The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 38

Eos Angeles 6 Part VIFriday, July 13, 1984 MOVIE REVIEW KERMIT CROAKS SUMMER'S SWEETEST NEWS and Floyd Pepper, Jerry Nelson: Juliana Donald, Louis Zorich, Lonny Price. Cam-eosi Dabney Coleman, John Landis, Joan Rivers, Gregory Hines, James Coco, Art Carney, Linda Lavin, Liza Minnelli, Vincent Sardi, Elliott Gould, Mayor Ed Koch, Brooke Shields, Frances Bergen. MPAA-rated: (general audiences). Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes. TAKE IT EASY WITH TIMES ducer (and father) extraordinaire.

And of course Rivers and Coleman, plus a clutch of secret surprise faces. And threaded throughout, there is the romance of our time, Kermit and Miss Piggy. It is given a magnificently suitable finale. And if you think I'm going to give it away, you seriously underestimate mot. THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN' A Tri-Star Pictures release presented by Jim Henson of a Prank Oz film from Tri-StarDelphi II ProducUons.

Executive producer Henson. Producer David Lazer. Director Oz. Screenwriters Oz, Tom Patchett, Jay Tarses from story by Patchett, Tarses. Camera Robert Paynter.

Editor Evan Lottman. Music Ralph Burns. Songs Jeff Moss. Sound Les Lazarowitz. Production design Stephen Hendrickson.

Art direction W. Steven Graham, Paul Eads. Set decoration Bob Drumheller. Muppet special effects Faz Fazakas. Costumes Karen Roston, Calista Hendrickson, Polly Smith.

With Kermit the Frog, Rowlf, Dr. Teeth, Swedish chef and Waldorf, Jim Henson: Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and Animal, Frank Oz; Gonzo, Chester Rat, Bill and Zoot, Dave Goetz; Rizzo the Rat and Gil, Steve Whitmire: Scooter, Sutler and Janice, Richard Hunt; Camilla, Lew Zealand HOME DELIVERY. erMuppeteer Jim Henson, have shown their audience the strength of real friendship, the virtue of tenacity. And Miss Piggy has given her own example: the tortures of the deeply jealous. Not really gone, she has been lurking suspiciously around Manhattan, keeping a watchful bead-ed-eyelashed eye on the friendship of fresh, lovely Juliana Donald and Kermit.

For his part, Kermit has gotten himself tossed out of Sardi's, right on his pencil -thin mustache (the frog is a master of disguise), and has suffered an accident worthy of Irene Dunne in "Penny Serenade." Integrated into all this are fleeting moments by James Coco, grandly acerbic as a doting dog owner; Gregory Hines, who helps pursue the world's most clean-cut mugger; Linda Lavin, to soothe poor Kermit in the hospital, and the superb Art Carney, Broadway pro diner proprietor (exuberantly wonderful Louis Zorich) and his sunny daughter (Juliana Donald), but even that isn't enough. Bravely, the gang decides to separate to give Kermit his big chance to succeed. (The farewells are downright heart-rending, while Miss Piggy's gray-and-lavender adieu suit is worthy of Anna Karenina. Kermit keeps green body and soul together working at the diner, along with a kitchen load of rats, headed by Rizzo Rat, who are cooking there. It's one of the most charmingly inventive sequences: One rat beats the batter riding the eggbeater like a unicycle, Tatooey Rat skates on the griddle with butter-pat skates all is industrious bedlam.

Very gently, co-screenwrit-erdirectorMuppeteer Frank Oz, with fellow writers Tom Patchett and Jay Tarses, producer David Lazer and executive produc- ior Variety Show the year they were all graduated. (Hard enough to get through college when you're a human being, they note in passing, but when you're a frog. The problem of the Xerox machine alone staggers the mind. The clean-cut Danhurstians' response to "Manhattan Melodies" was so tumultuous that our gang arrives to take the Apple by storm. Miss Piggy has a particular interest in their success: As Broadway's darlings, she and Kermie would have the means to get married.

There's that gulp from Kermit again. Their living expenses are modest: 25 cents a night gives each creature great and small his or her own bus-station locker, like animal cliff dwellers. And the first producer they find (Dabney Coleman) is crazy for their musical. For a fee, it turns out. Coleman is a despicable fellow, requiring mass Muppet action to vanquish.

Instead of overnight success, it's an uphill climb: June, July, August. Summer in the city. The bus lockers begin to look lived in; Kermit is even getting frayed around his felt edges. And Muppet creators have a field day with the movies' grand old cliches of struggle on Broadway. They're befriended by a Greek By SHEILA BENSON, Times Film Critic We all have our heroes.

Kermit the Frog is one of my big ones. I like his directness "I'm Kermit. I'm a frog." No room for ambiguity there. I like his style. I like his cheerfulness.

I like the way he takes bad news, when his mouth folds in on itself in sort of a wedge-shaped sickly grin, and he gulps. There is no need for Kermit to make that face now: "The Muppets Take Manhattan" (San Diego area theaters) is the summer's sweetest news. It's enough to make you rent a kid to see it with. Miss Piggy fans need no such transparent excuses, of course. The news that Miss Piggy works at a cosmetics counter with Joan Rivers in the film will be enough.

After the first great Muppet movie, the Muppets got seriously overproduced; their second film wasn't the fun it should have been. They have found their footing adroitly now; the emphasis is back on real values and identifiable emotions. All the little Muppet buddies have come to the heartless Big Town because of a musical Kermit wrote for Danhurst College's Sen 213626-2323 (Los Angeles County) 714957-2361 (Orange County) 1-800252-4000 (San Diego County) 1-800252-9141 (All other Southland counties) i 1 i i INIVERSAL BTUOIOB TOUR AftMCACOMMNY.OffNWlV KKMTO CM! (SIS) 506-9600 kti iw iiiwuH iiiiin iiii GSP3 WW NOW AT THESE SAN DIEGO THEATRES now SHOWING AT THESE SAN DIEGO THEATRES SR0 COLLEGE THEATRE El Cajon Blvd. At 63rd 286-1455 UA GLASSHOUSE 6 3156 Sports Arena Blvd. 223-2546 CAMIN0 CINEMA 2253 El Camino Real Oceanside 433-9144 CAROUSEL CINEMA 1868 East Valley FKwy Escondido 480-4666 CASINO THEATRE 643 Fifth Street 232-8878 SOUTH BAY DRIVE-IN 2170 Coronado Ave.

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