The Muppet Musicians of Bremen (1972)

This story follows the lives of the four characters: Leroy the lazy donkey. T.R. the terrified rooster. Rover Joe, the old hound dog. And Catgut, the throaty singing cat.Leroy is owned by a Louisiana bayou-dwelling redneck by the name of Mordecai Sledge. In addition to being a farmer, Mordecai has another shady occupation: He is also a robber and he leads a gang of thieves.When a burglary goes wrong and the gang winds up with a bag of musical instruments instead of jewels, Mordecai blames Leroy and pulls out a shotgun. Leroy takes off with a tuba around his neck. (Known as a "devilhorn" to Mordecai.) Kermit the frog instructs Leroy how to play the tuba. Leroy decides to become a traveling musician.Next potential musician is T.R. which stands for Terrified Rooster. He is owned by an abusive and morbidly obese farmer known only as Old man Lardpork. Lardpork is furious that T.R. forgot to wake him up one morning. When T.R. makes a fresh comment about Lardpork's weight and causes Lardpork to drop his sandwich, it all hits the fan. Lardpork threatens to kill T.R. which causes the rooster to run away. On T.R.'s way out, he runs into Leroy. T.R. learns how to play the banjo.The third musical critter is Rover Joe, an aging bloodhound. Rover Joe is owned by a very nervous hillbilly named Mean Floyd. One night, Mean Floyd succumbs to paranoia and is convinced there are ghosts in his home. "Ghosts are coming out of the ground! I can hear 'em breathing! There's a ghost!" When Mean Floyd finds out the supposed ghost is none other than Rover Joe, he becomes furious and throws the poor dog out the window, causing the glass to shatter. Leroy and T.R. find Rover Joe and take him under their wing. Rover Joe learns how to play the trombone.The last is Catgut, a pretty female cat with long lashes with a raspy voice much like Carol Channing. Catgut was owned by a crotchety elderly man Caleb Stiles who lives in a big house. When Catgut refuses to kill the rats in the pantry, Caleb tosses her out of his home.Catgut joins the band and becomes the trumpet player.But then the four animals run into their owners again........what will happen? I'll let you see. Trust me, this is a great film! You will love it even if you are an adult like me!

I can't remember for the life of me how I saw this special. I think Nickelodeon used to show some old muppet specials on during the day or as special events (they also played the Muppet Show for a while I believe). I remember this clearly as Kermit the frog appears briefly at the start, and talks to a donkey who's on his way to "fame, fortune, and gogolala" (that last part isn't entirely correct quote, but it's close). For kids, it's an entertaining slice of obscure muppet-mania, as there is a host of regular farm-like muppets (not the usual assortment, so try not to be too disappointed by that), loaded with songs and some morals too with the story. It's also very 'old-school' as a TV production, but with the skill and charm that we all know and love from director Henson and writer Jerry Juhl. If you're a parent and you can find a copy- and have the courage to show it to such a child who didn't grow up properly on most puppets (save, hopefully, for Sesame Street)- it's worth a shot, and I'm sure it'll be a good collectible for Muppet fanatics.

I haven't seen this movie since it aired way back when and I was a little kid but it's still the best Muppet movie ever made! My brothers, sisters and I have laughed so hard over the years, remembering the wonderful storyline and insane animal owners, we have it memorized just from that one viewing and my sister's old LP! The character's are great, the script is hilarious and the movie should be put to DVD and reintroduced to a new crowd of kids who deserve to see a Muppet movie without the usual Muppet dopiness so common to their recent movies and with no Miss Piggy. Was this movie too harsh for the unsuspecting viewers who expected to see cuddly Grover and silly antics from Ernie and Bert? Was there horror at not having random, unnecessary characters show up for no reason and no love story with Kermit and Miss Piggy? This is a movie like no other Muppet movie. See it if you can find it.

(Possible plot spoilers)The popular fairytale "The Musicians of Bremen" is immortalised in the form of a short Muppet movie, and you've got "The Muppet Musicians of Bremen".I laughed and sang all the way through (especially during T.R.'s song "The Cock-a-doodle-doodle-doodle-doo-dle Blues"); I just had an absolute ball.The "human-sized" characters are very funny (Old Man Lardpork really cracked me up), as are the four animal stars (i.e. Leroy the donkey, T.R. the rooster, Rover Joe the dog, and Catgut).I think the highlight of "Muppet Musicians of Bremen" was the final battle scene between the robbers and the animals, especially when the so-called "Swamp Demons" appeared at the end.Out of 5 stars, I give this a 5.