Growing up, and even now, my love for the Muppets has never faltered, and while I treasure my memories of The Muppet Show, The Muppet Movie, and The Great Muppet Caper, I have no real recall of The Muppets Take Manhattan.

I saw it only once, when it came to home video, and I don’t remember much of it all, which, considering my love of all things muppets, troubles me. So I decided since I’d written about the first two theatrical films, as well as the wonderful relaunch (and sequel) in 2011, I’d take a look at the rest of their theatrical works.

Kermit (Jim Henson) and the gang have just graduated from college and think that they can take their musical revue, Manhattan Melodies, to Broadway, but after living in lockers for months, and being unable to make any headway, they begin to think that they’ve put too much responsibility on Kermit, so they all go their separate ways. Everyone, except for Piggy (Frank Oz), who has been hanging around town to keep an eye on Kermit and struggling to keep her violent jealous streak in check.

Kermit is determined to make the show work and find a way to get it sold, so he takes a job in a diner, and with some help from Jenny (Juliana Donald)- Piggy’s jealousy fixation-, he works on breaking through to the right theatrical agent.

After lots of struggle, he meets a young producer, Ronnie (Lonny Price), who agrees to take on the project, and shares the good news with Jenny and Piggy, but on the way back to the diner he gets hit by a car and loses his memory!

Happily, with only twenty-odd minutes left in the film, and opening night happening at the same time, the amnesia bit doesn’t last very long.

The songs aren’t quite as iconic as those in The Muppet Movie, and the film isn’t quite as wacky as The Great Muppet Caper, but it’s fun, its heart is in the right place, and it’s a lot of fun to watch characters we love take on New York, and follow their dreams.

The film also introduced us to the Muppet Babies, whose cartoon, based on the same designs, launched a couple of months after the film hit theatres, and man was that show popular in my house.

And, hey everybody, there’s Gates McFadden! But there are also a lot of other cameos, Brooke Shields, Liza Minnelli, Elliott Gould, Art Carney, Dabney Coleman, and Gregory Hines. And I love the little technical wizardry the film includes, like shots of characters riding bicycles, the way the rats are brought to life, and just all the little camera tricks that make the characters believable and imbued with life.

The film also sees Kermit and Piggy tying the knot and features a number of familiar-looking guests at the big event. Course there is also the discussion of whether that was just the film, or if Piggy and Kermit actually did get hitched.

Man, I love these characters. They’ve been with me my entire life, and I love checking in with them to see how we’re all doing.