Rank the Muppet Films!

[pap64]

First of all, my apologies if a similar thread has already been made in the past. I started thinking about the Muppets and decided to do this thread.

Rank the Muppet films from all-time favorite to least favorite. They don't have to indicate objective quality, just which movies you enjoy the best.

Here are mine:
1. The Muppets Take Manhattan. At first glance, the reason this movie ranks as number one is because it was the very first Muppet movie I ever saw as a kid, and is a cherished childhood treasure. But several viewings of the movie have convinced me that this is my favorite of all the Muppet movies. First off, I love, love, LOVE the music in the film. Not only is it wildly varied, they are wonderfully help tell the story. "Together again" celebrates friendship obtained, while "Saying goodbye" is about love and friendship lost. It also has some of my favorite Muppet moments, like the Broadway Melodies finale (which includes the infamous wedding of Kermit and Piggy). Emotionally it is a very strong movie, yet retains the fun and whimsy the Muppets are known for.

2. The Muppet Movie. This was another movie I saw heavily as a kid. While it isn't as emotionally involving as Manhattan, it too has some great Muppets. The opening flying shot that slowly zooms in on Kermit as he sings "Rainbow connection" gives me chills, and tells you that this won't be just another TV show made into a movie. The music is also spectacular and there are some funny moments, like Sweetums constantly chasing after the Muppets till the very end.

3. The Muppets. In my honest opinion, THIS is how you reboot an aging franchise. The Muppets prior to this movie seemed to be stuck in an awful rut where all they mainly did was appear in commercials, TV specials and movies that made them seem uncool to people, and seemed desperate to engage an audience that may have moved on from them. This movie took them back to the basics of not just the Muppets but film making. It is a classic movie in every sense of the word. It is a musical in which the characters must save the theater by putting on a show. The brand new characters are fantastic, Jason Segel and Amy Adams were amazing and it had a ton of unforgettable moments. Frankly, the only reason this isn't number one is because Manhattan and Muppet Movie left such a deep impact in my childhood, and involved my emotions in a much effective manner.

4. The Great Muppet Caper. Admittedly, this is the least watched of the classic Muppet films. Yet it is still so effective that I can still remember it vividly along with its hilarious moments and songs. The song where Miss Piggy imagines herself in a Footlight Parade-ish swimming sequence is one of my all time favorite moments ever! It is so overblown, so glitzy and so ridiculous it makes me laugh every time. The Happiness Hotel segment and all the fourth wall jokes also make it a winner.

5. A Muppet Christmas Carol. One of the reasons I love this movie is because somehow, it manages to retain the seriousness and tone of the original Charles Dickens story but with a very colorful cast. Michael Caine as Scrooge is spirited casting, making him more human than the caricature he is often painted as in other movies. The very somber moments also work greatly and manages to created a very balanced film.

As for my all time least favorite, at first, I wanted to give that honor to Muppets in Space. The concept of trying to find out what Gonzo is is kind of cute, but the execution at times felt like it was trying too hard, trying to be edgy. Yet, it is a movie I still enjoy watching from time to time. So I decided to go with The Muppets Wizard of Oz as my least favorite of the Muppet movies. It reeks of wasted potential. It manages to make the Muppets seem unlikable, and once again trying to make them look young and hip. Some of the jokes not only fall flat but are inappropriate for the Muppets.

[Josh]

1. The Muppet Movie
2. The Muppets
3. The Muppets Take Manhattan

No need to go any further.

[toddly6666]

1. Muppets from Space (it's got a lot of Pepe and Rizzo!): the most rewatchable for me
2. The Muppets: good movie but with great songs all throughout
3. Muppets Take Manhattan: great movie, but with great songs only at end
4. The Great Muppet Caper
5. Muppet Christmas Carol

I still haven't seen the others yet.

[Moviefan2k4]

I haven't seen them all, but here's my list anyway...

The Muppet Christmas Carol - 9/10
Muppet Treasure Island - 8/10
Muppets from Space - 6/10
The Muppets Take Manhattan - 5/10

[snakemaster7]

OP you never mentioned Treasure Island, where's it land in your ranking?

[MKngdm]

The Great Muppet Caper
The Muppet Christmas Carol
The Muppet Movie
Muppet Treasure Island
The Muppets
The Muppets Take Manhatten
Muppets From Space

[EricJ]

Depending on the generation (get ready for the one that grew up on Disney's Muppets... ), most seem to put Their First Theater One up there--
You can draw an age line between those that put Manhattan first, those that put Christmas Carol first, and those that (yeesh!) put Space first.

Fact is, only the first movie seemed to have any real Henson sense of the Muppets being in their own alternate universe, and the feel that the oddball characters stayed friends throughout.
Caper was a cold, mechanical sitcom; Manhattan tried to put the characters in the "real" world (or at least an 80's NYC that hadn't seemed to have changed since the 40's movies), Carol had Brian's earnest attempt at atmosphere, but Caine came off as too hair-trigger a Scrooge, and Disney's Muppets would have been as clueless new-owner carpetbagger as Space, if Pixar's story-editors hadn't saved the script by throwing Jason Segel's snide vanity draft out the window.

Me, I'm wagering I'm the only one who'd put the Muppet Movie first, and Sesame Street: Follow that Bird second.
(Note the crossover, when Kermit and Fozzie on the highway in the first movie meet Big Bird going in the other direction.)

