![]() Of course the movie is visually dated in terms of both ideas and styles of the time, which adds to the overall old English charm factor. Its all done for giggles of course but my God its vomit-inducing, which is the entire point but.yeesh! We then get some quite long scenes of slush such as the (now infamous) aquatic sequence with a swimming Piggy which is very well done but kinda stops the movie in its tracks for me. Piggy never stops lusting after Kermit whilst the green one holds back for as long as he can before submitting to her advances. I've got nothing against frog and pig lovin' but holy felted balls it's in your face. They really[/b[ lay this element on thick this time with the frog and pig getting loads of romance time which quite frankly becomes irritating. I think one of the biggest negative points I have to raise here was that gosh darn romance between Miss Piggy and Kermit. But by far the best must be John Cleese along with Joan Sanderson who team up together once again (Fawlty Towers) to play familiar characters. Star wise Peter Falk has an amusing and decent sized cameo. Jerry Nelson and his daughter have a walkon moment, along with Frank Oz and Richard Hunt. Jim Henson is in a blink and you'll miss it moment. Of course this is a Muppet movie so we have a whole string of cameos again, but this time we actually see a few of the creative team getting cameos. It's only when you get a revealing wide shot that everything looks stupid (dunno why they did that as it wrecks the illusion). The closeup shots and editing of each Muppet doing something utterly insane is glorious as they play a game of catch to keep the diamond away from the robbers. Again it's a typical Muppet-esque sequence that naturally makes no sense at all and has Muppets popping up all over the place despite being in random other places merely seconds before (or not even a part of the movie up to that point). Here the crooks (led by the rather uninspired choice of Charles Grodin) are sprung upon by all the Muppets as they try to steal the fabulous baseball diamond from a gallery. There are plenty of other highlights to mention such as the fun yet extremely stupid robbery sequence at the end. I love how the creative team utilised the building for Muppet hijinks it's a typical Muppet-esque set scenario. Most of the scene here are easily the best from the songs to the bedroom heist planning sequences. The hotel is typical old fashioned British manor house that is falling apart at the seams, complete with a rickety old double-decker tour bus. This is where many Muppets now reside as it appears to be mainly for Muppets that have no money. I think the real highlight of this movie is the Happiness Hotel located on Cheapside Street in west London. Clearly the team had much more confidence this time around. Whereas this movie had a much more exciting plot which didn't really need too much crazy antics but it got a whole tonne of wackiness. I put this down to the creative team behind the movie wanting to be a little safe for their first outing. Where as the first movie had a really underwhelming plot, as far as I'm concerned, it was relatively grounded for the Muppets and needed some more wackiness. Is indeed all very off the wall, but its visually brilliant and a clear sign of what's to come. And upon hitting the ground a song and dance routine breaks out.just because. Where just moments before Gonzo was essentially contemplating suicide because it looked like fun. ![]() Yep, the rather odd intro of Kermit, Fozzie, and Gonzo landing in downtown Manhatten (?) in their hot air balloon for no real apparent reason. ![]() So I will cut straight to the chase here and say that I prefer this second movie over the first. This was a regular VHS weekend viewing type situation for many years (along with 'Superman 3'). Like the first Muppet movie I grew up with this one. Upon reaching England the duo (plus Gonzo) team up with other Muppets and begin to unravel the crime despite only being reporters and not the police. Luckily they manage to talk their editor into allowing them to fly to England in order to investigate the crime and interview the victim, Lady Holiday (Diana Rigg). Because of this the duo get axed from their reporter jobs. The premise? Well there's a big jewel heist (in New York I think) and local reporters Kermit and Fozzie miss it. So this movie was a caper, a crime caper, and it was set in England. Alas twas the only major Muppet movie to be directed by Jim Henson. This second major Muppet production was a British - American collaboration and marked Jim Henson's directorial debut.
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