Midweek Mention... Muppet Treasure Island

Muppets Treasure Island

Dan: Pete.

You like this, don't you? This is Muppet Treasure Island

Sidey: And the start of John Week.

Dan: and the start of John week. Importantly the Muppets. For anybody who doesn't know that's been living under a rock, I guess, but did the new generation know the Muppets as well as we knew the

Sidey: well as we knew the Muppets? Yeah, there's still a generous amount of

Reegs: Yeah, there's still a generous amount of Muppet content on Disney should you care to search

Sidey: that I couldn't find this at first glance. I thought it wasn't one of the things that was on there and I had to go back.

Dan: So they're still giving the Muppets, but I don't know whether it ever reached the heady heights of the day

Sidey: when it

Pete: Yeah,

Sidey: They're

Dan: They're quite a band, aren't they?

The Muppets. They're all these puppets and Muppets and they have lots of different lols and stories and occasionally, they would throw together a feature film and and this was one.

Sidey: Like this

Dan: Like this one. Almost exactly like

Pete: was this the second one, after Muppets Christmas Carol, was this the second feature film?

Sidey: is that the first one, Chris Christmas? Carol? I

Pete: think so. I might

Reegs: No, it was, surely it was the Muppet movie

Sidey: preceded

Yeah. I thought this was, this was way down the line.

Dan: that I think.

Sidey: Anyway, I hadn't seen this one.

Dan: one.

I hadn't watched it. It's not the sponsor this show, is

Pete: start to this show,

Reegs: show, isn't it? Yeah, it is

Sidey: Muffet's treasure. I know pete. You're a big fan and this is your norm. is.

Pete: It, it is gonna be nobbed anyway, and then I like cleverly wove it into John week.

Sidey: Yeah

Pete: Yeah

Reegs: Is a 90s one isn't it? And it's because it's a Brian Henson.

This is not Jim Henson who is obviously the guy who, the original creator of the Muppets and the original voice of many of the characters. This was his son. And.

Was it ninety six?

Sidey: 96, this was.

Dan: 96,

quite old then for a son, wasn't he?

Reegs: Yeah,

Dan: yeah. But yeah, he had to go anyway, and it starts off with a magnificent sea shanty as their You, you kind of learn it's flint's treasure that the pirates are taken into being buried on, on some islands.

And we get to see some little muppets and secondary muppets that just pop up for singing and things with a few

Pete: Yeah, the animals get involved, early

Dan: Yeah, I don't,

Pete: think, I think it's worth saying that this is basically another adaptation of Treasure Island. So people who know the story, we can save them a load of hassle by just saying this is effectively that story.

Robert

Reegs: Louis Stevenson's

Pete: Treasure Island. So

Reegs: Sort of more singing lobsters and

Pete: there's more singing lobsters and crocodiles and, and,

Dan: And you learn, And

you learn Jim Curry is going to be Long John Silver.

Pete: Jim

Dan: Yeah. Yeah. . Yeah.

Sidey: that's

Pete: that's Kevin Bishop, which is Jim Hawkins, but, but Tim Curry is Long John Silver, but we don't, we haven't seen him yet.

Dan: And fancier Curry later on. But we've got also Billy Cony as Billy Bones.

Reegs: Yeah. He ki he kind of starts the story off because he has possession of a treasure

Sidey: map,

right?

Pete: he doesn't do it. Well, you don't, you don't know that immediately.

Reegs: You don't.

Pete: No, so it's kind of as the singing stops. He starts narrating about the story of Flint and the lost treasure and all of this.

And that Flint is, is now died leaving the, the treasure map. Who knows where. So and it's and then it kind of like cuts to Billy Connolly as Billy Bones telling the story in a, in a pub that is run by Jennifer Saunders

Reegs: Mrs. Blage. Sorry, Mrs. Blage. Yeah, after the first big musical number. It's really funny. It's one of my favorite jokes of it. She ushers everybody out of the pub, including a bunch of pigs. Oh, yeah. And she says, oh, we're gonna next, you know, come back, we're gonna have some roast suckling.

