Muppet Treasure Island: Buried Treasure

[Ruahnna]

I just watched Muppet Treasure Island again all the way through, and I have to say that, despite its faults, it's a pretty great movie. (And by watched, I mean I sat and actually looked at the screen the whole time--no sewing, no embroidery, no reading, no editing--just sat there and tried to look at everything.) Here are some of the things I enjoyed:

Sam the Eagle has cute feet. We don't often see them, but there are some nice shots of him in the lifeboat.

Kermit's tattoo of Miss Piggy on his chest. His holding onto her picture and sighing while he looks out at the night sea is sweet, but having your chest tattoo'd--now that's commitment!

Tim Curry, who is usually over the top and always very watchable, turns in an emotionally believable performance. It's easy to imagine that he is really a pirate with a soft spot--a good man with a bad heart, or perhaps a bad man with a good heart. He's one of those actors that can go over the top with little effort, and to great effect.

Inept muppet pirates--always an intellectual treat. Clueless and Polly and Angel Marie outdo themselves here. The cockroach is an icky little touch--when the cockroaches are bigger than the rats, it's time to find a new ship!

Seeing Bunsen and Kermit with long hair. It's a nice look for them. (And Beaker with a ponytail makes me think of Steve Whitmire.)

Piggy's leopard-print dress-with the matching feather-boa. Classic Piggy. Not to mention her plump little legs, which are shown off to advantage by the high heels with feather poufs. (Not that I'm a fangirl, or anything.)

Lew Zealand knitting a pirate flag while the pirates are lounging around the ship.

Kermit's sword-play. He is quite dashing in his captain's duds, and I especially liked the pirate shirt he wore. Piggy shows up at the end wearing the same style of shirt (started to say "the same shirt" but realized that had a different connotation!) with a skirt and some flirty black and red-striped stockings.

Gonzo and Rizzo together. Hard to go wrong there. Gonzo's impossible-to-predict lunacy, and enjoyment of all things odd, and Rizzo's avarice (selling cruise tickets, literally moving into the apple barrell in the kitchen) are a wonderful combination any time. Also, Goelz and Whitmire show off one of the few remaining original muppet pairings. Very nice.

The wild boars. Piggy is stuck on the island (I started to say "planet") with her pick of wild, big-tusked, bare-chested he-man boars who literally worship her and....the one she wants is still scrawny little Kermit. (Piggy: Hey--who wrote this script anyway? The frog? It was the frog, wasn't it? Kermit!!!) And the sight of her sitting on the log with her arms crossed and her leg jiggling angrily is downright irresistible.
Kermit's ire and annoyance with Piggy when he finds she apparently dated a whole slew of pirates is nicely tempered by Piggy's swat and, "Well, if you'd married me...! I'm a pig! We need commitment!"

The playing in the pirate treasure is great. Cabin Fever is also fun to watch--for the costumes alone! But the singing and dancing is good, too.

Oh, and the BAND! Oooh! The Band! The Electric Mayhem are kickin'--why does it not surprise me that they make such believable pirates? Floyd's "Hey--just play the gig" attitude is hysterical.

Statler and Waldorf as two petrified old coots is, well, just about right, wouldn't you say?

But I guess I had forgotten what a nice, measured and sensitive performance that Kermit turned in. It is a pleasure to watch him in this. I was still smarting over the loss of Jim--yeah, like that will ever go away!--but it made me, I don't know, veer away from examining Kermit as closely as I might have at the time the movie came out. And after that, it was just easier to lump him in with the movie as a whole. But it is a fine-tuned and lovely performance by Steve. Kudos.

Okay--I'll leave some for the rest of you. What say?

 

[The Count]

Me say... Love these sorts of reviews... Gives me some added insight since I base my enjoyment more on following the auditive and more or less imagining what's happening on screen based on that.

Will have to watch this one, still got a backlog of stuff to watch though, maybe during Holy Week or summer vacations.

Let's see... MTI moments.
The Swedish Chef shows up with a removable pig's snout. The rats comment as to how else were they to get him into the movie? Classic Muppetism.
Priceless how Kermit and Gonzo think they're going to meet their doom at the Chef's hands, er um, cleavers.
Cockroach? Oh, you probably mean Jacques from JHH.
The segment with the black spot... Very spot on according to pirate lore. It plays on the superstitions of the time/literature and the general fearfulness of the Muppet pirates.
Blind Pew... Instant fave character.
Amazed that they got Jennifer Saunders from French & Saunders in this movie... The way she handles her onscreen persona, almost apologizing for whenever she delivers what could be construed as an insult to a patron makes me laugh a little, as she's obviously bending over backwards not to lose what little patronage she has.

