The Muppets Take Manhattan Film Review

The Muppets really do need no introduction as be it from there recent The Muppet Show special to any of there other shows , specials or movies these characters are so well beloved. With there heyday without a doubt being the seventies and eighties with the characters having one hit TV show or two hit movies it was only a matter time before there released a film that wasn't that good with the film that i'm going to be talking to you all about today being that very film and so then join me as I review the film that helped to inspire Muppets Babies with the film in question being called simply just "The Muppets Take Manhattan" enjoy.

The plot of this film is fresh out of collage Kermit and the gang head to New York in order to get a broadway producer to agree to produce there show. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. Plot wise this films plot isn't as good as the plots of both The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper but in saying this it is alot more better then the plot of both Muppets From space and Muppets Most Wanted was as this films plot whilst it's not that good there is still an attempt to make the film feel like a true Muppet adventure. The issue is tho is that the films plot doesn't really give us anything new and exciting as it just gives us the same old stuff with it being clear that Jim Henson was getting tired of the characters at the time as this films plot does feel like the typical Muppet movie plot only with none of the understanding of what it was that made the plots from for the first two Muppet movies work so well in the first place with his mainly being due to the fact that regular Muppet writer Jerry Juhl was not asked back to write this film and not having him write the film is something that you do notice right away as while we do get the writers from The Great Muppet Caper back so-writing the script with this films director Frank Oz there's none of that of that spark that made the plots for the first two Muppet movies work, with the film plot even being woefully thin at best as it does get to the point where you do find yourselves questioning what the main plot of the film is meant to be as it is something that's this poorly handles with the plot of the film not really being really rather engaging and as well as not really being really rather engaging either in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.  

Starring in this film is this films executive producer Jim Henson as Kermit The Frog , Rowlf The Dog , Dr. Teeth , The Swedish Chef , Waldorf , The Muppet Newsman , Baby Kermit , Baby Rowlf and Ernie and this films co-writer and co-director Frank Oz as Miss Piggy , Fozzie Bear , Animal , Sam Eagle , Baby Piggy , Baby Fozzie , Bert and Cookie Monster. Also starring in this film is Jerry Nelson as Floyd Pepper , Camilla The Chicken , Lew Zealand , Crazy Harry , Pops , Dog Construction Worker and A Bear , Richard Hunt as Scooter , Janice , Statler , Black Dog , Baby Scooter and Beaker , Dave Goelz as Gonzo The Great , Chester The Rat , Bill The Frog , Zoot , A Penguin , Jim The Dog , Baby Gonzo, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and A Bear , Steve Whitmire as Rizzo The Rat and Gill The Frog , Kathryn Mullen as Jill The Frog , Karen Prell as Yolanda The Rat and Frank The Dog , Brian Muehl as Tatooey The Rat , Bruce Edward Hall as Masterson the Rat and Beth Bear , Louis Zorich as Pete , Juliana Donald as Jenny , Lonny Price as Ronnie Crawford , Art Carney as Bernard Crawford , Gates McFadden as Nancy and Graham Brown as Mr. Wrightson.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. To be frank this films acting is about as good as it was ever going to be given the fact that the films director hadn't made anything on his own before this film with alot of the more better acting in the film coming from the Muppet actors who have been there since day one playing there characters as they would have the best grip on there characters and would know how best to perform them in any given scene with alot of the films more weaker acting coming from the films human actors who whilst they aren't bad there clearly not giving it there best work either. With the best actor in this film being Jim Henson which in all fairness might very well sound like a cliche thing to say as he was the one that created or helped to create alot of these characters in the first place but he really is good in this film with this being one of the few films where Kermit does take on a leading role as in the first film it's more of an ensemble piece and in The Great Muppet Caper it could well be argued that its Miss Piggy who is the main character and yet here its Kermit taking centre stage with Jim showing what he could do as a leading man with his natural charm and kindness really showing through in this film. With the acting that's in this film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this actors absolutely anything tow work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does help to harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

