The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)

Undescribable Perfection

As Good As It Gets

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Muppets take Manhattan is the last Muppet film when Jim Henson was still alive. It's true, all of the Muppet movies made after his death were still sort of good, but they weren't quite the same. The muppets are very good and funny in this film. There are some new story ideas presented here which weren't used in the previous muppets vehicals such as the muppets splitting up for a while and then writing letters and showing the audience several of their stories, I.e. gonzo holding a job with waterskiing chickens, Fozzie joining other bears in a cave somewhere, etc. Another new idea is the whole Kermit gets hit by a car and gets amnesia story, Kermit doesn't remember who he is and gets job at an advertising company with a couple of other frogs. The "I wanna be a star" idea has been used before, such as the first muppet movie. In that movie it was "I wanna go to Hollywood". Here it's "I wanna be on Broadway". But never the less, it's the muppets and they still have a lot of humor and charm here. Like the other Muppet movies, we have a few more cameos here. Miss piggy gets a job with Joan Rivers. Kermit sees Liza Minelli at Sardi's. I bet Judy Garland would've had a cameo in this movie if she was still alive when it was made. The muppets do shine here in this film.

The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984): Dir: Frank Oz / Cast: Dabney Coleman, Joan Rivers, Liza Minnelli, Art Carney, Gregory Hines: Another achievement for Jim Henson with the action taking place in Manhattan where the Broadway fun ends and the gang goes their separate ways. Kermit the frog gets a job at a restaurant. Fozzie Bear attempts hibernation in the mountains. Gonzo joins the circus where he is shot out of a cannon. And Miss Piggy continues her pursuit of Kermit. Frank Oz does a wonderful job directing. The individual subplots regarding the Muppets is involving but they soon come to realize that together they can make a difference. Unfortunately the celebrity cameos are disappointing. Dabney Coleman fares okay as a con artist who bargains with the Muppets with regards to their Broadway performance and ends up arrested. Art Carney also steals a moment when his son attempts to prove himself by taking a chance on their show. Liza Minnelli has an amusing cameo in a restaurant but not long enough, and the same can be said with regards to Joan Rivers who is seen briefly with Miss Piggy. Gregory Hines plays a roller blades guy who ends up giving them up. More would have been better in terms of the celebrity interactions. Entertaining third Muppet outing highlighted with Henson's outstanding work and a wonderful celebration of New York. Score: 8 / 10

The Muppets gang graduate from college, and try to make it on Broadway. Only they can't find any takers. The gang decide to go on their own, and not depend on Kermit so much. Meanwhile Kermit works in a diner, and try to get his play off the ground.This starts off great with a lot of comedy from the whole gang. Dabney Coleman is great for some gut busting laughs. It's too bad that the gang is scattered after the start. Miss Piggy has some hilarious fun, but I prefer to have the whole gang together. They're funnier together.The main live action lead is Juliana Donald who's trying to help Kermit get the play off the ground. She doesn't have any sparks, and looks awkward like she's acting with a bunch of puppets. There are a lot of famous cameos. I'd prefer to have Brooke Shields as the lead. Beside that, there is a lot to love, and a lot of laughs in this Muppets movie.

I bought this film on DVD because I'd seen all the Muppets movies except for the first one and this one.I was thinking that this movie was going to be great. But half an hour later, I was just plain bored.Throughout the film, I kept checking the timer on my DVD player wondering when this was going to end. Most of the film is just Kermit visiting producers and executives trying to get this play made. Kids will be bored by this plot. Also, most of the movie was in the cafe. And don't get me started on Kermit losing his memory and joining a boring company that sells soap. Kids will be yawning at that point. Also, do you think kids will enjoy the overlong dialogue scenes and the "Peoples is people" speech by that Russian guy?If you're making a children's film, you have to know what the children want. Not what only adults want.Some of the jokes I thought were good, but the pace was really slow and the story was just not that interesting.The only two scenes I liked were Miss Piggy chasing after the thief and the Muppet babies scene. Those two scenes don't really have anything to do with the movie.There is one shot I'm trying to figure out how it was done. There is a shot of the rats running out of the restaurant. How did they do that? Was it stop motion animation? That was incredible. Sadly, that was the only thing that grabbed my attention.The cameos were pointless. The scene with Miss Piggy and Joan Rivers (I could barely recognize her) was lame. It's like they turned turned on the camera and said "Okay Joan, do something funny." Whereas the filmmakers found it funny, the audience doesn't.Brooke Shields was just wooden like she always is.For me, this is the weakest out of all the Muppet movies. Muppets From Space, love it or hate it, at least the pacing in that wasn't slow or dull.