Everyone loves The Muppets, it's just a fact. There's a few things in this world in the realm of entertainment that everyone just adores. Dr. Seuss, Peanuts and The Muppets are among those. But I'm willing to bet, even if you call yourself a fairly big Muppets fan, that even you don't know about this one. Released in 1972 as a 50 minute television special, it's an adaptation of the classic story of the Town Musicians of Bremen. If you don't know the story, allow me to sort of clue you in here, through this adaptation. There's 4 animals, Leroy the Donkey, TR the Rooster, Catgut the Cat and Rover Joe the Bloodhound. Each lives in a horrible environment, often abused by their owners, and each, for some reason that's never really explained in any way, seems to be extremely well versed in an instrument. Eventually, Leroy runs away and meets the others, one by one, and they form a group for play music together until finally facing down their former "owners" one final time.
It's a fairly simple story, honestly. I remember catching it multiple times on television, and then one night, when I was maybe 5, I remember the man my mother was dating at the time, who really liked me, took me into a video store late at night and, on the wall, there was a copy of this movie. We may have rented it a lot, I really don't remember, but I think we did, and this man - his name was John - apparently knew how much I loved it and offered to buy it from the video store for me. Miraculously, the guy sold it to him for quite a bit of money I believe. I still own this VHS, and it's a good thing I do too, because - aside from finding some mediocre rips on the internet, and a laserdisc version - it's never been released on home video again, making it one of the very few Muppet pieces of media that's sort of just...vanished. I've never really been clear on exactly why this one fell under the radar, but it makes me sad that not more people seem to be aware of it.
Either way, I adore this special, but, as always with this blog, for reasons you might not expect. Growing up, I was an incredibly artistic child. I would go to school, get bullied, come home and write stories or draw comics or whatever. I was always expressing myself through art, and I knew that, one day, I would eventually become an artist for a living. That, obviously, became true. While I don't make a whole lot, I don't really mind, because I do what I do because I have to. There's something inside of me that has to create, no matter what.It's very hard to explain. I exist solely to make things, whether people want them, need them or like them. I do it for me. Making money on it simply is a bonus, honestly. I write novels, I make fictional podcasts, video series, comic strips, graphic novels, art pieces, you name it and I do it. I'm even finally going to slowly start getting into animation a bit. So, as someone who is artistically inclined, I was always drawn to stories featuring characters of that nature, such as this one. Characters who, like me as I got older especially, would use their artistic abilities to escape from people who want to do them harm. People like my peers. People like my family.
In middle school, I had to pick an elective, and seeing as I'm fairly untalented in most other fields, and I'm not one for sports, I chose band. I chose band because it was somewhat artistic, I thought I might enjoy learning how to play an instrument, and I also chose the Trumpet. I chose the Trumpet because it not only seemed like an easier instrument, but also because my favorite character in the Muppet Musicians of Bremen, Catgut, had played a Trumpet. I'd been somewhat subtly influenced by a Muppets special. I know, I'm one weird ass lady. As it turns out, I'm incredibly bad at music. I can't read music, I can't memorize hand motions in order to play something and I don't enjoy doing group projects in an art form, ie, bands. I prefer to work alone most of the time, or at the very least, have the majority control over what I'm doing and not simply be a part of something. And while my Trumpet career faded into obscurity, my love for music itself - despite being literally incapable of playing it - and my love for the Muppet Musicians of Bremen, never faded away.
But here's the rub, ultimately, all anecdotes aside, okay? Despite, being the kind of artist who is very tight controlled on my work and is somewhat of a perfectionist who holds herself to nigh impossible standards, I still sought out somewhat artistic friends. Sure, none of them were as artistic as I was, but most of them went along with me and made short films, did voice over work for me, and sometimes even made comics with me. They enjoyed the stuff as a fun way to pass the time. I tried to surround myself with people who liked the same stuff as I did, not hobby wise, but just art in general. And that hasn't changed. As I've gotten older I've only become even more adamant on doing this sort of thing. I crave people who either make art or love art. Most of my closest friends these days, even if they are far and few between, are artists themselves, and a good handful of them work closely with me on projects. A lot of them, like me, use their work to escape from something. When you're surrounded by evil people, when you're steeped in pain, you escape to the one thing you have that gives you some semblance of control, because you lack control in any other area of your life.
But art...art is a world you created. You're the god of it. You can make these characters do whatever you want, say whatever you want, be whoever you want, and you're in control of it all. And when you lack any control in your own life - especially when you're a child like I was - it helps you tremendously to steal back even just a modicum of safety and strength, of control. It makes you feel like perhaps, just perhaps, you're not just here to be used.
Muppet Musicians of Bremen isn't that deep, I don't think. It's just a special featuring Muppets playing instruments. But I have to say, as a child who grew up doing art who used said art to escape from evil people and then surrounded herself with other art like minded folk, a lot of whom used art the same way, something about it connects with me. Leroy, TJ, Catgut and Rover were abused by their owners. They met one another and found they had multiple things in common, and then they used their music to form a bond that couldn't be broken because they'd each known what it was like to go through that. And then, at the very end, together, they all stood up against their abusers (albeit, somewhat not intentionally in the film), and realized they could be happy just being with one another and doing what they liked to do best.
Muppet Musicians of Bremen is an amazing spectacle of puppetry, musicality and an overall heartfelt message about finding something that can bring you together with others who also like said thing, and also like you. You don't have to be alone with your pain, with your art. And I think that's beautiful. Even if it's a point made by a Muppet Donkey.
Sometimes the best lessons come from the most unexpected places.
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