Muppet Treasure Island: Kermit's 50th Anniversary Edition DVD Review:

In celebration of fifty years being in entertainment, four of Jim Henson’s Muppet movies have been released on Anniversary Edition DVDs, even though the films have been around less than thirty years. Muppet Treasure Island is one of the more recent adventures for Kermit and the Muppet clan, and although Brian Henson admirably attempts to carry on the family name, it doesn’t quite live up to the reputation of the previous films.

Taking on another classic story, The Muppets jump right into a story inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic pirate tale. When a young boy, Jim Hawkins, finds himself in possession of a treasure map, he hires a ship to take him to it. The ship, Hispaniola, comes with Captain Smollett, played by Kermit the Frog. All would be well except for the fact that most of the crew was chosen by Long John Silver (Tim Curry), who has plans to overthrow the ship in an attempt to keep the treasure for himself.

With all of the other Muppet films, it seemed as though they were always the stars, even with human actors in the story, but Tim Curry makes it difficult to do so in this film. Curry only has one musical number, but he steals the film with this number. He is also great when he isn’t singing, and his character is just far more interesting than any of the roles that the Muppets play.

These four films which are all being released for Kermit’s fiftieth anniversary, have all been restored and remastered and they look and sound better than they ever have before. The visuals on this film which is nearly thirty years old are as sharp as can be, and the songs all sound great. This film was obviously made long after the other films, so it is less impressive that the film looks so sharp.

There is only one special feature, and it is the same as all of the other DVDs. They all have profiles of a specific Muppet character. Muppet Treasure Island has a profile of Fozzie Bear, who is at his most annoying in this film. The profile is done like everything else with The Muppets, as a Muppet presentation. The profile is hosted by a Muppet and they all talk about Fozzie as if he and they are real. It is somewhat humorous, but I’m sure that kids would find it much more appealing.



Ryan Izay