YMMV / Muppet Treasure Island

The film

• Awesome Music: Would you expect anything less from Hans Zimmer?
  • “Shiver My Timbers” is one of the most recognizable songs of the movie. It gives a vivid description of what pirates are like and how far they will go for treasure.
  Shiver my timbers, shiver my sails! DEAD. MEN. TELL. NO. TALES! *BANG!*
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The epic, random, and completely plot-irrelevant "Cabin Fever" number. Hilariously lampshaded when Clueless Morgan brings it up afterwards, and his cellmates think he hallucinated it.
  "I'd like to get my hands on whoever wrote this script".
• Can't Un-Hear It: Tim Curry as Long John Silver and Billy Connolly as Billy Bones.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Billy Bones collapses... followed by Rizzo saying "He died!? And this is supposed to be a kids' movie!".
  • Then there's Dead Tom who is just a skeleton being casually dropped after its stated he's always been dead. Then there's Blind Pew who keeps bumping into things because he's blind. But you laugh anyway because he's a jerk and is Large Ham in doing so.
  Blind Pew: (While the inn is burning down) I think I smell ... something burning, no?
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • The Swedish Chef couldn't take the obvious role of ship's cook due to Long John Silver. Thus the random cameo, and the Lampshade Hanging at the same time:
    Talking Vegetable: Well, how else d'you think we were gonna get him in this movie?
  • Rizzo's side business of Rat Cruises — well, rats were a common pest on ships.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Captain Flint: that terrifying, human pirate who shot his own men, who we spend most of the film thinking of as a dreaded memory? Turns out he dated Miss Piggy. Just think about that for a minute.
• Just Here for Godzilla: There are a number of viewers who only watch the film for Tim Curry and his performance as Long John Silver
• Magnificent Bastard: Long John Silver is a charming, bombastic pirate much like his book counterpart. After manipulating the mutiny against their captain by bringing in pirates to infiltrate the vessel, Silver plans to obtain the treasure of Captain Flint and also sway young Jim Hawkins to his side. Even when pressed against the wall by his crew's mutiny, Silver selflessly defends Jim, saying he was never lying about caring for the boy, and when held hostage by his captors, he manipulates his way back to control by threatening them with eternal damnation. As pleasant, charming and treacherous as his book counterpart, Silver is the utter pinnacle of what a professional pirate should be.
• Narm: The Black Spot scene, Billy Bones' death and many other scenes feature actors who gleefully chew the scenery, to the point that scenes supposed to be intense or scary become hilarious. Probably intentional.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Again, Billy Bones' death, which is very jarring since its in a Muppets movie, which normally avoids this entirely. Appropriately lampshaded by Rizzo:
    Rizzo: He died!? And this is supposed to be a kids' movie!
    • And when he does finally keel over, we get this epic freakout:
    Rizzo: We're standing in a room WITH A DEAD GUY!!! (Everybody panics and flees the room)
  • Before this, when he gets the black spot, he shakes with terror as music start to swell in a chilling way. Then he makes this exchange as the music loudens to its climax.
    Billy Bones: The Black Spot! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
  • The opening number, "Shiver My Timbers", has plenty of creepy lyrics, and solidifies that this story will be just as much about greed and crime as it is fun and adventure.
    When the money in the ground/there's murder in the air...
  • This line from "Sailing for Adventure" is presented unaltered and without comment:
    Mad Monty: I love to hang 'em high and watch their little feet try to walk in the air while their faces turn blue~
• One-Scene Wonder: Big Fat Ugly Bug-Faced Baby-Eating O'Brien appears for literally only a single shot, but it's one of the funniest and most iconic gags in the whole movie.
• Retroactive Recognition: Kevin Bishop (Jim Hawkins) became a well known comedian in Britain many years later in his sketch show that featured a young Karen Gillan.
• Rooting for the Empire: Not that the heroes were bad or anything, but on the other hand we have the delightfully Affably Evil Long John Silver skillfully played by Tim Curry, making him a very likeable character.
• Spiritual Successor: To The Muppet Christmas Carol, both films being adaptations of British classic novels, starring well known British actors alongside of the Muppets and having Gonzo and Rizzo as a comedy duo.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The song "Love Led Us Here" as Ms. Piggy and Kermit hang from burning ropes over a cliff. Of course we know they're going to live, but when you write a song that's basically about You Are Worth Hell and give it Awesome Music, it's hard not to get a little weepy. The same could also be said for the version sung during the end credits.
  • The last scene between Jim and Long John. Long John is forced to aim his pistol at Jim, and despite being the movie's ruthless villain, can't fight his tears of regret, let alone shoot the kid. Even though he is a villain and there's no way Jim could run away with him, the tears in Long John's eyes make it hard to not feel a little sorry for him.
    Long John: We’re shipmates aren’t we, Jim? Gentlemen of fortune together? …Give us one more chance?
    • Jim was also tearing up, while he had the resolve to refuse Long John and to blow the whistle even at gunpoint, it's clear that he hated that this is how their rather rocky friendship would end.
  • Captain Smollett spares a few minutes to pay his last respects to Mr. Arrow. The scene is rather poignant, mood whiplashes and the revelation that he's still alive later in the movie aside.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: They just had to find the most androgynous-looking boy in The '90s, dress him up in frilly clothes, and give him falsetto songs, just to confuse the children. According to the commentary, Bishop actually went through puberty during filming, so they had to over-dub his singing performances with older recordings of the songs, which don't sound particularly convincing performance-wise. This was lampshaded by Blind Pew early on, who kept calling/refering to Jim as a girl.
• Vindicated by History: At the time it was first released, it was seen by-and-large as a passable but inferior follow-up to The Muppet Christmas Carol and the weakest of the theatrically-released Muppet movies at that time. Nowadays, the film is hugely popular with millennials who watched it as kids, the film likely serving as their introduction to the Muppets beyond Christmas Carol and Muppet Babies reruns due to the semi-elusive nature of the original three Muppet films and The Muppet Show in the 90s.

The video game

• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Gonzo's diversion in the final part. This involves him and Rizzo running around the Beach and the Jungle in an attempt to distract the pirates from finding the treasure. It amounts to nothing since the pirates don't even notice them and find the treasure trove anyway. When Gonzo attempts to try this again while Hawkins continues the search, Rizzo tells him not to.
• Character Rerailment: The game portrays Fozzie closer to his usual self than the film. While still playing the Squire's "Half-wit son", he interacts more with Kermit/Smollet and makes his typical bad jokes.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Silver mentions during the description of the Hercules constellation that he killed his own children in a fit of madness, before saying that he will protect Hawkins from any madmen that would come after him. The next morning after this constellation lesson, Hawkins learns of Silver's mutiny, making the line a bit of a Tear Jerker.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Captain Flint's scant appearances in the film have him voiceless and intimidating. Here he speaks from the dead and we find he's an Affably Evil pirate that likes to mock Hawkins as he progresses through the adventure.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: The game is surprisingly enjoyable and features new footage of the full cast — save for Hawkins, who is the Player Character.

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