Rare Great Muppet Caper & Muppet Movie Poster Images!

In honor of Drew Struzan's passing, we present some behind the scenes images used in the making of The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper posters.

Above is the reference image Struzan used to create the classic Great Muppet Caper poster. 

Drew posted images of his original art, showing more detail then we've previously seen. 

Here's a few more photos of Frank Oz and Jim Henson posing Kermit and Miss Piggy for The Muppet Movie poster.

We previously highlighted other behind the scenes photos from Drew's Muppet poster art  which you can see here and here. 

Thanks again Drew for all your iconic Muppet movie posters.

RIP Drew Struzan (1947 - 2025)

Drew Struzan, the legendary poster artist behind many of the the Muppet theatrical films died yesterday. 

Struzan created the artwork for The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper.

A letter from Jim Henson posted on Drew Struzan’s website compliments him on his work:

We wanted to take a moment to let you know how knocked out we are with the painting for The Great Muppet Caper! You captured the essence of the Muppets and the excitement of the film and we congratulate you.

He also illustrated The Muppet Show Colorforms, the Muppet Home Video logo, the Tales from Muppetland VHS, BETA, Laser disc and CED covers, a set of McDonald' s Great Muppet Caper posters, and the Fisher-Price Muppet tray puzzles. 

Drew went on to illustrate the posters for The Muppet Christmas Carol, and Muppet Treasure Island as well. 

Struzan was also known for creating the iconic posters for Star Wars, Blade Runner, The Thing, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future and countless others. 

Earlier this year his wife revealed that he had been living with Alzheimer’s disease for an unspecified amount of time. 

The documentary Drew: The Man Behind the Poster included a 4-minute segment focused entirely on Struzan's work with the Muppets and Jim Henson which you can see below.

 

You can read more about his life at Variety.

Drew Struzan was 78.

Rare Muppet Clips Book 2 Vol 6!

We're back with another batch of rare Muppet performances. 

Again, we do not own these clips, nor do we make any guarantees to how long they'll be available, so watch them while you can! 

CBS Read More About It: Tuesday Movie No Show (January 1986):

Read More About it segment from January 1986 that followed the Muppets' 30th Anniversary Special. Following this was Pre-Emption Tag for the CBS Tuesday Night Movies..

Rowlf "The Salesman" IBM Film (1966):

Siskel and Ebert Review Muppet Treasure Island (1996):

 

Below is the director's cut pilot for the unproduced series Muppets Spotlight (Early 200's):

Finally, to celebrate it's 40th anniversary here is The Great Muppet Caper's original theatrical trailer (1981):

We hope you enjoyed these rare Muppet performances. Join us next time as we present more rare Muppet clips! 

Hey, See The Great Muppet Caper Movie in Theaters!

Last week saw both the 35 anniversary of Labyrinth and the 40th anniversary for The Great Muppet Caper.

A few years ago Fathom celebrated Labyrinth's 30th by bringing the classic Jim Henson directed film, back to the theaters. This year, they are celebrating the Muppet's second feature, also directed by Henson, by bringing it back to theaters as well.

Gee, I wish I were you people seeing it for the first time! 

Watch the trailer here.

You can see what color their hands are now when The Great Muppet Caper theaters Sunday, August 8th and Wednesday, August 11th. 

To find a theater near you and to buy tickets visit Fathom's website. 

RIP Charles Grodin (1935–2021)

Charles Grodin, best known to Muppet fans as playing villain Nicky Holiday in The Great Muppet Caper has died.

Grodin made his big-screen debut in 1968 as the obstetrician who turns Mia Farrow’s Rosemary over to a coven of witches in Rosemary’s Baby.

Grodin starred in mamy Hollywood comedies from 1970's - 90s, including The Heartbreak Kid, Midnight Run, Seems Like Old Times, Ishtar, Clifford and in first two Beethoven films.

In 1990, he played another Muppet villain, Disney World security guard Quentin Fitzwaller, in the TV special The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Grodin later appeared as part of a wealthy apartment hunting couple, with Susane Suranson, in the 1994 Sesame Street special Stars and Street Forever.

Grodin also had is own talk show on CNBC from 1995 - 1998 where he had Miss Piggy as a guest.

He won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special in 1978 for The Paul Simon Special, and an American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his performance alongside Kevin Kline in ’93’s Dave.

He will always flower sock wearing Nicky Holiday (whose voice was dubbed) to Muppet fans.

Charles Grodin was 86.

Disney+ Launches!

Disney+ officially launched this morning at 6am EST.

We previously told you what to expect, back in September including all the theatrical Muppet movies minus The Muppets Take Manhattan and Muppets From Space, only the two most recent TV series: The Muppets (2015), the Muppet Babies reboot. That is precisely what Muppet content is currently available plus the recent series of Muppet Moments shorts. 



















To promote the launch, Disney released a snapshot of EVERY title currently available.

