Brian Henson's take on the classic Treasure Island story by Robert Louis Stevenson, featuring the old cast favorites of The Muppet Show, and Tim Curry playing Long John Silver. In the English seaside in the 18th Century, Jim Hawkins, played by Kevin Bishop, is now given two friends.... Gonzo and Rizzo, who are once again paired together as a comedy team and are the focus for much of the movie. When sailor Billy Bones warns of a treasure that legendary pirate captain Bernie Flint hid, and Jim's harridan-employer's inn is burned down by Flint's surviving pirate crew, Flint's treasure map ends up in Jim's possession. Fozzie Bear (playing rich-dolt Trelawney) confirms the map's authenticity, so they all set sail on the Hispaniola to find the treasure. Bunsen Honeydew plays Dr. Livesey, Kermit the Frog plays the ship's master Captain Smollett, Sam the Eagle is Mister Arrow, the first mate. Miss Piggy plays a gender-flipped version of Ben Gunn; a castaway marooned on the relevant island.It isn't that high on the radar for most of the public memory, but is considered by fans to be one of the darkest and grittiest Muppet films, and one of their funniest productions.
This film contains examples of:
Affably Evil: Long John, which is true of every other adaptation. Plus, it's Tim Curry.
Anachronism Stew: Rizzo makes extra money by taking a group of rats along on a modern-style cruise on the ship, who dress as Hawaiian Shirted Tourists and use camcorders, speedboats and scuba gear.
Anti-Villain: Long John is Type I. He's very charming, polite and actually cares for Jimmy.
Award Bait Song: Love Led Us Here. May or may not be a parody.
Big Damn Heroes: Hilariously parodied by the island Boars, when Long John Silver shoots off the headdress of the lead boar. "Me see you have boom boom stick... bye-bye."
Played straight with Statler and Waldorph catching the captain and Benjamina.
Big Eater: Rizzo the Rat polishes off most of a roast chicken bigger than he is within a few minutes.
Gonzo: I'm Gonzo...and the guy in the chicken is Rizzo.
Rizzo: <nom nom nom nom> Yo! <nom nom nom nom>
Big Lipped Alligator Moment: Cabin Fever. Acknowledged in-universe, as only Clueless Morgan seems to even remember it.
Black Spot: One is delivered to the old guy in the beginning and he dies.
Long John: "I could never kill you, lad. You're honest and brave and true. You didn't learn any of that from me."
Jim: "I learned it from my friends, Mr. Silver."
Also, at one point, Sweetums turns out to be on the side of Smollett and his men, despite being a pirate. When Smollett questions this, he replies, "Are you kidding? I love you guys!" which is a Call Back to the original movie.
From the start, and the end of the movie:
Jim: "Wherever the wind may take us!"
Gonzo: "Off to Zanzibar to meet the Zanzi-barbarians!"
Rizzo: "Here they go again..."
Unsafe lifeboats.
The Cameo: The Swedish Chef, who appears towards the end of the film wearing a fake pig snout on the island of the "cannibal pigs". Lampshaded by the Singing Fruit who break the fourth wall to address the audience, asking "How else were we supposed to get him in this movie?"
Carnivore Confusion: Running an 18th-century inn is problematic when many of your customers are considered edible in non-talking form.
Mrs. Bluberidge: Don't forget to come back for our lunchtime special! Roast suckling... Pigs: Huh? Mrs. Bluberidge: ...potatoes! Potato: Hmpf! Mrs. Bluberidge: No offense meant, ma'am, no offense!
Squire Trelawney [Fozzie] talks to a little man who lives in his finger, and as he says upon greenlighting the voyage:
Trelawney: What are rich half-wit sons for?
Plus there's Gonzo. Case in point:
Gonzo: It feels so weird. Rizzo: You mean that Mr. Arrow is dead? Gonzo: Yeah, that. And my pants are filled with starfish. (beat) Rizzo: You and your hobbies...
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: In the scene in which the remaining Hispaniola crew and Benjamina confront Silver, they are all dressed in pristine, heroic-looking white shirts with dark breeches, which we might as well chalk up to Rule Of Cool since those outfits never show up anywhere else.
Mr. Arrow: [describing Captain Smollett's temper] "The man is a raging volcano, tormented by inner demons, the likes of which mere mortals cannot fathom!"
The Comically Serious: Arrow, which is pretty much the personality of Sam the Eagle anyway.
Coming of Age Story: Apparently this was the reason why they got an actual human to play Jim, as opposed to an early draft that had Gonzo and Rizzo play Jim and Hawkins as two characters.
Consulting Mister Puppet: Fozzie: "Oh, Mr. Bimble lives in my finger. He's very smart. He's been to the moon. [puts finger to his ear] Oh, thank you... twice."
