The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made!



An idea for a film that Jim Henson, Jerry Juhl and Frank Oz developed in 1985.

In a 1998 interview, Jerry Juhl, head writer of the Muppets, discussed a little about the concept of this film on Muppet Central. "There was a project for a Muppet movie that we kept returning to. Jim and I worked on it and just loved it. It grew out of the fact that Jim was talking about finances and if we did another Muppet movie at the time, it would need to be done inexpensively, since we were using bigger and bigger budgets for all our other projects."

According to Juhl, the idea at the time "being that this was a film that Gonzo directed. Kermit was too busy so when Gonzo asked, Kermit said, 'Sure, go ahead. I can't take on the responsibilities behind the scenes at this time, but I'll perform in it.' So Gonzo wrote this cheesy, terrible plot that made absolutely no sense whatsoever about something being stolen that led to a chase around the world. Unfortunately Gonzo blows half the movie's budget on the opening titles! So as the film progresses, it gets cheaper and cheaper where they're using a shot of the same street corner for every city in the world! We were still talking about this project in the last meeting I ended up having with Jim."

In 2000, Frank Oz discussed resurrecting the idea, however it has yet to happen.