Tim Curry, a great actor whether in person or voiceover animation wise. Would recommend you see him in the movie version of the board game Clue, or if you're brave enough as the embodiment of all manners of fears as Pennywise in Stephen King's It!

 

[Ruahnna]

RE: Tim Curry--and there is always, of course OF COURSE The Rocky Horror Picture Show. And Dragonslayer. He was also in the first (recent) Charlie's Angels movie.

(And Mr. Curry will be making another guest appearance in Kermie's Girls--but that is, well, a bit in the future.)

 

[Ruahnna]

Okay--seeing Sam the Eagle in the fight scene is pretty good, too. Especially with his deadpan expression and shifty eyes. The little pirate who keeps getting knocked into the tree is a funny running gag with Sam.

The pirate names. I forgot to mention the pirate names! Black-eyed Pea. (I HOPE that's how it's spelled....) Old Tom. Really Old Tom. Dead Tom.

Okay--you know I'm the ush-gush queen, but I really like the way Kermit takes responsibility for Piggy's series of bad relationships. Smollet's obviously sorry that he didn't follow through on the marriage to Benjamina, and he steps up and tries to make things right. Of course--I'm still glad she smacked him good for leaving her at the altar.

Was sorry in retrospect that Pepe wasn't around when this one came out. Ditto Clifford. Pepe's general lack of helpfulness would have made him a natural to switch sides again and again. And Clifford could have added some steel drum panache to the EMs cruise music. Now THERE's an album for you: The Electric Mayhem's Music to Cruise By....

C'mon people--don't make me do this alone!

 

[The Count]

Yes... Shame this was before Pepe's addition to the family, as the movie was from 1995 and the little prawn busted in on the scene in 1996 with his pachyderm performing partner, Seymour.
Clifford on the other hand, was already part of the family. He was in the Jm Henson Hour from 1988/1989, and had a groovy part playing the glockenspiel for the EM when they toured the World Showcase at EPCOT in the Muppets vacation at WDW in 1991.

The pirate names... Recently found out Big-Fat-Ugly-Bug-Faced-Baby-Eating O'Brien was a human character, and a lady pirate at that.
Great bit where Sam's still checking on the seaworthiness and safety of the little rowboat when he comes back to the ship on the ocean currents.
Gonzo's reaction to finding Sweetums fighting on their side: Aren't you with the pirates?
Sweetums: Nah... I love you guys.

 

[redBoobergurl]

This is the only Muppet movie I haven't actually seen. After some of the descriptions though I think I'm finally going to watch it. I've been hesitant because I'm just not crazy about the whole Treasure Island concept but I think it's about time I complete the list.

 

[MrsPepper]

Aw Beth you HAVE to see it! Every detail is taken care of... there is muppety goodness sewn into every stitch of this movie. It's my favourite (2nd fav is Manhattan) and it's just so adorable. It's got true spirit, it really does!

The pirate names... Recently found out Big-Fat-Ugly-Bug-Faced-Baby-Eating O'Brien was a human character, and a lady pirate at that.

Aw, poor Count, no one told you earlier that this was a visual gag? That's brutal. It's one of my faves because they make him sound so mean... when it's actually a really pretty girl and Sam the Eagle gets all shocked and loses his train of thought for a minute. ^_^

 

[The Count]

Mmm... So that's what happened. Thanks Mrs. P. Now if there were some place I could find the actress's name...

 

[minor muppetz]

This is my least favorite of the theatrically released Muppet movies. Too adventurous.

I wish that more classic obscure characters were used as pirates. Crazy Harry and Beauregard would have made good pirates (Beauregard could be the stupid kind of pirate, who turns nice later). Bean Bunny could have also been a pirate, using his cuteness as a weapon. It would have been great if Clifford was in this movie, though I think he would have looked out of place in it. I especially wish that more full-body monsters besides Sweetums were used... where were Doglion, Timmy, Mean Mama, and the Mutations?

And Blind Pew looked so much like Uncle Deadley... I wish that Uncle Deadley played the role of Blind Pew. Heck, both characters were performed by Jerry Nelson.

And I wish that Lips was with the Electric Mayhem in this movie. And that Digit and Leon were part of the crew. And although I like the design of Flubere, I wish that Foo-Foo appeared as Piggy's pet instead (or that Piggy had two pets, a dog and an ant eater).

 

[Speed Tracer]

I really love Billy Connelly in this.