And then she looks at the. Pig. And then she says potatoes. And then this old potato woman comes like stumbling out of the door afterwards.

Pete: she's already apologised, like, I'll get out you filthy pigs, and then there's a load of pigs, like, Oh, meant no offence so it's, yeah,

Reegs: And the pigs are drinking from one of those big, like.

See sailor mug things and it's also singing the opening

Pete: Yeah, a Toby jug, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so straight away we know this is going to be whimsical and light hearted, because it's, it's Muppets, and you've got, you know, I think, really.

Good performances by Billy Connolly and Jennifer Saunders, albeit they're not in it for for very long

Dan: not in it long. But we, we meet Gonzo and Rizzo, don't we?

The,

Pete: so they're working in the in the pub along with jim hawkins

Dan: Young Jim Hawkins. So he's the other

Pete: human

Dan: actor in it that's stringing it all together.

Sidey: strong mullet.

Dan: Yeah, strong mullet game and he's good friends as anybody knows the story with Billy Bones who ends up giving him the map as the neck tightens in and around This map being available for, for

Pete: Well, you have, you have blind Pew arrive who

Reegs: visually challenged

Pete: visually challenged Pew arrives with like two pirate patches, two like patches over his eyes. And he can't say anything until Billy Bones cocks his gun. And then he hands Billy Bones, the black spot,

Reegs: Yeah,

Dan: I

Pete: know it's a death sentence for a for a for a pyra.

But at that point Billy starts unraveling and and gives Jim the the treasure map in the midst of a heart attack.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: And at, at various points, mrs. What was it? Mrs. Blover.

Sidey: Mrs. Miggins, let's just call her.

Dan: She, she's just got extraordinary powers of hearing and is able to answer questions that she's not in the same room for and they keep on asking, Well, how does she do that? How does she do that? And as the, the kind of soldiers and different people come to find this treasure

Pete: pirates

Yeah.

Dan: they're jumping. Jim jumps out and and

he's kind of run off with Rizzo and Gonzo, and they're saying, oh, what about Mrs. You know, is she gonna be okay? And she throws 'em out and says, I'll be fine. And they say, how does she do that? And they're off then on the

Sidey: boat,

aren't

Reegs: well, she beats off a load them Muppets, I think.

Sidey: Yeah. And when Bones dies, doesn't Rizzo say, He's dead! This is supposed to be a kid's movie! Yeah! And it's the, I think, I guess, one of the first, like, self referential things, way before Deadpool, that it does, like, repeatedly throughout the movie.

Reegs: Yeah.

Pete: Like, sending itself

Sidey: Yeah.

Pete: Yeah, so then obviously they've got this, they've got this map, and they go off into the big smoke, I'm not sure exactly where it is, but what they need is a ship. So they, they go off looking for Master Ship Builder Squire Trelawney. who isn't there, but his half wit, his rich half wit son is there, played by Fozzie Bear.

Reegs: That's

Dan: Oh, Fozzie.

Pete: With his friend Mr. Bimbo, yeah.

Sidey: Can anyone do his voice?

Reegs: go on Dan. Ah,

Pete: that all right? I can only do that. A

bit.

Dan: Fozzie was here.

And he's got Mr. Bimbo in his finger. Mr. Bimbo is able to guide Fozzie Bear,

Reegs: well, he's making the decisions to be fair. Yeah.

Pete: And it

Reegs: and it sets, it sets up, it pretty quickly moves along because the, they go to find the ship and board it and it sets up really one of my favorite jokes again, of the movie with, mr.

Arrow, who is Sam, the bald eagle. And he's like talking up how fearsome the captain is a volcano of rage. He describes him as and when he arrives, like the big buildup and this guy steps out and he looks every bit the snarling, horrible captain you think he's going to be, and he steps aside and his Kermit, the frog

just so good.

Dan: And then, and then when he goes up he, he sort of goes hello and he goes I've never seen him so mad.

Reegs: hopping mad.

Dan: yeah.

Pete: He's furious, yeah.

Reegs: Very good. Very good. And we get a roll call scene then I think after

Pete: Yeah, we do.

