"The Muppet Movie": A Harmonic Melody of Fun and Hope

Unlike my previous blog entries, I have seen producer Jim Henson and director James Frawley's The Muppet Movie (1979) before.  However, it's been long enough since I last saw it that I had forgotten a lot about it.  Since I'm doing my Film Music analysis assignment on the movie, I thought it would be smart to revisit the movie and analyze the film's music right here.

Composed by Kenneth Ascher and Paul Williams, The Muppet Movie is a fourth-wall breaking film-within-a-film, road trip, musical comedy, in which the Muppets are watching a private Hollywood screening of a movie they made together (very) loosely based on how they all met.  In this interpretation, Kermit the Frog (Jim Henson) is singing and strumming his banjo in his swamp when Hollywood talent agent Bernie (Dom DeLuise) encourages Kermit to go chase the dream of "making millions of people happy."  Kermit journeys to Los Angeles, meeting well-known Muppets, Fozzy Bear (Frank Oz), Miss Piggy (Oz), The Great Gonzo (Dave Goelz), Ralph the Dog (Jim Henson), Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhems, and others along the way.  The journey is not without its struggles however, as Doc Hopper (Charles Durning) and his sidekick Max (Austin Pendleton) chase Kermit across the country, intending to make him the company mascot of Hopper's frog legs restaurant... by any means necessary.

In my film music class, we've learned that important characters within films - specifically the protagonist(s) and antagonist(s) - have their own personal theme songs, called "leitmotifs."  Depending on your point of view, there are two protagonists in this film.  The first protagonist is Kermit, and his leitmotif is the Oscar-nominated "Rainbow Connection," which he sings at the beginning of the film within the film.

"Rainbow Connection" is very symbolic of the film's theme, which is to follow your dreams and share those dreams with people you care about, as evident by the lyrics, "Some day we'll find it, the rainbow connection.  The lovers, the dreamers and me."

Rainbows are beacons of hope, but they also have two ends.  On one end is where you currently are in life, while on the other end is a much greater destiny.  Neither the source music of Kermit's banjo, nor the underscoring of pianos and violins suggest that Kermit is unhappy with where he is, but the lyrics suggest that he does want more in life.  He's waiting for his rainbow to show up so he can take the journey across it to his destiny, and as soon as he finishes singing, his rainbow arrives in the form of Bernie on a rowboat, offering Kermit the opportunity to "make millions of people happy."

This theme of dream-chasing is further emphasized by the song "Movin' Right Along," the leitmotif of the film's second protagonist: the Muppets as a collective whole.  We first hear this song as Kermit and Fozzy Bear sing of their showbiz aspirations while they drive cross-country in Fozzy's uncle's Studebaker.

If "Rainbow Connection" is about finding one's rainbow, then "Movin' Right Along" is about the journey across that rainbow.  And as the size of vehicles and quantity of Muppets grow, so does the number of fellow dreamers singing and playing the song.

Among that growing number of Muppets is Miss Piggy, who we first meet in the film accepting a beauty pageant award.

As Miss Piggy is giving her speech, there's no music in the background.  When Piggy sees Kermit for the first time, we hear the underscoring of high-pitched, romantic, string instruments, followed by Piggy bursting into a slow-paced, soft, yet semi-high-pitched love song.  This conveys a gigantic mood shift in the film, letting the audience know that Piggy has fallen victim to "love at first sight."

Another Muppet we encounter is Gonzo, who has two significant moments in the film highlighted by music.  The first moment is when he flies in the sky via a bouquet of balloons he bought at a local fair.

When the attention is on Gonzo in this scene, the music is upbeat and harmonic, symbolizing his happiness and amazement with his current situation of being free among the clouds.  However, when the attention is on everyone who's grounded, the music becomes more suspenseful as we hear the sounds of trumpets and bongos playing, instrumentals more associated with a chase scene.  Eventually, Doc Hopper shoots Gonzo's balloons down, abruptly ending Gonzo's first flight, which upsets Gonzo to the point that he sings about it later that night while he and the Muppets sit around their campfire.

"I'm Going To Go Back There Someday" is a quasi-sad song.  To the untrained ear, this song might suggest that Gonzo is depressed by not being airborne at that very moment.  However, the high pitch of Rolph the Dog's harmonica injects a sense of hopefulness into this apparently sad song.

A common trend in this film is that whenever the focus is on one Muppet or more, the music is upbeat and or high-pitched.  Even when Rolph sings about his lady troubles, the happy and hopeful end of the musical spectrum overshadows the bad.

