What's the difference between the 98 and 95 minute versions of The Great Muppet Caper?

[panmanthe2nd]

Hi all,

I have been wondering for some time now, what's the difference between the 98 minutes (most UK VHS release are 98 minutes) and the 95 minutes (as far as I know, all DVD releases are 95 minutes) versions of The Great Muppet Caper?

I have both versions, and am planing on watching both at the same time soon to find out. But before I do that I thought I would ask here in case everyone/anyone knows the answer!

I'm wondering if it's just that they are counting from different points (maybe the 95 minute versions aren't 'counting' the credits as part of the film, or something like that).

 

[dwmckim]

You'll have to let us know what you find - if anything.

There's always a possibility that the versions with a "95 minutes" were just rounding. Or that somewhere between the transfer of formats that the speed could have been affected.

I do know that there have been differences in releases of GMC as far as the audio track...

- One version has vocals during Night Life and the other is instrumental
- One has Animal shout "Renoir" during Happiness Hotel after Zoot's explanation to Kermit as to why the drummer looks crazed
- One version has a Cinderella-like clock ringing 12 as Miss Piggy walks away from Dubonnet Club.

But those were all audio only with no cuts to the film itself that would affect length. Let us know what you find - it would be interesting if there's a similar case with GMC as there was with TMM's slightly different versions.

 

[panmanthe2nd]

I'm going to watch it sometime this week to find out what it's all about!

 

[KermieBaby47]

Color me curious as well, I'd never heard of this difference before. Hmm, every version I've ever seen included all those audios, how strange that those would be cut from any version! When Animal shouts "Renoir!", that's actually one of my all-time most favorite funny Muppet-moments in any piece of entertainment PERIOD. GMC is (I think) the funniest Muppet Movie, and one of the funniest ANY movies, love it!

Can't wait to hear if I need to track down a region-free UK edit...

 

[dwmckim]

You don't need a region-free UK edit for those changes (we don'y yet know if there's any other different edits out there) - both versions have been available domestically on official video releases - you just may need to do some hunting for an early (probably vhs) release (on the plus side, it will probably be pretty inexpensive depending on the seller)

 

[rexcrk]

The video tape I used to rent from the local video store (before I got the DVD) was the tape that had the audio with no lyrics during Night Life, and no "RENOIR!!"

Imagine my surprise when I first got it on DVD

 

[panmanthe2nd]

Hi!

I watched the VHS and DVD at the same time today, and sadly they are identical.

The reason for the time difference (as dwmckim suggested) is that the DVD runs a bit faster than the VHS. To put this to the test I paused the DVD for a few seconds so that the VHS was ahead of it, and then pressed play. Before long the DVD was ahead of the VHS again.

Oh well