The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)

(On Cable TV, February 2019) A classical let’s-put-on-a-show musical … with Muppets. That’s the whole review right there: The Muppets Take Manhattan is a playful take on a hackneyed genre, except that the charm of the Muppets takes makes any plotting refinement completely useless. It starts with a step back from the original, as the Muppets disband and a few characters end up in Manhattan trying to survive after college. Inevitably, the plot converges on putting the group back together and throwing a show. The way to get there is slightly more complex, but this is really about classic tropes being played with by the Muppets and their charm carrying the day. It generally works, although many of the numerous pop-celebrity cameos will be completely alien to viewers thirty-five years later. There’s nothing outlandish here, but playing exactly as expected in a Muppets core value. The music is fine and so are the jokes, which is all we’re asking from The Muppets Take Manhattan. Fans will be very pleased.