A tribute to treasure

A Sunday morning to remember at the Riverfront Theatre in Newport as the Puppet Folk Experience introduced a special screening of The Muppet Treasure Island with a tribute act. (The film is 30 years old this year.)

The Puppet Folk are puppeteer and singer Liam and guitarist Andy, who also proves to be a handy banjo player as well. Liam performed with Kermit and Ernie who appeared for a rendition of 'Rubber Duckie', which is one of his signature songs.

Costume change for Kermit

I was impressed with the way Liam captured Kermit's vocal inflections in the songs. I have read about plenty of fan criticism of how Kermit sounds in recent Disney productions. It's a hard voice to do well, and Liam gets him sounding like "original Kermit" (Cathy's words).

Overall what came through was the clear love and respect that Liam and Andy have for the characters and the source material. There was a mix of songs, some of them in a medley, covering everything from the original Muppet Show theme through to a song from the 2011 Disney reboot. (Which is itself a shocking 15 years old now!)

After the tribute was over, we watched the movie. It had been a long time since I had watched it. I had completely forgotten one set of characters until they popped up in a proper 'oh, yeah...!' moment. The gags were still funny. I enjoyed it. 

Like several other fans in the audience, Cathy and I wore suitable t-shirts for the occasion. Kermit commented on Cathy's t-shirt after we queued up for the post-film meet-and-greet.

After taking the photos with Kermit we chatted to Andy afterwards as he was on the merchandise stand. He told us there might be another show introducing The Muppet Christmas Carol at the end of the year, so hopefully that will be coming to South Wales!