The Great Caper bicycle sequnce

[Mokey's sweet]

I was just wondering if any of you Muppet fans knows the anwser to my question. in the "Great Muppet Caper", how the **** did you do that Bike bit? i've always wondered that, does anyone know?

 

[Beauregard]

Now...first of all, do you really want to lose the mystery of not knowing?

I'm gunna guess your answer is yes, and plunge right into an explaination.

Short answer: Strings!

Long answer: Platforms were set up in the trees, with tracks and performers who stedied and moved the bikes.

 

[Kermieuk]

Dont forget that in the group scene all the bikes were connected through the centre of the wheels by rods to hold em all together.

And the Muppet characters were animatronic robots, cut with scenes of the real puppets with handlebars.

Chris

 

[peyjenk]

And it all looks so much better than any CGI thing they would do today.

 

[Mistersuperstar]

According to Jim (and Brian Henson also explained almost word for word) they were being pulled along by a group of tricycles that a quite a bit further down the road from the Muppet characters. I know that Kermit in The Muppet Movie was held up by strings like a marionette so there was probably quite a mixture of techniques used depending on which camera angel they were using. Either way, even by today's standards, it's still a pretty impressive scene.

 

[Muppet Newsgirl]

And Brian was on one of the tricycles that pulled the train of bikes along. You can see him off in the distance at the end of the scene.

And they used waldos to work the Muppets' mouths in the long shots.

 

[BEAR]

And Brian was on one of the tricycles that pulled the train of bikes along. You can see him off in the distance at the end of the scene.

And they used waldos to work the Muppets' mouths in the long shots.

Waldos? What are those?

 

[CensoredAlso]

Have you seen any of the behind the scenes Fraggle specials? They're the electronic hand mitten devices puppeteers use to control the Doozers and Gorgs from a distance.

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Waldo