'The Muppet Movie'

It's hard to put into words how good a film this is, mainly because it stars a bunch of puppets.

The Muppets were so extremely poular in the 1970s that they could pull in some of the foremost actors of the time to cameo in their film. They could pull off a weekly variety show on primetime network television.

Puppets!

Yet, they were a throwback. A nod to the heyday of entertainment and vaudeville. The bad comic. The frog of song and dance. The prima donna female lead. The guy that throws fish. The wise-cracking old men. The Muppets themselves had more in common with Milton Berle, Edgar Bergen and Bob Hope than Elliott Gould, James Coburn or Richard Pryor. The Muppets actually had more in common with our grandparents than they did with a 6-year-old in 1979.

At the same time, the Muppets were progressive enough to address modern art and music (as seen with the incredibly awesome Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem). They also take multiple shots at breaking down the fourth wall -- the invisible divide between the audience the the film itself.

For example, when Kermit and Fozzie encounter the Electric Mayhem in the church and the band asks the strangers what they are doing and why. When Fozzie begins to go through the whole story, Kermit instead suggests they let the band read the screenplay of the film, not unlike Lord Helmet and Colonel Sanders rent a copy of Spaceballs to find out where the protoganists have escaped to.

The Electric Mayhem do read the entire screenplay up until that moment. They later use it to find Kermit and his crew in the desert with the broke-down car.

The Muppets worked on various levels among different generations in different ways. It just didn't work. It wasn't popular in the way that a lot of things are popular. They were a true phenomenon and the fact that they're still relevant and interesting (and funny) is fascinating and a tribute to Jim Henson's vision.

Also, the music is really, really good.