Muppet Treasure Island (1996)

Tim Curry in a pirate coat, chewing every piece of scenery the production designer could nail down. That alone is probably enough reason to watch Muppet Treasure Island, and honestly, it nearly is. He plays Long John Silver as though he's simultaneously in a grand theatrical epic and a Saturday morning cartoon, and somehow it works perfectly. There's a gleam in his eye that says he knows exactly what kind of film this is, and he's having the time of his life in it. For my money, that kind of committed, joyful hamming is one of cinema's great pleasures, and it carries the whole film on its shoulder-parrot.

The setup is familiar enough. Young Jim Hawkins falls in with Kermit's Captain Smollett and the usual gang of felt-faced lunatics, and they all set sail for buried treasure with Curry's Silver lurking in the ranks. Robert Louis Stevenson's novel gets boiled down to its broad, swashbuckling bones, which is fine. Nobody turning up for a Muppet film is expecting a faithful literary adaptation. What you're turning up for is chaos, warmth, self-aware gags, and songs. On those counts, this mostly delivers.

The musical numbers are a genuine highlight. "Cabin Fever" in particular is a properly daft, brilliantly staged bit of mayhem that captures exactly what the Muppets do best: pure anarchic silliness wrapped up in surprisingly polished production. It's the kind of number that sticks in your head for days, and I mean that as a compliment rather than a complaint. Gonzo and Rizzo are on commentary duty throughout, breaking the fourth wall and providing the running meta-humour that gives adults something to grab onto when the plot goes full children's pantomime. Their double act is consistently funny, which helps enormously.

Because make no mistake, this is a kids' film, and it leans into that without apology. The stakes never land with any real weight. The emotional beats are pleasant but light, skimming the surface rather than going anywhere deeper. I kept thinking of The Muppet Christmas Carol, which managed to do something rather remarkable: it worked as a proper adaptation with genuine feeling, while still being unmistakably Muppets. That balance is harder to strike than it looks, and Treasure Island doesn't quite manage it. It's too breezy to move you, and too safe to surprise you.

That's not a fatal flaw, mind you. It knows what it is. A cheerful, colourful romp for a rainy Sunday afternoon, ideally watched with a kid on the sofa next to you who's never seen it before and will absolutely lose their mind at the rat crew. There's a generosity to it, a warmth in the way the Muppets always seem genuinely happy to be there, that's difficult to resist entirely. Kermit does his best with Captain Smollett, Miss Piggy shows up to remind everyone she's the real star of any production she appears in, and the whole thing clips along at a decent pace without outstaying its welcome.

If you grew up with it, the nostalgia will smooth over any rough edges. If you're coming to it fresh as an adult, without a child alongside you, it may feel a touch thin. The jokes that land for grown-ups are mostly in the margins, little winks and asides, while the main plot plods through its treasure-hunting business without generating much genuine tension or surprise. Tim Curry aside, this reminds me a little of what I found watching The Hunchback of Notre Dame around the same era: a production with real talent in it, doing something enjoyable but not quite reaching the heights it's clearly capable of.

Three stars. A perfectly pleasant voyage, full of laughs and music and the kind of cheerful nonsense only the Muppets can pull off. Just don't go in expecting something that'll stay with you long after the credits roll, because the tide goes out on this one fairly quickly.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 1996  | Watched: 2026-01-25

View on Letterboxd →

Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.

Related on Movies With Macca

More with Tim Curry: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) · Clue (1985)
More from the 1990s: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · Blue (1993) · Cemetery Man (1994)
More family: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Wonder (2017) · Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anastasia (1997)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)