Where everybody's Yeah, we've got like, old Tom, really old Tom, and dead Tom. And headless Bill.

Reegs: And then there's one like, it's like big fat, ugly pig face,

Pete: yeah, bug eating Mahoney or whatever, and it's a lady with large breasts.

Sidey: But we do meet

Pete: Jim

Sidey: call it? Jim Curry. Yeah, as obviously by the name, we know what he's really about, but he presents himself as being super friendly to Jim.

Reegs: Who has already been warned by Billy Bones about a one legged man,

Dan: legged man, but he's, he's very jovial, he's the ship's cook, he's, he's

Sidey: knows exactly what he's

Dan: He knows exactly what he's doing, he's a master

Sidey: him, you

Pete: and when you first see him you can't see that he's got a leg missing but as soon as he comes through the, it's like saloon doors out of the galley. Yeah. And then is it Rizzo or Gonzo says like, look, one leg, Jim, count them. One.

Reegs: He's

got, he's got a pet lobster. And when they challenge him, like, why wouldn't you have a parrot? He just laughs like that's ridiculous.

Meanwhile, there is a little subplot where Rizzo has decided to run the sort of.

Pete: little

kind of thing

Reegs: of thing going on and he's got a party of rats on board and serving the margaritas and

Dan: That's right, and that's the kind of subplot all the way through as you, the rats get off at various locations and just start a tour group and

Reegs: They even visit the set of Muppets Treasure Island at one

Dan: yeah, and they have margaritas and all sorts just going on and

Pete: And this, this sh you know, this shuffleboard? 'cause there's a,

Reegs: yeah,

Pete: yeah, there's, there's a scene later on where, where the, the finest brandy, when they're toasting the voyage, the, the finest brandy keeps getting chucked out the window by Fozzie bear.

But, but yeah. Smollett who played by Kermit the Frog is, is pretty like perturbed by the by the crew. Yeah. Because they're obviously pirates and cutthroats and everything.

Dan: They've all been recruited by Long

Pete: Well, that's it. Yeah. They've been recommended by, by Long John Silver.

Reegs: yeah,

Pete: And as the, the plot moves along, we realized that, yeah, he, he has

Reegs: Well also long

Pete: nefarious intentions.

Reegs: long days at sea as well pay it drives them all mad Illustrated through a beautiful number called

Pete: cabin

fever. Yeah.

Reegs: was my favorite song of the movie that

Pete: I mean, I think we're about, we're about four. Cabin fever is like the fourth song. There's, there's another sort of sea shanty type one as well. There's also one, there's also one that Sadie,

before they even set sail, there's there's gotta be something better than this, which Sadie playfully suggested

Sidey: was how I felt about

Pete: was how he felt about the film at that point.

But yeah, I think the songs are absolute bangers in this, but yeah, Cabin Fever is a,

Sidey: But what we're saying about the crew, the crew were actually Flint's crew. Yeah. So they know about the treasure. They want that treasure.

Pete: Yeah.

Reegs: do. And they torture Gonzo for information, which he loves. They stretch him.

Sidey: It looks like John Dillerman.

Pete: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Polly goes like, right, this isn't working. He likes it. Let's torture the rat.

And

he's got really long arms. And he's tickling him going, poodly,

Reegs: Then you see him in the next scene afterwards. They do the Venetian blind technique or whatever. very good.

Pete: it's excellent. Yeah, so, after the torture scene, a few of Long John Silver's, like, oppos have been thrown in the brig and and still at this point, even though obviously is, is like, It's a grown up audience. You know that he's in on it. It hasn't been revealed to certainly to to Jim that that Long John's behind like the all

Reegs: Well, they're bonding, aren't they?

Because they both lost their fathers when they were young and,

Dan: he's, he's wanted to believe it, but he's hidden in a barrel at this stage where he hears Long John Silver, come clean and, and talk about the plot to kill everyone once they're off and we'll get the map and, and all the rest of it.