Darker and Edgier: It still has the usual Muppet goofiness, but it's a lot darker than the usual stuff. After all, the film's opening has a harsh male choir singing a rather morbid song with subject matter including such family friendly material as murder, greed, alcoholism, and even a reference to Old Nick himself. And it's all topped off with Flint murdering his entire crew. The remainder of the film is filled with somewhat intense scenes of threat, drinking and possible cannibalism.
In true Muppet fashion, this is lampshaded: "He died? But this is a kids' movie!"
Don't forget the first musical number on the ship, which talks about dying by falling overboard.
Long John tells his fellow mutineers that Satan is heating his pokers for their heresy of tearing a page from the Bible to give him the black spot.
The Danza: In an interesting variation, the pre-existing character Billy Bones is played by Billy Connolly.
Dead Hat Shot: After Arrow is "washed overboard", all that is found of him is his hat. Subverted in that it wasn't actually found in the water; Mr. Arrow had given it to Long John.
Silver refuses to shoot Jim when the boy could raise the alarm.
(From the opening song) "The Devil himself would have to call them scum!"
Everything Talks: Especially in the Shiver My Timbers opening sequence.
Flynning: Mocked; when Kermit tries it the sword flies out of his hand (almost skewering another muppet), leaving him defenseless.
Felony Misdemeanor: When Benjamina reminds Captain Smollett of how he left her at the altar.
"My mother came all the way from France! I was wearing her white lace dress! The cake was filled with LEMON! CUSTARD!"
Finish Dialogue In Unison: When Bones finishes telling the story about Flint, he says "Now isn't that story worth the hearin'?" - as do most of the guests, followed by one of the patrons complaining, "It was the first dozen times we heard it!"
From a Certain Point of View: Long John appeals to this while trying to convince Jim that pirates aren't all that bad in "Professional Pirate", using Sir Francis Drake (evil pirate to the Spanish, hero to the British) as an example. Subverted in that everything in the song about how pirates are good people are Blatant Lies and Suspiciously Specific Denials.
Frothy Mugs of Water: Completely averted, though Captain Smollett does outlaw alcohol on the voyage.
Everything that happened with Benjamina and the pirates prior to the movie probably qualifies: "I took up with this Captain Flint fellow...he was a pirate, I was a lady, you know how the story goes." Most of the adults in the audience probably recognize that the "story" in question usually doesn't get a PG rating...
Also, when Long John's crew are about to give him the Black Spot, Clueless Morgan had to have been thinking of something entirely different.
Polly: Clueless!
Clueless Morgan: Yeah?
Polly: Give it to him!
Clueless Morgan: *pause* But uhh...it's not even his birthday.
God Save Us from the Queen: Benjamina Gunn (Miss Piggy) is built up this way by the native boars prior to her entrance. The chief boar tells Smollett and the others, "Now you face wrath of our queen, Boomshakalaka!" She then enters the scene riding an elephant, obscured by palm fronds, and serenaded by an increasingly frantic beating of drums and chanting of her name.
Handicapped Badass: Blind Pew maybe visually challenged, but he can hear a gun being cocked from the other side of the room and be over there is seconds.
Heel Face Turn: Sweetums does this at the end, during the big fight, when it looks as though he is going to bash Smollet and Mr. Arrow on the head with a large log, but actually hits some of his fellow pirates on the head instead. This is immediately lampshaded:
Smollet: Well, thank you. But aren't you supposed to fighting against us?
Also Kevin Bishop (Jim), who went on to do Star Stories, a Channel 4 spoof documentary series where he played, amongst others, Tom Cruise, Tony Blair and Simon Cowell.
Interscene Diegetic: The "Love Led Us Here" number is heard while the camera cuts away to the pirates.
"I Want" Song: "Something Better," sung by Jim, Gonzo, and Rizzo.
Jaw Drop: Captain Smollett and Mr. Arrow's reaction upon seeing "Big Fat Ugly Bug Faced Baby Eating O'Brien", who is a woman. (And not exactly bad-looking.)
Killed Off for Real: Billy Bones dies at the start of the film. According to his biography, Billy Connolly is apparently very proud of his record as the only character ever to die in a Muppets film.
Large Ham: Tim Curry (in fact, he says that out of all the movies he has been in, this is his favorite), Billy Connolly, and, of course, the muppets themselves.
Laser-Guided Karma / Reality Ensues After Silver gets away with part of the treasure, Arrow comes up behind Jim and Smollett and mentions that the boat he just took was unsafe. Sure enough, it and the treasure sink, forcing Silver to swim to Treasure Island.
