a soft spot for muppet-dom in many forms. Even now, I still like the Ewoks in JEDI, even though I KNOW they were some kind of Lucas suck-up of a compromise. He wanted a final battle on the planet of the wookies, but the battle was supposed to demonstrate a stone age culture taking down the advanced tech of the empire, and he'd already blown the notion of backwards wookie tech by making Chewie the copilot of the Falcon (and the disowned 1977 STAR WARS Christmas special - SO fried =), so, he spelled "wookie" sideways, shrank them down, dialed the cuteness up about 200 percent, and *bam* ewoks! Who just happened to be big hits w the kids.
Got a bit of STAR WARS on the brain, it's true. Even a little more than usual, as residue from CAPER, actually. Part of the movie involves busting through a high tech secure vault protecting the Lady Holiday's prized, one-of-a-kind, Baseball Diamond. Well, the hardware the thieves hafta hack thru and deactivate is Death Star Imperial surplus! Really! It's made from parts of the machinery and sets used in Death Star scenes in STAR WARS, or maybe from Star Destroyer or Bespin bits of EMPIRE... Have a look!
I know there's always been a bit of a symbiotic relationship between Lucas and Henson. I don't know the intellectual property details, but y'know, STAR WARS gets Yoda and Salacious Crumb, and the MUPPET BABIES cartoon (which I could never watch for more than a minute) gets STAR WARS stock footage and sound effects to use whenever they like.
The theater wasn't packed, but it was a decent crowd for a Tuesday night in Harvard Square, complete with some pre-teen representation. Heh, I could swear I heard Paul laughing in the audience, but I may have been imagining it cuz he mentioned that he'd be into catching the Brattle's Muppets offerings if the scheduling was a bit friendlier. Anyhow, I hope the next couple of Muppet evenings draw more and more people in. Wednesday is MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN, and Thursday, starting at 6pm, is a Muppets trifecta - MUPPET MOVIE, CAPER, and MANHATTAN. Check it out!
Keep on keepin on~
1 comment:
For me, the song is the Buffalo Springfield song, with the chorus, "Watch, children, what's that sound, everyone look what's going down..." Forget what it's called, but it's done in the context of animals hiding from hunters. It really worked for me as a little kid...
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