While nobody expects the human character in any Muppet project to be any good when it comes to acting with The Muppets we do expect to them to be passable at best. With the human characters in this film not really being all that interesting as both Pete and Jenny are just are boring Father and Daughter pair of characters with jenny wanting to be a fashion designer and Peter just being happy running his diner and Ronnie enter the film so late that he doesn't have the time to leave a big impact on the film this is despite him kind of being a major character in the film as he is the producer that agrees the finance the show and yet there's nothing to his character out of him being related to a more well known broadway producer and that's it. Look to be fair nobody goes to a Muppets movie for the human characters as you go to a Muppets film for The Muppets an in this regard the film dos give what you want as they are all handled really well and with alot of care but at the same time The Muppet Movie had a memorable human character in Doc Hopper as did alot of the other Muppet movies and while it's not needed it would have been nice if this film did follow suit as there nothing about any of this films human characters that make them standout with the only memorable thing about Pete being the fact that he repeats the same jumbled saying to alot of The Muppets and that's it with Roger and Jenny getting nothing memorable outside of the fact that Miss Piggy assumes that Jenny is Kermit's new girlfriend and starts a one sided feud with her which isn't much but it's something slightly memorable bottom line being all of this films human characters could have done with having some more time spent on them to truly make them work as characters as on paper these characters should have worked they just needed more thought and effort given to them.

As was stated at the start of this review there is a scene in this film that did help to inspire Muppet Babies. As Miss Piggy has a song fantasy sequence about what things might have been like if she had met Kermit and a few other Muppets alot earlier leading her to picture them all as babies singing together in a playroom that once sequence served as the basic idea for Muppet Babies with even all of the characters looking like they do in that show and while The Muppets have never really done a fantasy song number before now it was still nice to see that the gang could pull it off in a way that is not only different to see but also feels oddly true to who The Muppets are as characters as we get to see alot of the characters taking about in this song number. Heck it's no wonder why Jim Henson chose to give the muppet babies there own show as the looks for the characters are cute enough that you could very easily picture them being toys and being on t-shirts and other merchandise with there being alot of story potential there as well as the idea of them all hanging out in this one playroom just singing songs and having fun together is something that on paper doesn't lend itself all that well to a TV show format and yet it somehow oddly works when you take into account that kids are very imaginative and while the film doesn't longer on them on those character to much as they only appear in that one scene they clearly left enough of an impression on people that they did get there own very successful animated show and a more recent animated reboots show, with the sequence itself being something is about as well done as the makers of this film could have gotten it to be with the sequence itself clearly just being there to be a fun musical number and nothing more then that.

The one part of the film that pretty much every agrees just wasn't needed is the part where Kermit gets amnesia. With that part of the film not really being needed as it does feel very much like poorly written filler that was just there to add some much unneeded drama to the films plot as the film would work just as well without those scenes in the film s the whole point of the film was to show us The Muppets getting the money to put on this show in the first place and therefor we don't need to see them loose Kermit and spend a week or so just trying to find him as all this does is make us the audience check our watches or phones to see how long is left whereas if they had Kermit still trying to find what he thought was missing and get it to the point where he considers cancelling the show and have his friends then come to his aid like he has has done for them it would be a more fitting ending to the film. With this even getting the film where Kermit and Miss Piggy do get married which was a pretty fun scene to see as we have to see Kermit struggle to think on if he wants to spend the rest of his life with Piggy all the while a very real minister is there waiting to marry them not just in the show but for real with this also being something that has oddly not be recognized in alot of other Muppet media which in all fairness is quite fair as each muppet movie does take place in its own fictional world and therefor it does make sense that there could be a world where Kermit and Miss Piggy are married but given that the very next film The Muppet Christmas Carol also has them as a married couple it is safe to say that these characters are meant to be viewed as being married and if that is the case then great as they do make for a really sweet couple with this film even giving us plenty of cute scenes with them together and if not then that also works as these films are pretty much meant to be place in there separate world from each other.