Hoist by His Own Petard Arrow knows this because Silver disposed of him earlier by stoking paranoia about leaky lifeboats and persuading Arrow to take one out for a test run. At the time it looked like Arrow had been killed by this.
Rizzo: I've gone waaay beyond afraid! Right now I'm somewhere between bed-wetting and a near-death-experience!
Meaningful Name: Not so much 'meaningful' as 'literal' amongst the crew. It includes such specimens as Wall-Eyed Pike, Black-Eyed Pea, Headless Bill, Old Tom, Really Old Tom, and, of course, Dead Tom.
Subverted with "Big Fat Ugly Bug-Faced Baby-Eating O'Brien".
Who apparently switched names with Angel Marie.
Mind Your Step: Benjamina (Ms. Piggy) ruins her huge entrance by tumbling down the stairs. She blames her pet anteater.
Missing Mom: In the original novel, Jim Hawkins' mother was still around. In this movie, no such luck.
And even those audience members who've never read or heard about Treasure Island reach that conclusion upon seeing Tim Curry. Then there's Long John's one leg and Billy's previous warning about the one-legged man...
Ocean Madness: Results in the showstopping "Cabin Fever" musical number.
Of Corsets Sexy: Big Fat Ugly Bug-Faced Baby-Eating O'Brien.
Offhand Backhand: Arrow [Sam the Eagle] does this to Polly Lobster. Twice. Once while in mid-Face Palm.
Parental Bonus: It's a Muppet movie. Of course it's going to be packed with Parental Bonus. Among the many instances are at least two references to Star Trek, also counting as Late to the Punchline moments for viewers rewatching it.
There is also the moment where Kermit is talking about leaving Miss Piggy at the altar:
Kermit: I got cold feet.
Miss Piggy: You're a frog; you're supposed to have cold feet!
Pirate Girl: Big Fat Ugly Bug-Faced Baby-Eating O'Brien. But we only see her once.
Benjamina Gunn qualifies. After all, the character in the original book was part of Flint's crew.
Pirate Parrot: Subverted and lampshaded. While Polly does screech for crackers and pieces of eight, he is a lobster. When Gonzo says that he thought sailors had talking parrots, he receives a blank look from Polly and Silver.
Pragmatic Adaptation: The story is pretty much left untouched - Billy Bones is still The Alcoholic, but he only has the one drunken fit on-screen, and whilst he's not exactly shy about letting people know he was part of one the most bloodthirsty pirate crews who ever sailed the Seven Seas, everyone thinks he's making it up. Meanwhile, Squire Trelawney is replaced by Young Squire Trelawney, and the pirates' camp from the original novel is left out entirely.
Billy Bones: Aye! But also, beware running with scissors, or any other pointy objects! It's all good fun, until someone loses an EYYYYEEEEE...! <dies>
R-Rated Opening: Though the movie doesn't reach anywhere near an R rating, "Shiver My Timbers" serves this purpose for what is (as Gonzo said) "supposed to be a kid's movie". A foreboding song about how ruthless and bloodthirsty pirates are, culminating in the first shot of an offscreen massacre of a pirate crew.
Shiver my timbers, shiver my sails! DEAD! MEN! TELL! NO! TALES! [BANG]
Samus Is a Girl: Boom Shaka Laka is revealed to be Miss Piggy.
Also who can forget Big-Fat-Ugly-Bug-Faced-Baby-Eating O'Brian.
Selective Obliviousness: The rats purchased tickets to go along on the adventure with the understanding that they were going on a cruise ship, and behave accordingly. Lampshaded (isn't everything?) when several of them take a tour of the island and the tour guide points out that they are currently viewing "an actual film location from the movie Muppet Treasure Island!" Yet later, during the climactic battle with the pirates, several of the female rats act as cheerleaders for Captain Smollett.
I could have been in politics, cause I've always been a big spender./And me... I coulda been... a contender.
The "Dead Tom is dead!" scene is a Shout Out to Fraggle Rock, in that the pirate who cries over Dead Tom's "death" is Mudwell the Mudbunny from episode Gone, But Not Forgotten; a true Tear Jerker story that takes up the themes of death and rebirth.
Silver: "The Black Spot? You dare to give me the Black Spot? Drawn on a page from the Bible? You tore a page from the Holy Scriptures to make a pirate’s death sentence? Oooooh, the red hot gates of Hell are creeping open! Satan is a-heatin' his pokers for you, you blasphemous heathens! Fall down on your knees and beg for deliverance from damnation!"
Gonzo: <stretched on the rack> Oh! Oh...yes! Look at this! I'm taller! This is so cool! I may even have a future with the NBA!
And he likes being keelhauled. "Angel Marie said later he'd throw a line out the back and let me drag along the bottom!" Probably how he got those pants full of starfish.
0 reviews 