Originally Posted by pap64

3. The Muppets. In my honest opinion, THIS is how you reboot an aging franchise. The Muppets prior to this movie seemed to be stuck in an awful rut where all they mainly did was appear in commercials, TV specials and movies that made them seem uncool to people, and seemed desperate to engage an audience that may have moved on from them.

And then advertised it by making them parody every OTHER upcoming trailer and TV show.
(When we got the "No, wait, we had some more parodies we didn't get to!" ads, okay, now you just wanted to hit somebody. )

Disney's overhaul dropped literally an hour of what Segel wanted the movie to be, and that was for starters. There are Muppet fans, and then there are those that just remember the theme song 'cause it's all 70's 'n stuff.

[Agent Bond]

The Muppet Movie
The Muppets
The Muppets Take Manhattan

No need to go any further.

No love for The Great Muppet Caper?

[jrsl76]

1.) The Great Muppet Caper (Has always been my favorite)
2.) The Muppets
3.) The Muppets Take Manhattan (Been a long time since I saw)
4.) The Muppet Movie

Never Seen:

Muppet Christmas Carol
Muppet Treasure Island
Muppets In Space

[skid_68]

1. Muppet Christmas Carol
2. Muppet Treasure Island
3. All others.....

[EmperorClobbersaurus]

1.) The Muppet Movie
2.) The Great Muppet Caper
3.) The Muppets Take Manhattan
4.) The Muppets
5.) (no others exist in my world)

[Jasonic]

1. The Great Muppet Caper
2. The Muppet Movie
3. A Muppet Christmas Carol
4. Muppet Treasure Island

5. The Muppets
6. Muppets Take Manhattan
7. Muppets From Space

Though I'm not really that big a fan of these last three. 5 and 6 are alright, but not ones I would regularly watch. Big fan of my first four though, watch them all the time.

[TheWildWhelk]

I'm amazed at the lack of love that Muppets Treasure Island is getting! It's one of the funniest things i have seen, and outright riproaring lunacy in parts, which is awesome! The script is fantastic, the injokes are hilarious, and the songs more than welcome.

As for the dire Muppets Wizard Of Oz, that was a deeply painful experience, and also a much wasted opportunity. It also had the pace of an arthiritc snail and looked really cheap. Muppets From Space was rubbish, no surprises it killed the franchise. Christmas Carol is absolutely standout and one of our favourite xmas films. Haven't seen the others...

[The Mad Kiwi]

1. The Muppets (9/10)
2. The Muppet Take Manhattan (8.5/10)
3. The Muppet Movie (8.5/10)
4. The Muppet Christmas Carol (8/10)
5. The Great Muppet Caper (7.5/10)
6. Muppet Treasure Island (7/10)
7. Muppets from Space (6/10)

If we throw in non-theatrical stuff, I'd put Muppet-Vision 3D, Hey, Cinderella!, and The Frog Prince in between Carol and Caper, and Wizard of Oz at the very bottom. It's been too long since I've seen any of the Christmas specials to rank those.

[pap64]

Originally Posted by TheWildWhelk

I'm amazed at the lack of love that Muppets Treasure Island is getting! It's one of the funniest things i have seen, and outright riproaring lunacy in parts, which is awesome! The script is fantastic, the injokes are hilarious, and the songs more than welcome.

As for the dire Muppets Wizard Of Oz, that was a deeply painful experience, and also a much wasted opportunity. It also had the pace of an arthiritc snail and looked really cheap. Muppets From Space was rubbish, no surprises it killed the franchise. Christmas Carol is absolutely standout and one of our favourite xmas films. Haven't seen the others...

Muppets Treasure Island is indeed a great movie in its own right. A friend of mine likes to call both it and Christmas Carol "the Muppet escape movies", in which the characters would escape to a literally world and play the classic characters alongside the "real" characters like Scrooge and such. But for me, out of the two, Christmas Carol is the better movie. Treasure Island, as fun, funny and adventurous as it it, lacks a tiny bit of heart.

Cabin Fever, however, stands as one of my favorite Muppet songs ever.

Agreed completely about Muppets Wizards of Oz. It is a shame since I recall hearing that the Wizard of Oz was one of Jim Henson's all-time favorite movies, and this should have been a lovely send up to him. But like you said, it is marred down by very slow pacing, off jokes (did we really need a joke about Gonzo's nipples? ) and an uneven sense of tone (one minute it is fun and charming, the next mean spirited and "edgy").

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by pap64

Agreed completely about Muppets Wizards of Oz. It is a shame since I recall hearing that the Wizard of Oz was one of Jim Henson's all-time favorite movies, and this should have been a lovely send up to him. But like you said, it is marred down by very slow pacing, off jokes (did we really need a joke about Gonzo's nipples? ) and an uneven sense of tone (one minute it is fun and charming, the next mean spirited and "edgy").

Head writer Jerry Juhl, who had been with the group since the Ed Sullivan days--and all through the shows and "classic" movies--retired after problems with Space caused the major group breakup.
Which...probably explains why most of the projects Space and onwards have been cold, snide, sitcommish and a bit "off" without him, Jason Segel included: Juhl created the idea of the Muppets being in their own universe, where you took it for granted that anything talked, and the characters stayed friends no matter what oddballs they were at heart. In Juhl's scripts, people really did go up onto the roof when you told them "drinks were on the house".

(Also this past week, RIP the performer who is, has, and will be, he who is forever singluarly known as Jerry Nelson, at the age of 78. Famous for the Count, Robin the Frog, Lew Zealand, Crazy Harry, Gobo Fraggle, Grover's perpetual customer Mr. Johnson, and the dad who points out that bears wear hats, as well as for Floyd. )