The Muppet Movies Ranked, from ‘The Great Muppet Caper’ to ‘Muppets Take Manhattan’

8. “Muppets From Space” (dir. Tim Hill, 1999)

The indisputable black sheep of the Muppet films, “Muppets From Space” is notorious for keeping the franchise out of cinemas for years, failing to break even at the box office and essentially killing off the franchise. And while the movie isn’t terrible by any means, it’s overall a far more uneven affair than the very best the franchise has given us. The movie follows Gonzo as he attempts to discover his origins, and becomes convinced that he’s an alien of some kind. As he attempts to track down his family, he gets captured by the U.S. government, forcing Kermit and friends to save him.

While Gonzo’s overall arc of realizing the Muppets are his true home is undeniably sweet, the movie suffers from saggy pacing, with an entire arc about Miss Piggy attempting to establish a career as a TV reporter that goes nowhere. Plus, it lacks musical numbers of any kind, making it feel all the more divorced from the rest of the Muppet films. 

Men on Muppets: Miss Piggy has established herself as one of the messiest stars in cinema’s history, and her exploits on the sets of Muppet movies are the stuff of legend. In “Muppets From Space,” she worked with the beloved late Ray Liotta, who years later said to Rolling Stone,“She’s a bitch.” But Liotta admitted that the porky princess was “the only actress I slept with” over the course of his career.  

7. “The Muppets Take Manhattan” (dir. Frank Oz, 1984)

“The Muppets Take Manhattan” is a victim of not living up to what came before it. After two great films, the third movie features a bit of a creative shakeup; Frank Oz takes over as director from Jim Henson, while Jerry Juhl is replaced as screenwriter by Oz, Tom Patchett, and Jay Tarses. The resulting film is, compared to most children’s movies, great: it’s a fun showbiz romp that follows the crew as they attempt to put on their musical “Manhattan Melodies” together after Kermit gets into an accident that leaves him amnesiac and lost. 

There are some great songs like “Together Again,” and the film’s fantasy sequence of the cast as babies directly lead to the popular “Muppet Babies” cartoon. But it’s considerably more muted than the prior films, with less laughs and less highlights all around. 

Men on Muppets: During production of “Muppets Take Manhattan,” Miss Piggy worked with comedian Joan Rivers, one of the human cameos in the film. The two were friends in the ’70s, but developed a rift after Piggy beat out Rivers in her audition for “The Muppet Show.” Sadly, working together on the project didn’t heal what became one of showbizz’s single ugliest feuds, culiminating in a highly publicized physical altercation on a red carpet in 2014. 

6. “The Muppets” (dir. James Bobin, 2011)

This simply named film acts as a reintroduction to the beloved stars, in their first theatrical venture in 12 years. The result is an oddly emotional story about Walter, a fan of the Muppets, who teams up with his brother Gary (Jason Segel, who wrote the script with Nicholas Stoller) to reunite the long disbanded group and save their old theater from being torn down. Seeing the Muppets confront their worries about being irrelevant and forgotten is touching and sad, as is the fractured relationship between Kermit and Miss Piggy, which makes the big “Muppet Show” revival sequence at the end incredibly satisfying. That said, the film loses the classic characters a bit, focusing too much on Gary and Walter for much of its runtime — although the epic Oscar-winning song “Man or Muppet” almost makes up for it. 

Men on Muppets: The Muppets’ film comeback saw them working with one of their most outspoken fans in Hollywood, as Segel was a longtime devotee of the comedy troupe. In an NPR interview for the film, he called working with the group a “dream come true,” and discussed how their work impacted him as a child. 

“The Muppets don’t get laughs at other people’s expense. It’s part of what I really loved about the Muppets. They don’t even want to destroy their villains. They want to reform their villains,” Segel said. “The Muppets are pure.”

5. “Muppet Treasure Island” (dir. Brian Henson, 1996)

There have only been two times where the Muppets took on the task of adapting classic stories from literature, but both are so undeniably fun it’s hard not to wonder if all of humanity’s greatest stories need to be retold with Kermit and Piggy in the cast. A gleefully funny adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic pirate novel, “Muppet Treasure Island” has the Muppets take the roles of the sailors on the ship Hispaniola, as they set sail looking for a secret treasure while contending with the dastardly Long John Silver (Tim Curry, having the time of his life even by “Rocky Horror” standards). It’s a loose and fun riff on pirate films, with Gonzo and Rizzo acting as meta commentators. Plus, there’s wildly outsized musical numbers like “Cabin Fever,” and some genuinely rousing action to tie the story together. 

Men on Muppets: Curry was utterly delicious in “Muppet Treasure Island,” and he would later recall working with the Muppets as one of the best experiences of his career: “It was one of the happiest sets I’ve ever been on. There’s a conspicuous lack of ego among the Muppets’.

