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Click above to purchase "The Great Muppet Caper" at
amazon.com
The Great Muppet Caper
review by Zach B.
Rated G
Studio: Columbia/Tri-Star
Running Time: 98 minutes
Written by Tom Patchett & Jay Tarses and Jerry
Juhl & Jack Rose
Directed by Jim Henson
Retail Price: $19.95
Features: Muppetisms, Bonus Trailers
Specs: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.33:1 Full
Frame, English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Surround,
Dolby French 2.0 Mono, Dolby Spanish 2.0 Mono, English
Closed Captions, English Subtitles, French Subtitles,
Spanish Subtitles, Scene Selections (28 Chapters)
"Stop the presses!"
"Why? What happened?"
"I don't know. I've always wanted to say
that."
Yay, the Muppets are back! In this sequel, Fozzie, Kermit
and Gonzo all work for the City Herald. Gonzo is the
photographer while Fozzie and Kermit are reporters. After
they miss a giant story involving a jewel heist in favor of
Kermit and Fozzie being twins and working for the paper, the
Muppets go to London to investiage the robbery. The jewel
belonged to Lady Holiday (Diana Rigg), and while Kermit
tries to get an interview with her, he gets Miss Piggy
disguised at her instead. Of course, a wacky, madcap
adventure begins filled with mistaken indenity, silly
slapstick comedy and jokes and a lot of fun. Can the Muppets
solve the crime when her diamond necklace is stolen?
"The Great Muppet Caper" is a pretty solid family film
and movie that can be enjoyed for all ages. I've always
liked the Muppets and grew up with them, so I was happy to
see Columbia releasing their older films on DVD as of late.
Jim Henson works from a nice, funny script that appeals to
many audiences. It's nice to see a movie aimed for kids that
older ones can enjoy, complete with humor that does not rely
on gross-out jokes and stupid, idiotic jokes.
The editing is nice and the movie goes at a great pace.
It's never boring and it has some nice musical numbers that
really do entertain. The cameos, while not as plentiful as
the original film, are still really nice and do bring some
added joy. In an age where so many children's films are
either animated or have a lot of disgusting humor in them,
it's refreshing to take a trip back into the past and see a
movie that's fun and really different from today's
standards. Not only that, "The Great Muppet Caper" is a film
that lives up to the original. Though it's not my favorite
Muppet film, it's one of the top three in my book and is a
lot of fun. They don't make them like this anymore.
Simply put, "The Great Muppet Caper" looks it age, but
it's not that bad. The film has a lot of blemishes and
pieces of dirt on the print, not to mention a lot of grain.
It can be annoying at times but it's not as bad as I thought
it would be. Colors are pretty decent and look pretty well
saturated, while details and black level is decent. This
transfer isn't going to blow your mind or everything, but
considering it's twenty year old, it's not that terrible.
The film is in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen on one side (the
first time the film is presented in widescreen on any video
format I believe) while the other side has a full frame
transfer. While I don't like full frame transfers generally,
a lot of cropping exists there.
"The Great Muppet Caper" features a new, decent 5.1 Dolby
Digital mix in English. It's not much really. Most of the
sound sounds really cleaned up, but there are times where it
sounds scratchy and old. Surrounds are really used in the
music sequences as well as where most of the loud noises
take place. Otherwise, it's not really not there. Dialogue
is clear most of the time but at times is pretty muted.
Fidelity and .1 LFE use is average. An English Dolby
Surround track is included as well as 2.0 French and Spanish
mono mixes. English closed captions, English subtitles,
Spanish subtitles and French subtitles are also included.
Not much here, but it's better then nothing. There are
several Bonus Trailers, though not one for "The Great
Muppet Caper". "Muppets From Space" is in full frame and 5.1
Dolby Digital, "The Muppets Take Manhattan" is in full frame
and two channel sound and appears to be a video based
trailer, "Buddy" is in non-anamorphic widescreen and 5.0
Dolby Digital while "The Adventures Of Elmo In Grouchland"
is in full frame and 5.1 Dolby Digital.
Also are included are three Muppetisms. Each only
last a few seconds and feature a message at the end. The
three feature Animal in one, Statler and Waldorf in another
while Kermit and Lloyd are in the last. They're all in full
frame and fun while they last.
"The Great Muppet Caper" is an enjoyable, well-rounded
sequel. Columbia has offered this disc a pretty decent
presentation, not to mention some nice though small extras.
Muppet fans, this one is for your DVD collection.
 (4/5 - NOT included in
final score)
 (3.5/5)
 (3/5)
 (1/5)
(3.5/5, NOT an average)
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