This film has songs that are written by Jeff Moss who also wrote the songs for Sesame Street with his songs in this film sadly not being as good as the songs in other Muppet films. Whilst there are some gems in this film like for example  "You Can't Take No For An Answer" or "I'm Gonna Always Love You" for example there are alot more songs that just aren't that good with all of the songs in this film not really being all that memorable with it feeling like that the songs were treated more as afterthought as none of them add all that much to the main plot of the film and yet the ones that do those are the ones that do stand out for being some of the more better songs in the film and it makes you wonder why alot of this films just aren't that good. With perhaps the best song in the film being "I'm Gonna Always Love You" as it's this pop rock ballad that keeps on switching between being a pop ballad to being a rock ballad at ease and its something that does wor for this film and while a song like "Saying Goodbye" is the more emotional song in the film with that song it does feel like the visuals of seeing all of The Muppets saying goodbye to each other is doing more of the heavy lifting where as with I'm Going To Always Love You it feels like the song and visuals are working hand in hand together with there being lots of fun little scenes with the muppet babies all while a baby Miss Piggy is singing this song about always being willing to stick by Kermit's side and is always willing to love him all while it being done in a fun and bouncy way which is something that does make the song a lot of fun to listen to whereas with "Saying Goodbye" it does feel like that you'd need to watch the video in order to fully get what the song is doing.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty four minuets and twenty one seconds. This is pretty much the bogstandard running time for these Muppet movies and while the film doesn't really need to be that long as you very easily could have had this film come in at well under that just by removing the stupid Amnesia subplot the film also isn't harmed by it being that long either as this is something that does allow for more fun with the characters and it does allow for the character to be more of there usually charming selves but at the same time tho it wouldn't have harmed the film if this film was a few minuets shorter as the film didn't need to be as long as it was with the film having more then enough plot thee to really cover that amount of running time. With the film not really taking the time to fully develop it's plot as the film doesn't really focus on it's main plot all that much to begin with with this this being something that does feel odd as the first two Muppet films were all about developing the plot and as well as having these gut bustingly funny moments with the characters with it being made clear as day that the makers of this film cared more about giving the characters a pretty forced goodbye song then they did in further developing the films plot. This is something that does heavily effect the films character development as none of the films characters get any kind of kind of character development as both the Muppet character ad the films human characters get nothing interms of character development and whilst this is fine for the films human characters as no one is coming to this film to see them but for the Muppet characters we do expect something from them and heck the film even has Kermit state early on in the film that he's tired of always coming up with the plans and having everyone rely on him and yet they do nothing with it as it's forgotten about a few scenes later with the makers of this film being more focused on giving Kermit amnesia then they are in giving the characters character development but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.  

So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally tought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With the films comedy bein where the film not only shines it's brightest but also feels like a true Muppet as we do get all of these smart and wacky jokes that you expect to get from these characters like for example Miss Piggy bending an iron bar into nots because of the fact that she things Jenny and Kermit are dating that is a funny joke and it's something that this character would do or Fozzie living with a bunch of hibernating bears and not being able to sleep that is a good joke and it does show you that the makers of this film do know how to make a good Muppet movie. With the best joke in the whole entire film being when Miss Piggy is spying on Kermit and Jenny in the park as when she gets her hand stuck on a lamp post a robber robs her purse and Miss Piggy in a fit of rage borrows some roller skates and goes skating after the mugger chasing him down and making him more afraid of her then she was of him with Piggy even skating by Kermit and Jenny with them even seeing that it's her all the while she is still trying to capture this one robber with the makers of this film even making great use of a stunt woman in the wide shots for Miss Piggy as that is something that does help sell you on the joke with the whole thing coming to a head when she dives on the robber and takes her purse back all the while the robber then tries to protest to the police that it was his purse and that Piggy is robbing him something which they don't believe with the rest of the films jokes being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall whilst there other more better Muppet movies and specials and TV shows out there is still a fine if a very flawed movie as while it does get it's Muppet characters and humor spot on the rest of the film it just so wrong and with the film being the last Muppet film that both Jim Henson and Richard Hunt worked on it is sad to picture this as being there swansong for this franchise in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and a such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got al, of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.