4. “Muppets Most Wanted” (dir. James Bobin, 2014)

Although it sadly didn’t attract the audience “The Muppets” did, “Muppets Most Wanted” is a massively improved outing from that reboot: putting the focus firmly on Kermit as he gets replaced by his dopleganger — criminal mastermind Constantine — and thrown into a German Gulag. It’s a clear spiritual successor to “The Great Muppet Caper,” with a wackier tone and mile-a-minute jokes. And though it doesn’t quite measure up to that film’s strengths, it feels like a genuine update of what makes the Muppets work for the modern day. Plus, it gave us the evil Kermit meme, which no other film on this list can claim but all of fandom is better for.

Men on Muppets: By 2014, the Muppets had proven themselves legends and universally beloved figures in their field. So it’s no surprise that the humans playing the bit parts in “Most Wanted” spoke about worshiping the ground the A-listers walk on. 

“He’s the biggest star I will ever work with, certainly,” Tina Fey recalled about Kermit. “You see him in a press conference, and people are just psyched that he’s there. You just have to play it cool. You have to act like you belong there with Kermit. Fake it till you make it.”

3. “The Great Muppet Caper” (Dir. Jim Henson, 1981)

After their cinematic debut, The Muppets went off the walls for their followup. “The Great Muppet Caper” is pretty much nonstop silliness, with the cast breaking character and the fourth wall left and right; Kermit and Fozzie playing identical twin brothers; and a convulted adventure in London to track down a jewel robber that’s essentially an excuse for a new joke every three seconds. While the wackier tone means the film lacks a bit of the classic Muppet heart, if you want a Muppet movie that will make you laugh, this is the one to watch. Plus, the film looks gorgeous, with massively increased production value compared to the original. 

Men on Muppets: By far the most dramatic story in the entire existence of the Muppets is the steamy affair behind the scenes of “The Great Muppet Caper”: a sordid romance between Miss Piggy and Charles Grodin, who plays the lead villain Nicky. The sparks between Grodin and Piggy on screen were very much there off camera, although neither confirmed the details of their brief relationship for 30 years, before Grodin finally went public via an explosive Vulture oral history. 

2. “The Muppet Christmas Carol” (dir. Brian Henson, 1992)

An extremely faithful adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” that just so happens to feature the Muppets in supporting roles, “The Muppet Christmas Carol” is undoubtably the darkest film in the franchise. Featuring Michael Caine as Scrooge, in a performance that’s among his very best, the movie plays Dickens’ original story of greed, regret, and second chances almost entirely straight, with dialogue from the original novella mostly intact and entire passages of narration spoken by Gonzo as Dickens himself. 

The result is a film that’s a bit of an outlier from other Muppet films, focusing more on Caine than the central group and often focusing on drama over comedy. But it works wonders; the new Muppets that play the ghosts are terrifying and unforgettable; the cast slots in well as the aggreived townspeople around Scrooge; and the mix of Muppet comedy with the darker storyline somehow makes Scrooge’s eventual redemption all the more satisfying. 

Men on Muppets: It’s a tough feat to overshadow the Muppets in a Muppet Movie, but Caine almost manages it. That said, he’s made it clear he was lucky to work in the prescence of true greats like Kermit, telling GQ years later that the frog is “much more famous” than he is.  

“Oh Kermit is much more famous, because he’s known by children as well as all adults. And I’m known by many, many, many adults, but he’s known by all adults. And then I’m known by few children, but he’s known by every child.”

1. “The Muppet Movie” (Dir. James Frawley, 1979)

Although there are many great Muppet movies, there’s only one “The Muppet Movie.” The original film quite simply is lightning in a bottle, delievering an earnest story of friendship on top of laughs, and classic musical numbers on top of technically impressive puppetry. Following the origin story of the Muppets, the film follows Kermit as he leaves his swamp home in Florida for Los Angeles, meeting up with the cast we’ve come to know and love in the process. It’s a great set-up for funny gags, and some killer music courtesy of Paul Williams; “Rainbow Connection” is one of the most iconic songs in all of film, but “Moving Right Along” and “I’m Gonna Go Back There Someday” are alternatively toe-tapping and deeply emotional. 

The whole film works because it feels like a thesis statement for why the Muppets are important; Kermit’s journey isn’t to find fame, but to make millions of people happy. And few films can make you more happy than “The Muppets Movie” can.   

Men on Muppets: The Muppets are such an esteemed fixture of Hollywood that their first cinematic outing featured many all-star cameos, but no get was bigger than “Citizen Kane” director himself Orson Welles. Welles was a longtime admirer of the group; he referred to “Sesame Street,” the TV series that saw Kermit get his start, “the greatest thing that ever happened to television.”