Ranking The Muppets Movies from Worst To Best
With Disney+ confirming its new unscripted show Muppets Now, I recently dusted off some titles and decided to rank the Muppets movies from worst to best! What are your favorite and least favorite titles?
A Muppets Christmas: Letters To Santa
Overall, this is a cute movie starring the likes of Uma Thurman, Jane Krakowski and Nathan Lane. It's a sweet Christmas tale that would be enjoyable during the holidays, but it does not hold up to The Muppet Christmas Carol. The movie does also have music by the beloved Paul Williams who's written many a great song for the Muppets.
Muppets Wizards Of Oz
I am obsessed with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, so I absolutely love any adaptation of the story. Ashanti does a good job as Dorothy Gale, although I would have loved for them to have cast a little younger and less sexy. But, I got where they were going. Like other Muppets films, this film has guest stars such as Queen Latifah, David Alan Grier, Jeffrey Tambor and even Quentin Tarantino. The movie, however, has a surprisingly lack of music to it, considering that Michael Giacchino was attached to the music writing and Ashanti and Latifah are world class performers. It's disappointing for sure. But, as an adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, I am equally obsessed with The Muppets Wizard of Oz.
The Muppets Take Manhattan
The movie that brought us The Muppet Babies! While the trilogy of late 70s-early 80s Muppets films was staring to become a little lackluster, the film still has some charm. Frank Oz continued his work as director at the Jim Henson Company with this film. But, it does drag a bit. Like other Muppets movies, cameos abound featuring the likes of Joan Rivers, Brooke Shields and Liza Minelli. The movie has such fun ditties as "Together Again," "Saying Goodbye" and the Muppet Babies song "I'm Always Gonna Love You."
Muppets In Space
We finally learn the origin of Gonzo who has always been described as a weirdo. Now we know he is from outer space. This film is funny and heart warming. The image at the end of the Muppets looking out into space was just beautiful. While the film contained most of the classic comedic elements of a Muppets film, there was just something missing. Part of it was the music. Unlike all the other Muppets films, there was no original music in this film. It was a pity as I could imagine some fun musical numbers. There's some fun cameos in here including F. Murray Abraham, Ray Liotta, Josha Jackson and Katie Holmes among others.
Muppet Treasure Island
What a wonderful adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. While it follows the general story, Muppet Treasure Island, of course, takes artistic license to fill it with Muppet like gags. Kevin Bishop is great as the wide eyed Jim Hawkins and Tim Curry is a tour de force as Long John Silver. There's some great music in this film that I feel were worthy of the original trilogy. This was another successful Muppet adaptation of a literary classic indeed.
The Muppets Christmas Carol
Like The Wizard of Oz, I am obsessed with any adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. And The Muppets Christmas Carol is no exception. It's impressive that they got the great Michael Caine to have played Ebeneezer Scrooge. His presence made up for the lack of cameos a Muppet movie usually has. The movie even has some great music written by Paul Williams.
The Great Muppet Caper
In this second Muppet film, the Muppets return for a real mystery! One of the moments that I remember the most from this film when I first saw it is the scene in which the Muppets are riding bicycles. It was the first time we saw Muppet legs and I just thought it was fascinating. It is Muppet magic! The movie has some great music with my favorite numbers being "Happiness Hotel" and "The First Time It Happens." As with all of the movies, Diana Riggs and Charles Grodin are the human stars, but the award for best human scene goes to the boring English couple masterfully portrayed by John Cleese and Joan Sanderson.
Muppets Most Wanted
I felt like how The Muppets mimicked The Muppet Movie, Muppets Most Wanted mimicked The Great Muppet Caper. Both were mysteries in which the Muppets have to solve a crime where one of the characters is accused of something they didn't do. It is fun to see Kermit's evil counterpart Constantine given Kermit's sweet nature. While it's very close, I think I like this a little more than The Great Muppet Caper for various reasons including guest cast and music. This film, like the others, has lots of great cameos from the likes of Ty Burrell, Tina Fey, Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga and others. There are some fun songs in "I'm Number One," "The Interrogation Song," and "The Big House."
The Muppets
Of any of the other movies that retained the spirit of the original The Muppet Movie, it's The Muppets. It basically takes the same conceits of the first film and brought it into this film. Instead of an origin story, the cast finds themselves on the road to get another show. The film has a great human pairing in Jason Segel and Amy Adams as well as a host of cameos including Jim Parsons, Emily Blunt, Jack Black, Whoopi Goldberg, and Selena Gomez among others. And, it has a wonderful soundtrack boasting songs such as "Life's A Happy Song," "Man or Muppet," and "Me Party."
The Muppet Movie
There is just nothing that can mess with the original. It is simply the best. First, you have a fantastic origin story of the Muppets. Then, you have all the amazing cameos including Steve Martin, Carol Kane, Madeline Kahn, Richard Pryor and Orson Welles to name a few. But, what really makes this movie and differentiates it from any of the other movies is its stellar soundtrack. It, of course, has "Rainbow Connection" which is, personally, my favorite song of all time. But, other wonderful tracks such as "Movin' Right Along" and "Can You Picture That?" The movie is perfection.