Film Review: The Great Muppet Caper

Following on from my review of the first Muppet Movie (see here), comes the second original film that was released. The Great Muppet Caper came two years after, in 1981 and was helmed by the creator of all things Muppet himself, Jim Henson. But while the film retained a lot of what made the first film great, there was something missing this time round.

Again, everyone in the film knows they are in the film (something I love about The Muppet Movie and The Muppet Christmas Carol, although it's more just Gonzo and Rizzo in the latter), so we are introduced to proceedings by Kermit, Fozzie and Gonzo, with a nice song and the whole set up that they will be playing newspaper reporters who travel to London to interview the rich victim of a jewel thief (Diana Rigg.)

Once there, they find the Happiness Hotel, where most of the regular Muppet gang are staying, and Kermit 'meets' Miss Piggy, working for Lady Holiday (Rigg), and obviously, they fall in love.

I just couldn't get used to the 'fictional' storyline. The Muppet's playing themselves, but not themselves. It's clear that this is meant as a film the Muppet's made after they hit the big time in the first film (in fact there's one scene where Kermit and Miss Piggy break character and have a domestic!) but I just couldn't click with the story from that point of view.

But the positives, the songs are all good (although not quite as good as the first film), and there are some absolutely brilliant sequences. they may seem a bit ropy now, but the level of effort that would have had to go into a scene where all the Muppet's are cycling in a park, or a lavish underwater musical number at that time, must have been off the chart.

As usual, there's some great one liners, and the usual procession of cameos, with Peter Ustinov, John Cleese and Peter Falk being particular highlights, especially Ustinov whose appearance heralds another cameo from a different Henson show (no prizes for guessing that one!)

Also worth noting was an incredibly young looking Charles Grodin, hamming it up (no Piggy pun intended) as Holiday's dodgy brother, who is holding a candle for Miss Piggy too! He is great fun in the role.

It's not the greatest Muppet story ever told, but it's still highly enjoyable stuff. Just a shame about the story within a story stuff. Although, the next film is Muppet's Take Manhattan, where they drop the 'they know it's a film' factor entirely. Slightly worrying!

***
Another entertaining slice of Muppet fun, although inferior to The Muppet Movie that came before it. It still contains the charm that I don't know if the new Muppet film can replicate. Time will tell!