Although it is over 50 years old in 2020, The Muppet Movie is still one of the most iconic films in history, both due to its groundbreaking approach to film making as well as the many technical hurdles that the team had to jump through to bring the Muppets to life on the big screen. With various degrees of meta-commentary on the nature of Hollywood as well as several standout musical numbers, there’s very little to hate about this film.
The Muppet Movie may be aged, but that doesn’t mean that every aspect of the film and the processes behind the scenes are well known to the audience, as many troubles that plagued the film during its creation didn’t come to light until well after the film had been released.
10 Jim Henson Went Above And Beyond For The Opening Scene
In the opening scene of The Muppet Movie, Kermit the Frog sings The Rainbow Connection while perched on a log in the middle of a swamp, which was much harder on Jim Henson, both the creator of the Muppets and many of the character’s puppeteer, than would be expected for such a simple scene. In order to film this musical number, not only were several different Kermit puppets used, with some requiring mechanical arms to play the banjo, but Henson himself had to spend all day in a 50-gallon drum submerged underwater just to hide his presence from the camera.
9 Kermit Was Responsible For Some Of The Most Difficult Scenes To Film
The panned out Rainbow Connection scene was difficult for Henson and his team to film, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. Later in the film, Kermit is seen riding a bicycle, a simple scene that was a huge technical problem at the time and required a combination of out of shot cranes and hidden wires to create. While Henson spent only one day inside a steel drum for the opening scene, filming every shot of Kermit playing the banjo took a total of 5 days to film due to constantly changing out puppets for additional angles.
8 Fozzie Was Driving The Studebaker Blind
During the scenes where Fozzie drives the iconic Studebaker, the idea behind filming was to have the puppeteers hiding out of view while a man drove the car while inside the engine compartment, watching the road through a miniature screen. However, the screen malfunctioned during filming and the driver had to be directed via walky-talky instead.
These days, it would have been easy enough to control the car remotely, something that would have seemed like science fiction during the late 70s, and definitely wouldn’t have passed OSHA regulations.
7 Animal’s Inflated Head Was Built To Scale
In the climax of the film, the Muppets have an old fashioned western standoff with Doc Hopper, who had hired an assassin to kill Kermit and his friends. In the chaos, Animal accidentally eats several of Bunsen’s insta-grow pills and grows to an enormous size, though this scene wasn’t done with scaling tricks or green screens. Instead, a scale, working replica of Animal’s head was built for the scene and measured in at sixty feet.
6 The Final Scene Only Took One Day To Film
In the closing scene of the film, Kermit and his fellow Muppets sing The Rainbow Connection once again, only this time, they are joined by nearly every Muppet from both Sesame Street and The Muppets. In order to achieve this, Henson needed to hire an additional 137 puppeteers on top of his normal crew so that all puppets could be used at once. What is most impressive about this isn’t the number of people present for this scene, but that despite the fact that it should have been one of the harder scenes to film, it only took one day on set to complete.
5 It Was Groundbreaking For Its Time
The Muppet Movie was groundbreaking in many respects, from how it handled puppetry to the many difficult scenes that had to be filmed, but one of the most impactful aspects of the film is also somewhat innocuous, especially by today’s standards. Before The Muppet Movie, no hand puppet had ever been shown from the waist down, especially not one that appeared to be moving and working as if it were being controlled by a human hand and set a precedent for all future films that involved hand puppets in the future, such as every following Muppet film and The Dark Crystal.
4 The Error In Gonzo’s Dream To Be A Movie Star
When finding new friends on his journey to become a famous movie star, Kermit encounters Gonzo, whose wish is to move to Bombay to become a movie star is ridiculed by Fozzie. Gonzo claims that he wants to move there specifically because it isn’t the easy way to become a movie-star, unlike going to Hollywood like Fozzie and Kermit.
In reality, the movie industry in India is significantly larger than in Hollywood, though, at the time, Jim Henson didn’t know this fact and was only made aware of it once The Muppet Movie had been released.
3 Jim Henson Didn’t Play Kermit For The Entire Film
For the most part, Jim Henson was the sole puppeteer for playing Kermit, which, aside from his attachment to the character, was largely because he also played the voice of Kermit until his death in 1990. For The Muppet Movie, however, he played nearly every Kermit scene with the exception of the “I Hope That Somethin’ Better Comes Along” duet with Rowlf, as Jim Henson normally plays both Kermit and Rowlf, he had to use another puppeteer for the scene and dubbed over the audio later.
2 Is The Tenth Highest Grossing Film Of 1979
A movie about puppets trying to find a career as movie stars doesn’t seem like it would be a hit, especially in the late 70s, but The Muppet Movie did well enough that it was not only one of the best-received films of 1979, but was also the tenth highest-grossing film of the year alongside other massive movies like Moonraker, Apocalypse Now, and Kramer vs. Kramer.
1 It Is Only The Third-Highest Grossing Muppet Movie
Despite how well The Muppet Movie performed, both in revenue and critical reception, it isn’t the highest-grossing Muppet film. Both 2011’s The Muppets and 2014’s Muppets Most Wanted managed to make back more and the box office than the original film, as well as both being the highest-rated Muppet films since the original, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 95% and 80% respectfully, while The Muppet Movie scored 88%.
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