Muppet Treasure Island Reviews

It’s nearly impossible to mess up a film with the Muppets, especially one that simply plugs them into an already existing story like in Muppet Treasure Island. That doesn’t mean every single movie is going to be golden, and Muppet Treasure Island is definitely a bronze medal entry.

There’s a few funny gags, and the musicals numbers are filled with the same sense of anarchic glee even if they’re in service of unmemorable songs, and Tim Curry hams it up with his brand of over-the-top braggadocio. Yet there’s still a certain spark missing from Muppet Treasure Island, and I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. Maybe it’s just an overall feeling of a weaker script? There is nowhere near enough Miss Piggy for my tastes. Gonzo and Rizzo can make for a lively duo when effectively used, but the script doesn’t want to give them enough winking humor and fourth-wall breaking gags. Billy Connolly and Jennifer Saunders are both horribly underutilized, despite giving it their all in their too brief time on screen.

So praise be to Curry for out-acting and over-emoting the entire lot of Muppets every chance he gets, because he’s a real livewire here, consistently giving the film energy and life whenever its gags fall flat or timing feels off. A Muppet movie is a formula that can’t fail, but that doesn’t mean it always succeeds. Instead we get varying levels of good, for every classic (The Muppets or The Muppet Movie), we get oddball entries that aren’t bad, but they aren’t the Muppets at their brightest either. Here is one of those movies.

Actually, I already saw this one a couple of months ago with my daughter in Dutch and, to be honest, I wasn't really impressed but I wanted to give it a second shot, this time, in English. To my surprise, I really enjoyed it, even more than 'The Muppet Christmas' which was so far my favorite installment starring those funny characters. Basically, they followed the same template, they took a famous tale and added the Muppets in the mix. Once again, the production value was quite impressive and the whole thing looked pretty cool. Instead of Michael Caine, for the main character, they gave us a rather boring young boy but it was compensated by Tim Curry who was basically born to play such daft villains. On the downside, I must say that I was a little bit disapointed that they put Gonzo and Rizzo on the sideline half way through the whole thing when they were once again some really fun sidekicks and I could have done without with the same old romance involving Kermit and Piggy. Still, to conclude, even though it was nothing really amazing, I had a good times watching this, they gave some very good jokes, even the song were bareable and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

As far as quality goes, the Muppet films are all over the board. From mediocre entries such as Muppets From Space and The Muppet Christmas Carol, to masterpieces like The Muppets Take Manhattan and the 2011 reboot, you can never tell whether you're about to watch dull puppet wizardry, or a new favorite film. Unfortunately, Muppet Treasure Island ranks among the very worst of the Muppet films, and that is a downright shame.

Following the plot of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic, Treasure Island, Muppet Treasure Island is about a boy named Jim Hawkins, who with his friends Rizzo the Rat and Gonzo, as well as a host of other characters, go in search of buried treasure. Of course, their journey will not be without peril, as a dastardly plot concocted by pirates awaits the crew.

Muppet Treasure Island is dreadfully dull most of the time. Gags are bland and uninspired, dialogue is mostly the same. While there are a handful of amusing bits here and there, they don't come nearly often enough. Some smiles, one or two chuckles, and not a single belly laugh.

To make things worse, Muppet Treasure Island has a grand total of seven songs, and almost none of which are appealing. "Shiver My Timbers," "Sailing for Adventure," "Professional Pirate," and "Boom Shakalaka," fall under the mediocre/forgettable/inoffensive category. "Something Better," and "Love Led Us Here," are absolutely awful ("Something Better" may have been less painful had it not been for Kevin Bishop's high pitched and highly annoying singing voice). The only decent song in the whole film is "Cabin Fever," which is actually quite fun and is the highlight of the film.

Like The Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppet Treasure Island is much more human involved than the other Muppet films. This is a shame considering that the Muppet characters are so much more entertaining. And it doesn't help that the actors behind the human characters perform less than satisfactorily.

Kevin Bishop, playing the child lead, is clunky as an actor, though I've seen worse. The thing that really makes his part in Muppet Treasure Island nearly unbearable is his extremely high voice. Tim Curry plays Long John Silver. He's intentionally dramatic and over the top, but this is more obnoxious than comedic. Billy Connolly gets a small part as Billy Bones that's forgettable, but not poor.

The score for Muppet Treasure Island is composed by Hans Zimmer. The score makes up one of the least offensive parts about this film. It's not particularly interesting most of the time, but it's occasionally rousing.

Though Muppet Treasure Island tries hard, it's the worst of the Muppet films, and simply awful. It's rarely funny, hardly amusing, and poorly acted. Though the musical number, "Cabin Fever" is fun, and the breaking of the "fourth wall" provides a few smiles, Muppet Treasure Island lacks the enchantment and joy of the series' best entries. It's also surprisingly violent (and profane) for a G-rated flick, but in a film as dull as this, that's the least of it's problems.