And so he goes up and tells Captain Smollett, who he instantly goes, Oh, you go on shore, you lot and and set up and we will, we'll kind of, you know, set up here and come back when you're done. So, they know now that. The pirates, the

Sidey: does

Pete: John's a runner. He doesn't

Sidey: he does a, a trick on Mr. Arrow to send him out to his doom in a dodgy rowboat.

Pete: Well, no, he, he, he says that he, he's talking about another voyage and says, oh, that, you know, they, they got into trouble and they got in the lifeboats and they, and they all sank as the lifeboats.

So you should put, cause obviously Mr. Arrow is a bit of a stickler for the rules and like health and safety and stuff. So he's like, oh, you're right. I should go and test these boats. So he like casts him off and then yeah,

Sidey: he's dead again and uses the memorial service as the front for that's when they're going to steal the,

Pete: Exactly. Yeah.

Sidey: the map.

Pete: Yeah. But like you say, they, they eventually arrive at the, at the, the island itself.

And because now Smollett is aware and Jim's aware that, that Long John has these like nefarious intentions. He buys them, tries to buy himself some thinking time by sending the crew onto the Onto the island!

Yeah.

Sidey: just to leave them stranded, isn't it?

Well,

Dan: where he was gonna come back in a year,

Sidey: the

plan is just to say, right, we'll leave them, they'll go mental or whatever. We'll come back in a year and like, I don't know, bomb the island or whatever.

But essentially it would just be the good guys left on the boat and the pirates left on the island, but they

Really daft, like, to

fall for this trick is Kane that uses to walk. He drops on the floor and encourages Jim to help him reach it. And as soon as Jim grabs it, he pulls him into the boat.

Now they've got a

Reegs: still really thought at that time that long. John would be so ruthless,

Sidey: Well, his naivety cost

Reegs: He did,

Pete: Yeah, but he's overheard Long John talking about, oh, I killed Arrow.

Reegs: I know. But he still

Pete: yeah, he doesn't want to believe that because this guy's kind of like his hero. He certainly looks up to him. He's like a parent figure to

Dan: he's a great number when they're on the beach as well, and he tries to convince him to become a

Pete: A

professional pirate. Yeah,

No, that is another good. So, and like,

Reegs: Oh, that's when the Swedish chef is in

Pete: it. Oh, yeah, that is. And

Reegs: just like,

Sidey: How else would we get

Pete: how else are we getting in? Yeah, that is, that is good. Yeah. Yeah. And Tim, Tim Curry's got some good pipes. Yeah, yeah. Good singer. So yeah, they go to find the treasure the, the pirates and when they get there.

Not only is it already uncovered, but when they open the, the, the chests

Sidey: it's gone.

Pete: pirate, the treasure is gone. And so then there's a, there's a mutiny and the the pirates themselves think that Long John stitched them up. So they give him they give him

Dan: give

Reegs: give him the back spot, but

Pete: on the, on the page out of a Bible,

Reegs: Yeah.

Pete: which he quickly convinces them is,

Dan: Well he turns

Pete: a terrible

Dan: against them, doesn't he?

And convinces them all through superstition and, you know, superstition. mumbo jumbo that they need to, you know, be seeking his forgiveness pretty soon. And he's back on charge and back on top again.

Reegs: we

haven't talked about, there's a tribe of like.

Well, Benjamina

Sidey: Yeah. So, so

Pete: about, about

Sidey: and that are going to have to go to the island because they know they've got to rescue Jim.

Right. So they, they land on the island

Pete: Jim, Jimmy.

Jim, Jim,

Sidey: and like you said, there's this native tribe of pigs and guess who's going to be in charge of them. We're waiting for her to appear the whole time.

Pete: Benjamina Gunn,

Sidey: Yeah. Would you do miss piggy?

Pete: do

Reegs: But Well, Right, it's,

Pete: Well, and so obviously has everyone

Reegs: The, the, the, the famous, like, funny gag about their relationship is that she beats the shit out of

So, do, do they still, I don't know if they do that in the modern Muppet movies, because, like, domestic violence is probably not that funny,

Pete: well, it depends on the

Reegs: If it's a pig and a frog. If

Pete: beating a frog, then, then I'm, I'm down

Reegs: Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I

Pete: but, but I mean, this, this, it, it, without fully qualifying exactly why intimates that she'd had a relationship with Captain Flint initially and then when Long John comes back, it's very strongly suggested that she's also a.

