The Muppet Movie (1979)

In director James Frawley's great children's film:

• the enchanting opening (a film-within-a-film) that told of the origins of Kermit in the swamp and the image of Kermit strumming a banjo and singing the Oscar-nominated "The Rainbow Connection"
• the film's deliberately cheesy puns and jokes (i.e. turning left at the literal fork in the road)
• the astonishing puppetry featuring such tricks as Kermit the Frog (voice of Jim Henson) riding a bicycle without any visible means of support
• all the friendships formed between Kermit and the other bizarre Muppet cast of characters met along the way including the unfunny, clownish Fozzie the Bear (voice of Frank Oz), the silly, chicken-loving Great Gonzo (voice of Dave Goelz), and the vain, preening and explosively violent Miss Piggy (also Oz) who carried a romantic torch for Kermit
• Miss Piggy's (also voice of Oz) ode to love at first sight for Kermit: "Never Before, Never Again"
• pianist Rowlf the Dog's (also Henson) duet with Kermit: "I Hope That Something Better Comes Along"
• with over a dozen celebrity cameos from Hollywood's Golden Age through to hip comedians and actors of the time, including ventriloquist Edgar Bergen (who died shortly after his scene was filmed and to whom the film was dedicated) and his dummy Charlie McCarthy, the brilliantly funny Steve Martin as a sarcastic waiter, and the insane German-accented Professor Max Krassman (Mel Brooks)
• Gonzo's sweetly sung "I'm Going to Go Back There Someday" while the gang was stranded in the desert at night
• the magical conversation Kermit literally had with himself: ("Well, then...I guess I was wrong when I said I never promised anyone. I promised me...")
• the western-styled showdown between cowboy-costumed Kermit and villainous Doc Hopper (Charles Durning) who threatened: ("All right, Frog, one last chance. You're gonna do my TV commercial live or stuffed"); Kermit replied: ("Hopper, what's the matter with you? You gotta be crazy chasin' me half-way across the country. Why are you doing this to me?"); when Doc Hopper expressed his desire to own a thousand frog-leg restaurants, Kermit replied: ("I've got a dream too. But it's about singing and dancing and making people happy. That's the kind of dream that gets better the more people you share it with. And, well, I've found a whole bunch of friends who have the same dream. And, it kind of makes us like a family. You have anybody like that, Hopper? I men, once you get all those restaurants, who're you gonna share it with? Who are your friends, Doc? Those guys? I got lots of friends")
• the deus ex machina ending when Animal grew to giant size after swallowing InstaGrow pills and scared off Doc Hopper, and Orson Welles' cameo appearance as Lew Lord, who told his secretary (Cloris Leachman): "Miss Tracy, prepare the standard 'rich-and-famous' contract for Kermit the Frog and company"

Animal	"The Rainbow Connection"

• the climax when a rainbow shone through the studio set ceiling onto the cast, while the entire Muppet group sang a reprise of "The Rainbow Connection" ("Life's like a movie, write your own ending, keep believing, keep pretending, we did what we set out to do...") - interrupted when Sweetums (voice of Richard Hunt) burst through the film into the theater where the rest of the Muppet cast was screening the film: ("I just KNEW I'd catch up to you guys!")
• the end credits antics of the Muppets, concluding with Animal bursting through the "THE END" screen and telling the audience: "Go home! Go home! Bye-bye!"