Miss Piggy and Charles Grodin... mismatched!

[Speed Tracer]

In its list of Thirteen Films with Wildly Mismatched Romantic Pairings, A.V. Club places the relationship of Nicky Holiday (Charles Grodin) and Miss Piggy in The Great Muppet Caper at #13.

Boy meets pig. Boy frames pig as a jewel thief. Boy loses pig, and has all his leather-clad supermodel/cat-burglar sidekicks karate-chopped into submission by pig. It's practically the world's oldest story. But is the boy really feeling it? Probably not. While Charles Grodin does romance Miss Piggy during The Great Muppet Caper, even singing her a heartfelt love song, complete with a Esther Williams-satirizing synchronized-swim routine, he never really sells the lines "When does the rapture begin and grow / Where does devotion and passion go… / All the world's ever wanted was you, a dream come true." Maybe it's just that Grodin usually plays his roles in a removed, condescending sort of way, and he just wasn't cut out for a love story. Or, well… Not to be shallow and prejudiced, but maybe they just aren't convincing as a couple because she's half his height, the wrong species, and made out of felt.

You can read the rest of the list here.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Lol, well actually I disagree that he didn't didn't sell the lyrics, it was good mixture of passion and campiness. But yeah, definitely mismatched! Though I often think Piggy would have gone with Nicky had Kermit never come along. She might have secretly thought Nicky was the best she could.

 

[Beauregard]

Oooh, I don't know. There was a time when the relationship felt odd, but on the most recent viewing I thought he really did seem madly in love with her. Over the top, but still love.

 

[peyjenk]

I saw that a few days ago and thought it was quite clever.

 

[Winslow Leach]

Charles Grodin in "Muppet Caper."

BOOOOOOOOO!!!

HISSSSSSSSS!!!

 

[Rustin Allison]

Saw this the other day, too. Thought that the list was pretty funny. I was just glad to see a surprise Muppet reference!

Rustin Allison

 

[Winslow Leach]

Slightly off topic (as usual), but I see Charles Grodin is appearing in a new movie. I think it's called The Ex, which looks like a pretty fun romantic comedy. Back in the 90s, Grodin said he was going to quit acting, and he did for a time. He hosted his own talk show; he penned another autobiography. Then we didn't hear much from him. Good to see him back on the screen.

Some of my favorite Grodin films include Catch-22 (really an ensemble piece, but Grodin made a good Aardvark); The Heartbreak Kid (his first big break as a film star, in which he plays a newly-married man who falls in love with Cybill Shepard on his honeymoon); King Kong (he plays the villain in this Dino DeLaurentis remake from '76); and Midnight Run with Robert De Niro.

But I first saw Grodin in The Great Muppet Caper when I was a kid. Not a bad way to be introduced to an excellent character actor, eh?

 

[Speed Tracer]

Grodin is pretty much the only good thing about the 1976 King Kong remake.

I saw The Ex, and man, what a waste of talent. Zach Braff plays an even more exaggerated version of himself on Scrubs (if you can believe that), and the result isn't pretty. Grodin is sorely underused. The funniest scene is with Paul Rudd, and it's all too brief. The best of the main cast is Jason Bateman, who's on a role lately.

 

[Winslow Leach]

Grodin is pretty much the only good thing about the 1976 King Kong remake.

I definitely agree. That movie was a waste of talent. So I should skip The Ex, huh? Jason Bateman did look funny in the ads, though.