I think she's going to get piped off Long John at some point because she calls

Sidey: Wow.

Pete: John. There's a there's a little gag for the for the parents

Reegs: Yeah.

Pete: yeah, the pig tribe you know, they're against these people being so it's basically Benjamina has Acquired all of the she was obviously marooned when flint was was there at some point But she's with the pig tribe has now acquired all of the treasure. She's wearing one of the medallions like around her neck and so on and the yeah, the pig tribe looked pretty fierce and they're going to engage the the pirates Um in in a battle until they realize that the pirates have boom boom sticks In which case in which case they shit their pants and and they get out of there You but then we, we effectively get to the scene where it's the, the goodies v the baddies.

The, the, you know, the, the pirates and, and, you know, Smollett's dead handy with his sword. You get, luckily Sweetums, who's the, like the, the biggest muppet by some distance, like, what's it, defects to the, to the side of the

Reegs: Yeah.

he would be terrifying if he were real,

Sidey: Wouldn't,

Pete: Well, yeah, yeah, that's it.

Dan: yeah, and Jim puts in a good performance as well. And they kind of win the day,

Pete: Yeah, they do. Yeah. And they've, they've overcome the, the pirates. They've managed to get the, all the treasure.

Reegs: Mr. Arrow turns up, doesn't he? Like pretends to be his own, like ghost and scares them all off.

Pete: Yep.

Sidey: He's got a

hell of a monobrow,

Pete: Absolutely.

Reegs: unbelievable. Eugene Levy,

Dan: the

Reegs: they were, they're going to do a live action version, they'd cast him as

Dan: Say it's the Treasure Island plot and it does with that but you just there's so many little moments of

Jokes and puns and they don't overdo them like the potato one right at the bit You miss it if you if you blink but and they just let them go and there's loads of

Pete: I honestly don't recall that one from the 17, 000 times I've already seen this before, so you do pick up little things. You've obviously got Was it Waldorf and, is

Sidey: it, yeah, they're on the

Pete: and Waldorf? Yeah, they're at the front and they're constantly like berating this

Dan: panning the film aren't they? At one point they go Well, I saved, I saved the pig, I saved the frog, too late to save the movie, ahhhh It's like,

Pete: and it's like, yeah, it's better than being in the audience. And yeah, so there's all of that. I mean, the final scene is, is basically Long John. Who's in the brig manages to escape and he's gonna

Reegs: we've had mr. Arrows keys all

Pete: Yes, yeah, yeah, so he he escapes and he puts some all the treasure on one of the the life rafts or lifeboats

And he Jim effectively was going to blow the whistle on him, but decides not to.

He's just like, Oh, look, just get out of my sight. I never want to see you again. And and off he rose. And then you realize that

Reegs: Well, it's a bit more,

Pete: I mean, he threatens to shoot him. Threatens to shoot Jim. all

Dan: a moment, but they, they both don't want to either shoot

Reegs: tender than that, isn't it though? I mean, it's a big, it's a heartbreaking moment

for

Dan: He's, he's still saying, Jim, you can come with me if you want, lads. You know, we'll, we'll

Reegs: I'll bug you senseless on the

Dan: yeah, yeah.

And He, he Captain Smollett's there as well looking. He goes, Well done, Jim. You know, you go and then they say, Well, that's one of the dodgy boats. And so it cuts to Jim Curry in the in the boat. And he can't paddle fast enough because the

Sidey: water

is

Dan: coming on.

Yeah. But it's too late.

