Muppet movie goofs

The Muppet movies, like most films, have their share of mistakes and goofs. Sometimes directors knowingly bend the rules of continuity, nature or physics for the sake of storytelling or cinematography, but many times errors are not noticed until it is too late. The goofs committed are also different in nature: a revealed puppeteer is a clear mistake, whereas plot holes and factual errors are harder to clearly prove.

The Muppet Movie

 * In the film's opening shot, a statue of a director is seen on top of the movie studio gate, with a globe spinning on his finger. The globe is spinning in the wrong direction, with the continents moving to the west.


 * In the scene where Kermit meets Fozzie, Fozzie tosses a rubber chicken over his shoulder. As he does this, the puppeteer's arm at the end of Fozzie's glove can be seen.


 * When the pie from the sign is thrown at Doc Hopper's limo, some of the pie can be seen flying onto Doc Hopper. However, in the next shot with Doc Hopper, he is clean, with no signs of pie.


 * During the Movin' Right Along number, Kermit and Fozzie stop to greet Big Bird who is further behind the car. However, in the next shot, Big Bird is directly next to the car.


 * When Fozzie and Kermit's truck are about to confront Gonzo's truck, Kermit says, "Fozzie, look at that funny little truck!" in which Fozzie responds, "Yeah...cute, huh?" But in the mirror in the car, you can clearly see that Fozzie's mouth isn't moving.


 * After Kermit asks Sweetums if he wants to go to Hollywood with the gang, a glimpse of Kermit's sock can be seen.


 * When the gang sees Gonzo flying away on the ballons at the Bogen County Fair, Richard Hunt's face can be seen in frame, possibly right-handing or filling in for another puppeteer's character in that shot.


 * In the scene where Fozzie Bear gets ice cream for Kermit and himself at the fair, the colors of the ice cream are different than the second scene where Fozzie finds Kermit and hands him his cone.
 * The colors and positions of Gonzo's balloons change during his flight.


 * When Gonzo is flying with the balloons and says "Look at our little car down there," the sunlight makes the cord suspending the balloons visible.


 * Kermit doesn't have his collar on in The Terrace Restaurant scene.


 * When Kermit and friends first enter the front office of Lew Lord, the fan in the background is turned on. After talking to the secretary, Kermit goes over to the fan, which is now off, and turns it on to spread the animal dander.


 * Sweetums is seen in the film the Muppets are watching (at the car dealer and chasing after the Muppets as they travel to Hollywood). However it is established at the end of the film that he did not actually catch up to them until after the movie was filmed and initially screened. How could he have appeared in the movie Kermit showed if he was still tracking down the Muppet gang?
 * When Janice and Floyd are talking to Miss Piggy, some of Janice's hair gets stuck in her mouth throughout the entire scene.

Full-Screen Transfer
On most full-screen home-video releases of The Muppet Movie (including most VHS editions and the 2001 DVD) this transfer is taken from a non-matted version of the film. When the movie was shot, the film used was of a larger aspect ratio. In the editing process, the "black bars" commonly associated with widescreen films were added to cover the top and bottom of the picture - trimming off material at the top and bottom of the frame. This method is common and is cheaper than shooting on 1.85:1 widescreen film. When it comes to creating a full-screen edition for home-video release the edges of the wide rectangular film are cropped-off to fit the picture to the shape of the standard TV. With The Muppet Movie, however, the full-screen prints were made from the non-matted version. This allows a little less of the sides to be cropped off, but it shows more of the top and bottom not seen in the original widescreen version. When removing the widescreen matting on the film, it results in more arm socks, arms, heads and other flubs coming into the shots that were originally cut off by the black bars. To see The Muppet Movie in its intended version, with less arms and heads poking in, one should view the original widescreen version. Each shot was arranged with the intention of masking the top and bottom, so puppeteers sometime got on the film expecting to be cropped off by the masking - the full-screen edition of this film contains more goofs.


 * As Kermit introduces the movie to the Muppets, his arm sock can clearly be seen.
 * A hand can be seen on Kermit's hand while playing the banjo during The Rainbow Connection number.


 * After Kermit gets Piggy's phone call and leaves the restaurant, his arm sock can be seen right before he is kidnapped by Doc Hopper's goons.


 * In the dramatic shot of Kermit's feet (in cowboy boots) as he walks out to face off against Doc Hopper, the puppeteer's hands are clearly visible at the top of the legs as they are moved.


 * After the secretary lets the Muppets in to see Lew Lord, Kermit goes to open the door to the office. Jim Henson's head and arm are clearly visible under Kermit as he slowly pushes the door open.


 * During the closing reprise of "The Rainbow Connection," Kermit's arm sock is very visible.

Full-Screen Transfer
Some goofs pop up only in the full-screen version of The Muppets Take Manhattan.

It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie

 * Towards the beginning, when Johnny Fiama tries to cheer up the mood after Kermit leaves the party, Brian Henson's head is visible underneath Sal as he turns towards Johnny.


