It is fairly obvious that 2011’s The Muppets did steal a few things from the original 1979’s The Muppet Movie. (Or were those homages?) It seems only appropriate that the new Muppet film, The Muppets… Again!, also looks as if it is looking back to previous Muppet films for inspiration. Its jewel thief plotline echoes the first Muppet sequel, 1981’2 The Great Muppet Caper. And now they are lifting a story beat from 1984’s The Muppets Take Manhattan – nuptials.
Bleeding Cool is reporting that last night, production designer Eve Stewart, fresh off of winning a BAFTA for her work on Les Miserables told BBC Radio 4 –
Really the antithesis of Les Miserables, I’m now at Pinewood doing The Muppet Show. And today has been one of the best days of my life, designing Miss Piggy’s wedding at the Tower of London. Get me… I’ve never been so happy.
I suppose that this comes as no surprise and it looks as if it is a continuation of the plot thread about the relationship between Miss Piggy and Kermit that was a part of the last film. When the end credits rolled, it seemed as if they were moving towards renewing their relationship. Is this the end point of that storyarc or is this a bump along the way with Piggy getting ready to get married to someone else?
We’ll find out when The Muppets… Again opens March 21, 2014.
Wait, so in the big picture continuity did Kermit and Piggy get divorced? Man, the Muppet should remake MODERN ROMANCE.
I always understood it that Kermit and Piggy were not married in “real life” but their on-screen personas did get married in one film.
Yeah, the Muppets are kind of like the Looney Toon characters in that each movie is a show, they’re playing versions of themselves in a movie. I guess there isn’t continuity between the movies. (i.e. the events of “Muppets Take Manhattan” have no connection with “The Great Muppet Caper”, even though they’re the same characters in the films.)
Didn’t MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN start with them graduating college? Are we to believe that aftre becoming stars and travelling Europe, they then went back to school?
Yes, that’s the college one. The Great Muppet Caper actually begins with Kermit telling the audience “in our new movie I play a reporter…” So they’re clearly aware that it’s a movie. But there’s a LOT of layers at work.
It reminds me of some thing I saw about Henson years and years back where a reporter was talking to a bunch of muppets and Kermit made a comment along the lines of “We try not to look down. It raises too many questions.”
Or like when Austin Powers prepares to travel back in time and Basil Exposition tells him, “Don’t over-think it, just try to enjoy yourself. (to audience) And that goes for you, too.”
I really don’t want there to be some kind of Muppet canon where every piece has to fit every other piece. I like them more as character archetypes, behaving consistently in each plot, but no, there’s no need for each plot to fit together. That seems to limit creativity, which is exactly the opposite of what Muppets stand for. Be wild and free, Muppets!!