Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney World. And today, we head back to the year 1980 to take a look at a great NBC special, The Muppets at Walt Disney World. My thoughts on this. Now this is how you do a Disney World special. This thing is awesome! This is how you do a Disney World special. With that out of the way, let's begin.
The Plot
The special starts off as we see the Muppets walking through swampland to get to Kermit's boyhood home of Paradise Falls for the annual Frog Festival and Bug Fry. Nobody except for Kermit and Robin want to be there. They find out that Disney World is across the way and decide to go there. So, we see them at the turnstyles for MGM Studios. They don't have any tickets or money, so they break in when Animal literally removes the turnstyle from where it was and from there, it's a madcap adventure in the parks. As Miss Piggy tries to get to The Chinese Theater in MGM Studios but Beauregard wants to take her on all the thrill rides. The Electric Mayhem decide to do a world tour in EPCOT's World Showcase. And then Animals starts chasing Snow White. Fozzie and Ma Bear (whatever happened to her?) are trying to make money to eat with Fozzie's comedy routine. Yeah, enough said. Gonzo and Camilla check out the underbelly of the park such as Disney's Laundry Land. Just the laundromat but Gonzo enjoyed it. And this is all while trying to avoid Quentin the security that saw the Muppets break in. He's being aided by Rizzo in hopes to get free food and hired The Seven Dwarfs to be his swat team. The entire special culminates with the gang meeting up at Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, where Kermit and Piggy were chosen to play Indy and Marion. That had to be one of the best moments.
And while that's awesome, nothing compares to getting to see this.
Kermit The Frog and Mickey Mouse on the same screen. Yeah, that's awesome! That is childhood embodiment. So, yeah, I really liked this special. Now this special was made as a way to promote Disney obtaining the rights to the Muppets as Jim sold them. Something, he wanted to do and Mickey has a line in the very end of this special that reflects this, when he says.
Welcome to the family
All in all, even with the things that bugged me as a Disney fan, which we will get to, in a bit, I loved this special. And it seemed as though, they were fitting in as many Muppets in here as possible. I mean The Swedish Chef has a cameo in the Mexico Pavilion of EPCOT's World Showcase.
Serving up a super spicy taco to Beaker. And besides Ma Bear, other Muppet characters that aren't used that much anymore had prominence in this special such as Bean Bunny, Link Hogthrob, Clifford, who for the only time in this special was a member of The Electric Mayhem and as I already mentioned Beauregard. Which the last thing, I remember him having a large role in was The Great Muppet Caper. Perhaps, the only Muppets that I didn't see in this were Sam The Eagle (okay that would've been great with The Hall of Presidents) and Lew Zealand but other then that, there were so many Muppet characters, that your were bound to see one of your favorites. Oh and lest I forget Statler and Waldorf appeared taking a vacation but started to complain because they didn't have anything to complain about but then they found Fozzie.
And they even got a musical number in here as well. On that same token, I won't b Now probably, my one big complaint is that Raven-Symone had a cameo. Makes sense considering, she was on The Cosby Show at the same time. But I've never seen a more obvious walk on cameo. Literally, she walks out past Cinderella Castle as Kermit is talking about his troubles. This was the only part of the entire special that felt staged. And also considering how young Raven was in this, why wasn't she with an adult? Seriously!
This is probably one of only two things that really took me out of the special, I'll get to the other, when we talk about the characters. But other then that and the upcoming thing, I'm going to mention I really dug this special. I think it's easily the best Disney World special and one of the best Muppets specials. I should also mention that this and Muppet*Vision 3D are the last things that Jim Henson ever worked on before his untimely death. A man that was taken too soon from this world but left behind quite a legacy. He was the Walt Disney of his day.
Characters
Now, for the sake of this review. I'll be breaking this down into Muppets and Antagonists. With that out of the way, let's begin.
The Muppets
Kermit The Frog & Robin performed by Jim Henson & Jerry Nelson
Kermit was really the only Muppet one that didn't want to be at Disney World. Understandable considering that he'd been looking forward to his family reunion and no one else except Robin. Kermit was down in the dumps and I hated seeing my favorite frog down in the dumps. It didn't help that one point, he got separated from his nephew. Now as for Robin, he was really just a tagalong character with Uncle Kermit. Robin, really didn't have much to do in this special other then just follow Uncle Kermit. A shame considering that Robin is one of the few non annoying kid characters. Really wish, The Muppets would use him again.
Fozzie & Ma Bear performed by Frank Oz & Jerry Nelson
It was great getting to see Ma and as I said, they were trying to make money to get something to eat and they decided to use Fozzie's comedy act. You can all figure out how well, that worked out. Though admittedly, Fozzie did have one joke that made me laugh.
How soon can you get film developed around here?
Someday your prints will come
Maybe, it's just me as a Disney fan but that got a chuckle out of me. And as for Ma, it was nice seeing her support her son. Even if she did question, if he was any good at it.