The only times we don't hear that upbeat and or high pitched music are either when a Muppet is in danger (such as when Kermit, Fozzy, and Piggy were chasing after an airborne Gonzo), or when Doc Hopper is around.  Where things get interesting though is that when the Muppets are in danger, the music becomes low and suspenseful.  Doc Hopper is the film's antagonist, and he is featured in a few of the scenes in which a Muppet is in danger.

However, when the focus is on Hopper and the Muppets aren't in danger (or at least when the danger isn't evident yet), no music plays at all.  Hopper's leitmotif is silence, which is significant because the protagonists of the film (the Muppets/Kermit) are chasing their mutual dream of making people happy through music.  So it's symbolically fitting that the antagonist who stands in the way of that dream lacks a signature song.

So as the Muppets near the end of their journey, Doc Hopper's sidekick Max (Austin Pendleton) catches up with the Muppets to warn them that Hopper has hired a professional frog assassin, Snake Walker (Scott Walker).  At this point in the film, Kermit decides things have gone far enough between himself and Hopper, and he tells Max to tell Hopper to meet him in an abandoned, Old West town for a final showdown.

Before the showdown, the Muppets meet Dr. Bunson Honeydew (Dave Goelz) and Beaker (Richard Hunt) experimenting with growth pills, which Electric Mayhem drummer, Animal (Frank Oz) is very curious of.  Then Doc Hopper finally arrives.

As Kermit walks out of Honeydew and Beaker's lab/saloon, there is no music playing.  Only the sounds of a clock signaling that it's high noon, and the spurs of Kermit's cowboy boots clanging with each footstep (that part isn't featured in the video above).  As they take the standard shootout positions in the middle of town, Kermit and Hopper exchange words.  Hopper gives Kermit one last chance to be his mascot, but Kermit won't have it.  Kermit then gets sentimental as he explains his dream and his recent journeys to Hopper, trying to get him to see things from Kermit's point of view.  A soft instrumental version of "Rainbow Connection" (Kermit's leitmotif) plays in the background to accompany Kermit's speech, but then when he tells Hopper to go ahead and kill him, the music becomes sad, as if to hint that Hopper realizes what a jerk he's been.

The music ceases for a brief moment, and then becomes very suspenseful as Hopper orders his crew to kill Kermit.  Then Animal's giant head suddenly pops out of the roof of the saloon to the triumphant sounds of trumpets, followed by celebratory string instruments as Hopper and crew run away in defeat.  The Muppets have won, and the conflict between frog and entrepreneur has ceased.

So with Hopper out of the way, it's time for the journey across the rainbow to finally reach its other end.  The Muppets have chased their dreams across that rainbow, and thanks to a "rich and famous" Hollywood contract from producer Lew Lord (Orson Welles), they're living that dream.

The movie brings that journey back around full circle as the Muppets sing, "Finale: The Magic Store," which lyrically describes how these dreams we chase get started.

As the song (and movie within the movie) nears its end, it shifts to a revised edition of "Rainbow Connection," now featuring all the Muppets singing as opposed to just Kermit.  This is symbolic in that it shows that Kermit not only succeeded in following his dream, but he met fellow dreamers along the way who got to follow their own dreams with him, making the experience that much more special.

The music within this film is also very indicative of its settings.  When we first hear "Rainbow Connection," Kermit is playing his banjo on his log in the middle of a swamp.  Kermit's log is his equivalent of a porch rocking chair, which is usually where I mentally picture anyone playing a banjo when not at the Grand Ole Opry.  So the banjo helps set a mental image that Kermit is both at home and outdoors, much like he would be if he owned a porch.

"Movin' Right Along" has the upbeat tempo and rhythm of a song that anyone traveling the open road would want to sing to, or play the drums on the steering wheel to.

Rolph the Dog's soft harmonica playing as Gonzo sings "I'm Going To Go Back There Someday" is relatable to a campfire song underneath the starlit sky.

And "Finale: The Magic Store" finishes with a transition to an earlier song in the film, which is something a lot of musicals do when the show is officially about to end.

Musically, The Muppet Movie is an uplifting masterpiece of fun that the whole family can enjoy.  Personally, it felt good to revisit this film after so many years apart.  Not just because I'm a Muppets fan, but because life has been tough lately, and I needed a reminder that my rainbow will come soon.  If you ever feel uncertain about your rainbow, watch this movie, reclaim your hope, and look to the people who love you to keep you going.