Muppet Babies: 30 years on

Back in 1984, when Frank Oz directed the third Muppet movie The Muppets Take Manhattan, it was immediately clear which part of the film audiences were going to like the most. A dream sequence saw Miss Piggy imagining growing up as a toddler with Kermit the Frog and all of the other major Muppet characters. It was just a whimsical musical number in the middle of the film, but everyone who worked on the sequence recognised its appeal - including Muppet creator and producer Jim Henson.

At the time Henson had already been bombarded with offers by American TV studios to produce an animated series based on his Muppet characters. He had always resisted, being fairly wary of the quality of such Saturday morning cartoons. With the Muppet Babies, however, he had an idea that intrigued him, and so he put together a deal with Marvel Productions and Japanese animation studio Toei to put together a series.

The Muppets Take Manhattan: 30 years on

Today it's been 30 years since The Muppets Take Manhattan, the third feature film based on Jim Henson's Muppet characters, was released into cinemas. Today is aso the 30th anniversary of failed sci-fi blockbuster The Last Starfighter, but to be honest I'd rather talk about Muppets.

I think it's interesting to look back on this film in hindsight, because at the time there was very much a sense that this was the Muppets' last hurrah. Jim Henson aand his growing troupe of puppeteers had been performing as the Muppets since the late 1950s, and by 1984 he was well and truly prepared to move on. He had made a jump from television to directing feature films - first with The Great Muppet Caper and then with his acclaimed fantasy The Dark Crystal in 1982. At the time of The Muppets Take Manhattan's production he was neck-deep in preparations for directing Labyrinth for Lucasfilm Ltd, and happily ceded control of the third Muppet movie to his long-time colleague (and co-director on The Dark Crystal) Frank Oz. That's significant in itself, because Oz didn't stop directing with The Muppets Take Manhattan. To date he's directed another 10 movies, including some absolute classics including Little Shop of Horrors, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Death at a Funeral.