Object #82 - Hot Air Balloon - The Great Muppet Caper (1981)

Dir. Jim Henson

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life" - Pablo Picasso

Art can challenge, art can teach, and art can soothe. The ability of art to soothe, and to allow an escape from our everyday lives is being put to the test more than ever, due to the worldwide crisis caused by COVID-19. This virus physically isolates us from each other. Film shoots have been put on hold, in limbo until the invisible killer is contained. Films scheduled for imminent release now delay, to a time when, hopefully, the market, and the world, is back to normal.

But normality may never be the same. Everything has been impacted - science, politics, the economy, and most importantly for us film lovers - culture. As we all quarantine ourselves for the greater good, we turn and examine current culture in entirely different ways than we would have otherwise. There is a surreal quality to television and film shot pre-COVID. People hold hands without checking if they've washed them thoroughly for twenty seconds first. They gather in groups of more than two! They continue the lives that they thought we'd be living.

Some art has not only met the challenge of a COVID-19 world, but has thrived because of it. As the crisis worsened across Europe, the pastel-coloured, town simulation game Animal Crossing: New Horizons became the cultural touchstone. Its promise of a deserted island getaway was perfectly timed for a world which needed bright, optimistic escapism. I myself, for the first week or so of self-isolation did little else than form my own island town, and read trashy science fiction novels. The first film I even cautioned to put on had to be something uplifting, something to soothe and comfort. I chose The Great Muppet Caper. 

The film opens with Kermit (Jim Henson), Fozzie (Frank Oz), and Gonzo (Dave Goelz) adrift in a hot air balloon against a pastel-blue sky. Viewing it oddly felt like some extension of that Animal Crossing world, despite releasing nearly forty years ago. There is no explanation for why they're floating around, they simply are. The three meta-textually comment on the fact that they're in the opening credits of a film, as Kermit reads aloud the grandiose title. They swap some witty one-liners about surviving the fall, the length of the end credits, and the number of people who worked on the film.

A prime example of how the perception of art has been changed by current events comes towards the end of the sequence. Fozzie states, about the opening credits - "Nobody reads those things anyway, do they?", to which Kermit replies: "Sure, they all have families". Firstly, it's already a lovely Kermit moment, providing optimism instead of shallow pessimism. But secondly, in the COVID world, it stands as a potent reminder of the value of human life. In all seriousness, the loss of life has already become a rapidly climbing statistic, as daily death totals from across the world fill the news; and scummy politicians debate sacrificing elderly human life to The All Great Market. Human life has been cheapened. But here, Kermit reminds us that every name, every number, has a family. Somebody cared about that person, and their loss from the world is a tragedy to someone.

The hot air balloon lands in a populated street scene - once again, now a fantasy in comparison to our COVID lives. As the colourful balloon lands, the opening musical number Hey a Movie! begins, with Kermit and the crew singing about the movie we're about to watch - the "spectacle", the "fantasy", the "derring do". I could not have chosen a better film. The Muppets are here, from the past, reassuring us that at the other end of this crisis, we can have a silly caper film with singing felt puppets. All of those actors, and all of those magnificent puppeteering artists were able to come together and create something beautiful. As the standard street scene comes to life with colourful, varied muppets, we see life being lived. It will happen again, as hard as that is to believe right now. We will get movies that are self-assured enough to promise a happy ending from the start. We will get movies which promise something "terrific" - "starring everybody, and me!".

Some art then, is just waiting to be re-interpreted, re-discovered, and re-conceptualised in our current COVID world, and beyond. See the amazing resurgence of Steven Soderbergh's Contagion, the communal twitter viewing parties, and all the personal ways we will now view art in the light of a new world, like I'm personally doing with The Great Muppet Caper. It's a time of crisis, and if all art is as hopeful as Kermit promising "stuff like you would never see", then I think we'll be alright in the end.   

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