Miss Piggy & Beauregard performed by Frank Oz & Dave Golez
This had to be the oddest grouping in the special but it worked so well as Beauregard. and Piggy were such a great pairing. Beauregard going on the rides was great but Piggy stole the show with her facial expressions of terror on each of the ride. Especially on Big Thunder Mountain, that was just laughing so hard that the various facial expressions that she made. Recall how I had a complaint about this as a Disney fan. Well okay, after Piggy and Beauregard.get off Big Thunder, he says "Oh look there's Star Tours". No no, no, no, no, no!!!!!!!!!!!! Star Tours is a different park, you were in the Magic Kingdom. Star Tours is Disney's MGM Studios. There is no way to see Star Tours from the Magic Kingdom. The only attraction that is viewable from another park is Tower of Terror and for that you have to be in World Showcase at EPCOT. There is no way, he could've Star Tours while at the Magic Kingdom. It's impossible. And also, why did they go on Star Tours and then the Tea Cups. If they were already in the Magic Kingdom, they should've done the Tea Cups first. On a lighter note, how did none of the Muppets save for Rowlf get captured. I mean, we saw them in all three parks. I mean, we saw them break into MGM sure but they'd have to go through the gates for the other two and there weren't any other security guards stopping them. Ah well, this doesn't bug me as much as the Star Tours thing.
The Electric Mayhem (Dr. Teeth, Floyd Pepper, Janice, Animal, Lips, Zoot, & Clifford) performed by Jim Henson, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Frank Oz, Steve Whitmire, & Kevin Clash.
Man, I love The Electric Mayhem and they were great in this special as well. Even if their subplot was minor at best, I did love their logic of they could do a world tour in World Showcase and be home in time for dinner. Janice said that better then I could've. Also as mentioned, this is the only time where Clifford is a member of the band. I wonder if this was early in the career of Clifford because he really didn't have large role until Muppets Tonight and then just vanished. Yeah, they may have had one of the shorter subplots but it was a lot of fun. Animal was given a second subplot in the latter half as he started to chase Snow White around.
Sadly, The Seven Dwarfs were too busy serving as the Disney Swat Team to try and stop Animal from doing anything.
Gonzo & Camilla performed by Dave Golez & Jerry Nelson
I'm just gonna come out and say that I like Gonzo and Camilla better as a couple then Kermit and Piggy. Simply because it's cuter. And that comes through wonderfully in this special as they see the things no one else would care about in the parks as something to marvel such as the laundromat or as Gonzo calls Disney's Laundry Land. You can just feel how much these two enjoy each other's company.
Dr. Bunsen Honeydew & Beaker performed by Dave Golez & Richard Hunt
Admittedly, Bunsen and Beaker didn't have much to do other then to try and get that bucket off of Beaker's head. That's why he bought the taco from The Swedish Chef it worked until it landed back on his head. The bucket fell on his head back in Paradise Falls. It did eventually come off towards the end of the special.
Rizzo performed by Steve Whitmire
Man, whatever happened to Rizzo? Oh right, they replaced with the not as cool Pepe. As I mentioned, he decided to help the special's antagonist capture the Muppets in a guise to get free food. They worked well off of one another purely based on how stupid Quentin was. I mean Link Hogthrob walked right by him and he didn't even realize that he was one of the Muppets. Rizzo easily had one of the best lines, when he saw The Seven Dwarfs.
Your people are starting to remind of my people.
Rowlf performed by Jim Henson
To be perfectly honest, Rowlf probably had my least favorite subplot. As I mentioned he was the only Muppet that was captured but that's because he was mistaken for a stray pet roaming the park. I feel like the Muppets have done this joke with Rowlf before such as in The Muppets Take Manhattan when he worked at a dog pound but was treated like a pet. I guess I like Rowlf just fine but the jokes about him being treated like a pet are the only things the Muppets have done that I've never cared for. Unless you count the Muppet Babies parody of The Jetsons, where he filled in for Astro. That was funny because he was rebelling against the pet stereotype but other then that, no sorry. I prefer Rowlf when he's performing as even though, he is one of my favorites with his laidback nautre, I just don't care for the pet jokes.
Antagonist
Quentin Fitzwaller played by Charles Grodin
Even though, Quentin was the bad guy of the special, I understand where he was coming from. He was worried that if didn't catch the Muppets or as he called them, The Kismet Gang, he'd lowered to scraping gum off of benches. And that did happen but in all fairness, the Muppets did break the law. Therefore he was completely in the right to try and capture the Muppets. Sadly, he was too stupid to pull it off successfully. I mean hiring The Seven Dwarfs as your swat team isn't the smartest move in the world.
My Final Thoughts
All in all, this is a great special and that I highly suggest to both Muppet and Disney fans alike. You are sure to get something out of it. There is a great time to be had with this special. Join me tomorrow as I continue my look at Disney World on TV with the opening celebration of Animal Kingdom as I take a look at...
Animal Kingdom: The First Adventure
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