Muppet Movie addendum

[scarfman]

In my most recent post on The Muppet Movie I wrote: "In the abridged, home video version there's voice-over from Dr. Teeth as the camera pans up to the stained-glass window, and then it cuts directly to the flashback of Kermit and Fozzie entering the church. In the unabridged version, there were other clips from previous scenes between the window and the flashback, and longer voice-over. ... Other things I remember about the unabridged version: The dialog under the end title music is more audible. The sequence when the sets fall over at the end of the finale lasts longer. Um ... that's all I got."

There's another difference that I don't recall noticing before this time. The end title music is a medley of the movie's melodies in a Bremen Dixie jazz arrangement. I remember that included were, in this order, Can You Picture That?, Moving Right Along, maybe I Hope That Something Better Comes Along, maybe the instrumental piece as they arrive in Hollywood, maybe Rainbow Connection, concluding with The Magic Store. I really liked this medley/arrangement, and I used to play it in my head all the time, but - as you can tell - I've forgotten quite how it goes.

In the version of the film I just rented and returned, the end title goes Can You Picture That?, Moving Right Along - and then repeats them. That's it.

I used to have this movie memorized (except for the mad scientist scene which I didn't like), including the cut bits. Aside from those listed above, the differences between the unabridged theatrical release and the cut home video release are transparent to me now, just because I've forgotten all the others. But I can't think of a clearer indication that this cut is a remix than that end title music. No one writes an end title medley that consists of the same two-song set twice.

I said to myself as I drove home from the rental with the DVD, "Well, even if it's the abridged version I can remind myself how the end title music goes."

Edit Happy ending in the comments here

Comments

[larksilver.livejournal.com]

They've done some.. strange.. things with the Muppets in recent years, some of them not so good. Chopping up what is, to me at least, a bit of classic Muppet history is - if not the most heinous - is pretty freakin' weird.

Turning Gonzo into a Space Alien rather than just a weirdo made for a fun movie, but took from his history, I think.

Although I am lovin' the Rizzo humor. and the lobster mmkay?

[blinovitch.livejournal.com]

He's a king prawn!

[scarfman]

They've done some.. strange.. things with the Muppets in recent years, some of them not so good. Chopping up what is, to me at least, a bit of classic Muppet history is - if not the most heinous - is pretty freakin' weird.

Yes, but this wasn't in recent years. The abridged edit of the film was the one in some theatres at original release in 1979. It seems to be the official edit and always to have been. This happened while Henson was still alive, folks (which is not to say it was his decision, but neither can it be laid at the door of any later owner of the franchise). The question is coming to be, how the hell did the Six West multiplex in Omaha get their hands on the unabridged version? And does no one but me remember ever even seeing it?

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

...Maybe the Six West multiplex in Omaha was actually a portal to a paralell cinema dimension?

[wednesday]

It's not impossible. Frankly, I think your best bet for getting this sorted out is to track down a copy of the screenplay (which was widely enough published that I had two copies growing up), see if the lines in *there* jibe with your memories (because they didn't line up perfectly with the film, either, and some of this sounds right), and go to someplace like Muppet Central and see about getting the story sorted out. What it sounds like to me -- assuming that there's been absolutely no memory contamination -- is that you somehow saw a working print from close to the film's completion, one that wasn't intended to be seen. At that point, I'd have to argue that referring to the official version as "abridged" is like arguing that the revised Juliet Prowse episode is somehow tainted.

The dialog under the end title music is more audible.

That said, this one bit is almost certainly down to how audio was remixed for home video at different stages (restorations are notorious for this sort of thing). As for the music, I've never heard the medley you mention.

[scarfman]

The dialog under the end title music is more audible.

this one bit is almost certainly down to how audio was remixed for home video at different stages (restorations are notorious for this sort of thing)

I first noticed the difference the one time I saw the shorter version in the theatre in 1979.

I'd have to argue that referring to the official version as "abridged" is like arguing that the revised Juliet Prowse episode is somehow tainted.

Sorry; I shall continue to call the shorter version "abridged". The first time I rant in this journal about canon, people will find out just how much stock I put in the idea of fictions possessing at all the property of being official or unofficial. Endorsement by the intellectual property's legal owner of the shorter version doesn't mean there weren't bits taken out. And taint is in the eye of the individual viewer, or it isn't; cf. Star Wars.

go to someplace like Muppet Central and see about getting the story sorted out

That's a good idea, and I did take a quick look over there after the first time you suggested it to me. At this late date, though, I don't have enough interest in the story getting sorted out for me to register at a new message board for the sole purpose.

[scarfman]

Solved! Thanks, weds.