I’ve written other posts about how much I enjoy projects from The Muppets and never directly express how I would love to say I worked on one. I’ve known people who worked on The Muppets (both the movie and the TV Show), the recent Disney+ show with Sabrina Carpenter and a segment they filmed at Disneyland. We use it in our P.A. Bootcamp training to explain how whatever Hollywood magic is ruined is replaced by the magic of knowing how the magic is created. This brings is to Jim Henson’s first feature, The Muppet Movie.
Henson wanted to bring The Muppets to the big screen, but the studios wouldn’t back him as a director. This creates a situation much like Star Wars 5&6 where someone else is credited with directing, but all the creative and logistical challenges are handled by the Producer with enormous creative vision. This starts with the impossible imagery of Kermit performing the opening in a swamp and ends with a finale that required anybody they could find to handle the large number of Muppets on screen. (The volunteers included director John Landis and a rising star named Tim Burton.)
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