With some exceptions, I would take any Muppet movie over a Disney animated feature.  The comparisons are inviting.  The characters created by Jim Henson were among the first to combine something that the Mouse has been trying (and largely failing) to perfect: injecting adult humor into stories aimed at children.  Disney has missed the mark because they seem to go for more complicated themes that grown-ups will recognize but are lost on the young ones.  Cars 2 (2011) neatly underscores this point.  This is made all the more puzzling when you consider the fact that the Mouse has owned the Muppets since the 1990s.  There have been a lot of Disney movies made between then and now, and I have yet to see a production of theirs that captures the madcap antics of Kermit the Frog (voiced by Jim Henson) and friends that appeals to all audiences.  To illustrate this, I give you The Great Muppet Caper (1981).

Fourth wall breaking greets The Great Muppet Caper as Fozzie the Bear (voiced by Frank Oz), Gonzo (voiced by Dave Goelz), and Kermit drift through the opening credits in a hot air balloon.  They are excited to get to the ground and start the movie in which they will be playing employees of the fictional newspaper, the Daily Chronicle, sent to England to investigate jewels stolen from Lady Holiday (Diana Rigg).  Yet, before we get there, they land in the middle of a busy street and spring into a chaotic song and dance piece that introduces the musical element, and almost derails the film before it starts.  In short, you have a bit of everything that I mentioned in the introduction.  Anyway, the Muppets’ boss, Mike Tarkanian (Jack Warden), is not happy with his three employees and fires them.  This is when Kermit offers to do the already mentioned reporting, making it their last chance to keep their jobs.  Because they have no money, the plane they take over stores them with the luggage and drops them as they fly over London.  Further, they are forced to stay at the Happiness Hotel, which is a step above homelessness. Conveniently, though, this is where pretty much the rest of the Muppets live.  The next day, our three head to the office of Lady Holiday, a fashion designer who treats her models poorly.  Still, she is gracious enough to hire Ms. Piggy (voiced by Frank Oz) to be her receptionist.  Though the pig had wanted to be a model, she is ecstatic to be employed there, thinking it a step towards her goal.  Once this interview is complete and Lady Holiday leaves to attend other matters, Ms. Piggy stays in the office and revels in her success.  This is where Kermit finds her.  The attraction between them is mutual, though she is nervous to impress him.  Thus, when he assumes that she is Lady Holiday, she does not deny it.  Instead, they arrange to have dinner later to discuss the recent theft of her jewels.  Ms. Piggy gives Kermit the address of a well to do home owned by Neville (John Cleese) and his wife, who are too rich to worry about the fact that a frog and pig are parading through their home.  It is then off to the supper club where they shall dine, and they happen to be there at the same time as the real Lady Holiday and her hated brother, Nicky Holiday (Charles Grodin).  Him and three of his sister’s disgruntled models are the ones behind the thefts, and they plan another one for this night.  It occurs on the heels of a major Ms. Piggy number, though Gonzo fortuitously snaps a picture of the swipe as it happens.  In the process, Kermit learns that Ms. Piggy is not Lady Holiday, though they mend their differences with another musical routine.  Thus, it is time for Kermit and his friends to continue their work.  This brings them to Lady Holiday’s show where she is displaying her new fashions for the coming season.  Nicky is in attendance, too, and plans to plant the diamond-less necklace that had been stolen on Ms. Piggy, despite his infatuation with the porcine creature.  The opportunity comes when she is forced to go on stage for one of the models, who had feigned an injury.  Doing so puts Ms. Piggy into such a state of ecstasy that she daydreams her stardom, and falls into the fountain at the foot of the catwalk.  This is when Lady Holiday finds the necklace on Ms. Piggy, and she is arrested. Because Kermit and company know that she is innocent, they make it their duty to prove her innocence.  It also helps that Gonzo overhears Nicky’s accomplices discuss their plans for stealing Lady Holiday’s priceless “baseball diamond,” displayed on an artful mitt, of course.  Thus, the Muppets know when and where the next crime is to take place.  Kermit shares this information with Ms. Piggy when he visits her in jail, but she has no confidence in the shenanigans his friends will get up to in their attempt to help her.  Therefore, she decides to break out of jail, finding a motorcycle that magically falls off the back of a truck along the way.  Everyone converges on the Mallory Gallery where the jewel is to be displayed, and Kermit, Ms. Piggy, and the rest are able to prevent Lady Holiday’s gem from being taken.  Now vindicated, Ms. Piggy joins the Muppets in flying back to the United States, once more being forced to jump out of a moving airplane.  At least they have parachutes this time.

There are not too many specific moments in The Great Muppet Caper in which I can inject my Catholic thoughts.  As such, I will talk about the proceedings in a more general sense.  To do so, I will compare it once more to other Disney productions.  The Mouse tends to moralize its films, and that is okay when it is not tied to an agenda.  You do not have to be conspiracy theorist to recognize what they are aiming for in certain movies.  It is interesting because there was a time when their work matched more concretely with Christian ideals.  These days, the slightest suggestion of homosexuality or some other political ideology will get a flood of angry emails from concerned people.  It seems to me that the Muppets have largely avoided such discussion, and have thus stayed more universally loved.  Consider, too, that today’s review is discussing a film that was made in 1981.  While sensibilities were certainly changing at that time, it is incredible that you have a film that remains inoffensive all around.  If it had even the slightest bit of off-color humor, it would have had the famous Disney disclaimer that it puts on any bit of entertainment about which it would have to answer some awkward questions.  What I am not arguing for here is a relativistic approach to culture.  My views are firmly Catholic.  I do not fall in line with much of what society will tell you is acceptable, particularly as it relates to sin.  I prefer to instead focus on things on which we all agree.  I would love it if you could join me in appreciating a film like this one.

Having said all the good things that The Great Muppet Caper does not do, I wish that all Muppet movies followed a similar pattern.  They have dabbled in lifestyles that they see as being more inclusive, which is strange to me given that I never thought of anything they did as being exclusive.  I see this most in the supposed “marital problems,” for lack of a better word, between Kermit and Ms. Piggy.  Luckily, we can always return to this movie.