The Muppet clips are at 27:17, 30:34, 45:16, 55:48, 2:31:30, 2:41:40, 2:48:33, and 3:05:46
You can watch the entire a 3 hour(!) clip real below:

Basically Everything Coming to Disney+ in the U.S. | Start Streaming November 12

You might have noticed that Disney used a clip from The Muppets pilot presentation (2:48:33) and not from the actual series for some reason. 

Most of the Muppet movies so far only offer a clip of the film as a extra except:

The Muppet Movie: 
Deleted scenes from the 35th Anniversary blu-ray including Jim Frawley's camera test

The Muppet Christmas Carol: "When Love is Gone" as a deleted scene. 

The Muppets: Deleted scenes from the blu-ray.

Muppets Most Wanted: Deleted scenes from the blu-ray.

There are all available in 1080p 5.1, except The Muppet Christmas Carol, which is also available in 4k , HDR10, and Dolby Vision.

TV:

The Muppets (2015): Compete series - 16 episodes
Muppet Babies (2017 -?): First 20 episodes

Muppet Moments: 25 shorts

Initially Disney used the wrong image for The Muppets (2015)

While you can change your profile image from the default Mikey to a plethora of characters, no Muppets are currently available. 

No Muppet Profile Images

Disney+ also had a few bugs while I was checking it out.

It wouldn't recognize my password even though I entered correctly, they initially displayed the wrong header image for The Muppets (2015) - using a publicity shot with Jason Segel and Amy Adams for The Muppets (2011), at first only the first 10 episodes of The Muppets (2015) were available, then the remaining episode appeared, I received an error message when trying to access Muppets Most Wanted, and the entire Muppet Collection disappeared while I was writing this article.

Muppet Collection Missing

Hopefully these issues and any others will be promptly fixed.

UPDATE: 
Muppets Most Wanted is now working and the Muppet Collection has now been restored. 

Muppet Collection and More Returned!

We expect more Muppet stuff to come including Muppets Now! and the Jim Henson Company's Earth to Ned which will both debut sometime in 2020, as well as more classic Muppet content in the future. Also, due to an existing agreement The Jim Henson Company film Alexander and the Terrible, Hobbile, NoGood, Very Bad Day won't be available until November 5 2020.

Alexander's bad day will have to wait

You can watch all the Muppet titles now at Disneyplus.com

D23 (Tries to) Highlight The Muppets!

The latest issue of D23, Disney's fan club newsletter, was sent to fans this week and contains a few surprises for Muppet fans.

The focus seems to be introducing a few of the major characters including Summer from the new Muppet Babies, where you can see them in the parks, and encouraging people to become gold members of D23 to get an exclusive Muppet Movie pin. 

That's all well and good, but a closer look at the article makes this showcase a mishmash of info that's either completely wrong or at times misleading.

Let's take the opening to the article for example:

Notice anything odd? 

First, "The Muppets burst onto the small screen in 1976" that's a bit misleading. The Muppet Show introduced many of "The Muppets" we know today- and it's this family of characters that Disney owns - but The Muppets excited on TV screens for 20 years prior including Sam & Friends, Sesame Street, Saturday Night Live, appearances on talk shows, and commercials - more on that in a minute. 

Then they go into The Muppet Movie "which features everything from a 1951 Studebaker and The Happiness Hotel to Doc Hopper's Frog Leg Fast Food Franchise."  ugh. 

Anyone who's seen The Great Muppet Caper knows The Happiness Hotel is from The Muppets second feature, and not The Muppet Movie. 

Doc Hopper's Frog Legs as seen in The Muppet Movie and It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie

They didn't even get the name of Doc Hopper's Frog Legs restaurant correct, calling it "Doc Hopper's Frog Leg Fast Food Franchise" instead of simply "Doc Hopper's Frog Legs."

Remember how I mentioned The Muppets appeared in commercials prior to being on TV in 1976? Rowlf's write up mentions his start doing Canadian Purina Dog Chow commercials in 1962!

It's great that they are hyping the Muppets at the parks including Muppet Vision 3D, PizzeRizzo's, and Great Moments in American History. However, readers who've never been to park might be a bit surprised to find a Muppet Vision 3D that hasn't looked like the picture in the article for a couple years now. 

Muppet Vision 3D as it appears in the article vs today

The issue also features an image commemorating 10 years of D23.

if you look closely you can see....the swinetrek!

It's great to see Disney acknowledging, promoting, and even re-introducing The Muppets, but I'd wish they'd get their facts straight. It doesn't give the impression that they're truly invested in the characters when they can't get their history - even their modern history - correct.

On a related note, the issue also highlights Disney+, Disney's upcoming streaming service. There was no word about The Muppets in either the Disney+ article or the one featuring The Muppets.

The Disney+ article makes a point to note that both the original and recent reboot of DuckTales will be available on the service. They make a point to mention that having both versions will help parents relate and share the original with their kids who may be more familiar with the reboot. 

What a great idea! If only there were another set of characters Disney owned that they could apply the same idea too.....

The latest issue of D23 featuring a cover story about the upcoming "live action" Lady and The Tramp remake should be arrive to D23 members soon. If you're not already a member, you can sign up using this link.