Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
After telling the story of Flint's last journey to young Jim Hawkins, Billy Bones has a heart attack and dies just as Jim and his friends are attacked by pirates. The gang escapes into the town where they hire out a boat and crew to find the hidden treasure, which was revealed by Bones before he died. On their voyage across the seas, they soon find out that not everyone on board can be trusted.
Muppet Treasure Island is a charming and competent adaptation of the Stevenson classic, blending the Muppets' signature humor with a reasonably faithful retelling. The plot follows the source material closely with Muppet-flavored gags inserted throughout — serviceable but not inventive in its storytelling. The performances are solid, with Tim Curry delivering an entertainingly hammy Long John Silver and the Muppet performers doing their reliable work, though nothing here transcends the franchise's usual register. Cinematography is functional family-film work — colorful and competent but unremarkable. Novelty is modest: using the Muppets to spoof a classic adventure story is a well-worn formula by this point in the franchise, and while the execution is fun, it feels like a familiar template applied to new source material rather than anything singular. The ending wraps up in a rushed and overly tidy fashion even by Muppet standards, undercutting the slight dramatic tension that had been built.