And

Reegs: What an irony, what an irony,

Pete: know. Yeah. Yeah. And then, and then they decide that they're just going to go off on some adventures. Go to Zanzibar to

Reegs: the,

Zanzibar,

Pete: Yeah. But then even, even the closing credits is like some brilliant scenes of the rats who are like, you know, scuba diving and one of them drops down and winches up one of the, the, the

Sidey: they recover some treasure don't they yeah

Reegs: And isn't the, the sort of backdrop behind them is like some fish in a, in a pet shop. Like basically pretty much like,

Pete: Yeah,

Yeah,

Dan: Well, this was still brilliant. I love this. Honestly, I love a pirate thing. I love the Muppets to a point. They don't always, you know, I haven't always loved them for everything they've done, but this

Reegs: no, you, you've been Muppet prejudice before

Dan: I have. I've not loved everything they've done, but this is there to be enjoyed. This was

Pete: Well, but before we get on to the side my, I watched this with my, with my seven year old who I don't think is even particularly familiar with the Muppets. But I said, I think you'll like this film. He likes like Darth stuff and everything.

And he. Was wetting himself all the way through. Really, really enjoyed it. Like absolutely loved this is, ah, there are other Muppet films and so on. Yeah. Yeah. So he, he was banging into, he was banging into this. I mean, it hits all the marks that a Muppet film should. It's kind of like it's daft and

Dan: Loads of

Pete: there's entertainment.

This song's like, you

Reegs: it's so much love in

Pete: Miss Piggy's a slag. Like, there's just loads of, it's all the things that you, you've come to expect from it, yeah.

Dan: remember there's

Reegs: much love in the Muppets, like, in everything, like, in, in how funny it is, in how it looks, and all that, like, there's a real tactile sense, you really almost want to reach through the screen and feel them,

Pete: Yeah, yeah. Sidey?

Sidey: Yeah, I did enjoy trolling you all week, but I really liked it, it was good, yeah.

Jim Henson. His favorite, or the character that was closest in resemblance to Jim Henson, apparently, was Ralph, and this was the first film after he had died. So they only, very briefly the thing, it doesn't talk or

Reegs: anything. Very briefly

Sidey: it's very briefly in it,

but

Pete: him.

Sidey: didn't,

yeah.

Pete: my

Reegs: those guys. yeah.

Sidey: that was my one. Criticism. Not enough be of

Dan: Beaker.

Pete: beacups.

Sidey: we early doors

Reegs: No. But

Sidey: he was there. Yeah,

Reegs: yeah. Might have been,

Sidey: but commend,

Dan: strong recommend.

Sidey: I didn't get a budget for it, but it made 34 million.

Might be good, might be bad. Just dunno. But

Reegs: This is going to be directly proportional to your love of the Muppets. So if you like the Muppets, you're going to like this, I think.

And if you don't, this is not going to change your opinion. And you're going to be suddenly like, oh, I love the

Pete: Muppets, you're going to like this, I think, and if you don't, this is not going to

Sidey: Christmas carol's

Pete: opinion. You're going to be suddenly like, oh,

Sidey: Jim Curry was given a Muppet made in his in the likeness of him as long John Silver

Reegs: all right.

Dan: Brilliant.

Sidey: and spam tried to sue them for. Using then the spam name as the name of a warthog character

Pete: head of the pig tribe was called

Sidey: The judge that was thrown out

Reegs: Because it's clearly absolute bullshit

Sidey: judge noted that one might think Hormel would welcome the association with a genuine source of

pork

Pete: Oh,

Sidey: So they go

Pete: how scathing. Yeah. Tim Curry. I thought I was sorry, Jim Curry. Yeah. Silly me. I thought, Oh God, I haven't seen him in anything for ages because obviously he wasn't, he wasn't like a list by any stretch.

Reegs: He was

Pete: a big fan of the, the Rocky Horror Picture Show, but he was in quite a few things.

I didn't realize he was the he was it or

Sidey: was

Pete: Pennywise in, in the series or something like that.

Reegs: Really good as Well,

Pete: right. Yeah. He's a, he's a good

Dan: Yeah. he's got

Pete: But yeah, he's, it

a while ago now he had a fairly hideous stroke and he's been wheelchair bound for a long time now. So he does a lot of voice work still, but yeah, he doesn't appear on our screens anymore.

Sidey: Yeah,

Dan: Well, I'm glad he did for this. He was brilliant and so was

Sidey: Strong recommend.