Muppet Treasure Island [DVD]

Kids love Muppet Treasure Island, a take on Robert Louis Stevenson's pirate classic, about the pirate Long John Silver (Tim Curry) and his takeover of a ship in order to track down buried treasure. His friend and then nemesis is earnest cabin boy Jim Hawkins (Kevin Bishop), who teams with the captain of the ship (Kermit the Frog) and several shipmates (including Gonzo, Ratso, and Fozzie) to foil Long John's nefarious plot. An odd subplot finds Captain Kermit stopping at a desert island to find his long-lost love (Miss Piggy--who else?). The Muppets have not lost their wild sense of humour, which works on enough levels to amply entertain children and their parents in imaginative fashion. --Marshall Fine

Muppet Treasure Island was the fifth big-screen Muppet adventure and the second directed by the late Jim Henson's son Brian. Robert Louis Stevenson's tale has been filmed in a variety of ways, but this is the first to feature a Caribbean cruise for rats, pirates who bemoan their reputations by song and Billy Connolly. The Scottish comic is just about upstaged for high camp larks by Tim Curry, who as Long John Silver is clearly having the best fun since Rocky Horror. Newcomer Kevin Bishop rounds out the human cast, but of course what everyone wants to see is which of the Muppet gang plays which part. Kermit is Captain Smollett, with Fozzie as Squire Trelawney and Miss Piggy as long-lost love Benjamina Gunn, who's held captive by the Zanzibarbarians.

All the pirate movie trademarks are to be found: treasure maps, swordfights and the drinking of rum. But it's in the truly wonderful songs that this version comes alive. "Cabin Fever", "Sailing for Adventure" and "A Professional Pirate" are among the most dazzling pieces of puppet choreography ever attempted by Henson Productions. The subsequent Muppets from Space didn't manage to scale the same heights of hilarity, probably because it dared to reveal where Gonzo came from. So this is definitely the highlight of his and Rizzo's screen career.

On the DVD: Muppet Treasure Island includes the excellent 23-minute documentary "The Tale of the Story Beyond the Tale", heavily featuring Gonzo and Rizzo. The comic duo are all over this DVD: in the animated menus, introducing all the extras and featuring in the commentary from director Brian Henson. Between all these additional features there's plenty of new (and old) jokes as well as amazing insights into the technical wizardry at work. We also learn this movie featured the very first CGI Muppet (surely a contradiction in terms?) The movie hasn't arrived in the most pristine of transfers, but even in the sing-along feature for a couple of the best songs, the sound is still excellent. --Paul Tonks