 * During Luc Fromage's scene backstage, Dave Goelz's head is visible underneath Gonzo.


 * During Kermit's announcement about working for free, in a wide shot of the characters sitting in the theatre seats, puppeteers' faces can be seen while operating Beaker, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, and Fozzie.


 * A puppeteer's head can be seen during Fozzie's speech ("...when Kermit's done so much for us!") from a behind shot.


 * Eric Jacobson's head can be seen when Miss Piggy enters the crowd in the scene where it is announced the money has been collected.


 * When Kermit asks the audience to turn off all cell phones and pagers, Steve Whitmire's black-covered head is seen during the pan shot to the crowd.


 * During "Santa Baby," when Miss Piggy says "Let's pick it up a little!" Jacobson's forehead is visible behind her.


 * When the green-painted Fozzie crashes into the street corner Santa, he loses his hat (making him look like the Grinch). However, after he is chased through the steam bath, he is clean and wearing the hat.


 * When the newly-cleaned Fozzie turns and is stopped by a Who, Eric Jacobson's head is visible as Fozzie turns.


 * When Kermit enters the Bitterman Bank after his spat with Fozzie, Steve Whitmire's head can just be barely seen picking up through the wrapping paper.


 * When Kermit makes his speech towards the end ("...they'll never touch the Muppet Theatre in our hearts!"), the other Muppets are seen cheering him on, and the black dowel connected to the bottom of Rizzo's arm rod becomes visible.


 * When Bunsen and Beaker enter in the final scene, Whitmire's head is visible under Beaker.


 * Before the finale, Bobo tells the Muppets on stage that there are carolers outside and that they should come out and join them. Both Dr. Teeth and Crazy Harry are shown excited to hear this and are seen leaving the scene with the other characters. However, in the following scene of caroling outside the theater, the two are nowhere to be found.

The Muppets' Wizard of Oz

 * When Dorothy goes to meet Kermit and Miss Piggy on the bus, there is clearly no one in the driver's seat -- even when the bus rides off.


 * When Dorothy runs back into the trailer to get Toto, one of the windows breaks. However, in another shot, it is perfectly fine then broken again.


 * When Dorothy gives Toto the clothes from her stuffed bear to wear, the clothing from the bear changes size and gains an extra set of sleeves to accommodate Pepe's four arms.

The Muppets (2011)

 * When the telethon begins, Zoot is shown not wearing his hat in the wide shot of the orchestra, and then is wearing his hat when he blows his note in close-up.
 * During the recreation of The Muppet Show opening, Janice is seen in the orchestra pit, but is then seen as part of the female chorus. At the ending reveal, Janice is nowhere to be seen in the row of female characters she was in.
 * When Bobo and Uncle Deadly, are singing "Together Again," Bobo is seen holding a spray bottle, but when the two are commanded to stop singing by Tex Richman, Bobo's hand's are empty. Then, when Bobo and Uncle Deadly are blaming each other for the singing, Bobo has the spray bottle in his hands again.

Muppet Height Relations
One of the big errors people can nitpick with the Muppet productions is continuity of the characters' heights. For example, Rizzo and Pepe the King Prawn normally appear around (or even above) waist height compared to their human co-stars. However, a full-body look at proportions of the character would suggest they would barely reach a human's knee. Kermit, Fozzie, and the other Muppets also appear in a flexible height range in order to interact comfortably with humans and sets. Steve Whitmire said in a 1998 interview that "If a character like Rizzo only appeared at his true height next to a human actor, you’d only see the human actor’s feet when you saw Rizzo. That’s an extreme example, but the idea is true for most of the characters. Even so, we do know the relative heights of the characters to each other and make an effort to keep that in mind." The suspended belief that the audience has when watching the Muppets allows this flexible reality to exist without major distractions. So even though Pepe's feet would be floating three feet off the ground, the audience still goes along, not questioning, and usually not even perceiving.

Canonical Holes
Many people argue that the Muppet films and TV shows are non-canonical; that each production is a world unto itself - that the Muppets are timeless personalities and characters that carry throughout productions, and these characters are presenting a show. People continue to argue and debate over what is Muppet truth and what is just acting and plain entertainment. For instance, Muppet Babies undermines the whole notion of The Muppet Movie, and Scooter's role as The Electric Mayhem's road manager in The Muppet Movie undermines his backstory set up in the early run of The Muppet Show as the theater owner's nephew hired by Kermit as a go-fer. There have been many contradictions in Muppet canon and backstories throughout the 50+ years of the Muppets. However, writers and performers will overlook or circumvent them in order to create new compelling stories, new characters or character traits, or just deliver a humorous joke.

In episode 210 of The Muppet Show, Gonzo explains his mother died before he was born and left a note to his father regarding Gonzo's name. This is contradicted in the Jason Alexander episode of Muppets Tonight where Gonzo claims his mother liked his unique college interpretation of Death of a Salesman. However, the whole notion of Gonzo remembering his parents is somewhat dispelled in the film Muppets from Space.