With Jim Henson passed the Muppet film franchise took a more than ten year hiatus from cinemas only to be brought back with Jim’s son, Brian Henson, at the helm (pun definitely intended) with a rendition of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel: Treasure Island.
After being bequeathed a map to one of the most treacherous pirate’s treasure Jim Hawkins (Kevin Bishop) along with The Great Gonzo and Rizzo the Rat are thrust into a world of adventure on the high seas as they try to make their first voyage and profitable one. However, on this voyage they manage to run into the one pirate that they’ve been warned of, Long John Silver (Tim Curry), and he proves to be a formidable foe.
Did you like all my punch up summarization of a story that you probably already know? I guess what this movie missed most was Jim Henson the heart and soul of the Muppets. He’s the man who brought life to a green sock (yes I know what he is) and made it into the lovable frog that we call Kermit. Here however it feels almost like the entire show just went too far into puppetry.
The bad guys look like they took all the characters and puppet designs from Labyrinth – a film I love – and just cut and pasted them here with no consideration for how silly it made the entire picture. The Muppet films have all been about taking these Muppets (whatever that is) and putting them in the real world. Only The Muppet Christmas Carol has placed them in any period other than the current one, and even that one had a lot more fun with the period than this. Here it’s just a cut and paste of an old story with less people in frame, which isn’t as enthralling as I’d hope.
The film does however carry a saving grace. That is Tim Curry. Curry is an actor that has somehow managed to enter some form of acting hell as he is nowhere to be found in modern cinema, but I remember a period of time in the 90s where he was in all my favourite movies (all children’s films somehow) and I loved him. Here he does that wink for the audience constantly being the friendly sneak of an enemy that we all know he is.
I don’t know why this film failed for me where the others didn’t but it just didn’t work.
As a side note; I know that the next, and final theatrical release of a Muppets film before the upcoming release, answers this question, but I love that no one (not even the character himself) tries to explain what or where Gonzo came from. It’s just lovely.