It’s been a shit week, y’all. First Dolly Parton passed away on Tuesday, then we all woke up to the news on Wednesday that Tim Curry had passed, and I dunno about you, but I’m ready to rage quit society and go live on a deserted island somewhere because FFS, THE WRONG 80-YEAR-OLD TWICE IN A ROW. Ahem. Anyhoo.
Turns out, this is a perfect excuse to re-watch the classic Jim Henson production Muppet Treasure Island (1996), starring Tim Curry as Long John Silver in the wacky reimagining of the classic adventure novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. Directed by Brian Henson, the costumes were designed by longtime Muppet costumer Polly Smith and do homage to the Golden Age of Piracy, if not with a tad more whimsy. Concerning the process of designing the costumes for the film, Smith said,
“I knew from the script what each character was playing and from the research I picked out little elements. I have to think about their body types, what they can handle, and also what I need to hide. Usually it is a lot, because they have very peculiar shaped bodies…”
Perhaps no other Muppet is as closely linked to Polly Smith as Miss Piggy. Smith designed hundreds, if not thousands, of costumes for Piggy over her lengthy career with the Muppets (the sheer number of costume changes required for Piggy in almost any appearance she made is incalculable).
In Muppet Treasure Island, Piggy plays Benjamina Gunn, the gender-flipped version of Stevenson’s character Ben Gunn who was marooned on a deserted island. That wouldn’t do for Benjamina, of course. She is reimagined as Captain Smollett’s jilted former fiancée who ends up marooned on an island, though in true Piggy fashion, homegirl doesn’t take the situation sitting down. She ultimately becomes queen of a tribe of hogs living on the island and makes her first appearance in a fantastical feather showgirl outfit:
Smith recalls,
“When I was thinking about Miss Piggy’s outfits, I had already designed what the boars would look like. I took a couple of trips to this fabulous feather place in New York and decided Piggy’s skirt should be feathers. I don’t think they are quite ostrich, more like vulture! They just looked really wonderful and I was reminded of a skirt I had seen in the American Indian Museum. Each one of those feathers had to be dyed individually and they are two-tone dipped. Her leopard skin sarong fabric was also painted and her shoes handmade”
The costumes in Muppet Treasure Island are, much like its predecessor The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), more accurate than not, which is probably why I am forever in love with anything Muppet-related. The care and consideration that goes into every detail is really next level.
In closing, I leave you with this amazing clip of an interview with Tim Curry wherein he discloses the love of his life and the one that got away. The man was a goddamned treasure. He is deeply missed.
Do you love Tim Curry and the Muppets as much as we do? Let’s talk about it in the comments!
Find this frock flick at:
Miss Piggy ate as usual.🙌🙌
Though wait just realized, was Dolly never in any period dramas?🤔
I don’t think she was, which is a travesty!
Truly, this week brought up horrible recollections of AD 2016 – one gets the vague, hideous notion we’re building up to some toweringly ugly event in history with small, painful losses of figures from our childhood once again.
Totally agree :(
Agreed about this year sucking, and this week being dreadful with the losses of Parton, Curry, and Kusama :(
I also remind myself a certain 80-something also passed earlier this year, and may be setting trends for his peers.
Curry did other historicals, such as his Lord Byro in “The Wordsmiths at Gorsemere” (parody of the Romantic poets), especially when he put the moves on poor, virginal Dorothy Wordsworth. Hysterical BBC radio series, available on YouTube.
I’d forgotten about this, it’s bonkers and very funny!
As I recall, he compares Dorothy to a deliciously overripe cheese. (I also like that the introduction includes sheep gently baa-ing in the background.)
Curry also appeared in Three Men in a Boat (1975), with Michael Palin and Stephen Moore – screenplay by Tom Stoppard. It’s based on the Jerome K. Jerome novel from 1889. They all wear proper late Victorian boating attire – striped blazers, white trousers and shoes and striped caps. It’s on YouTube if you’d like some early Curry! https://youtu.be/zgwkbipco2M?si=bWzMqhhrqDMh_qcj
Oh, I love Three Men in a Boat! I will have to watch it.
Apparently, those sorts of boats are still available to rent … https://www.skiffhire.com/index.html
RIP the legends. Dolly and Tim really were amazing human beings! Miss Piggy is a treasure as well!
Miss Piggy is basically Dolly Parton if Dolly had a bit more penchant for violence, so we’ve got them both here. I’m having my own little Curry/Parton film festival this week. I started with Hunt for Red October, which is not a frock flick, but is chock full of MCM’s (Sean Connery, Sam Neill, Tim of course, Scott Glenn, James Earl Jones, etc etc etc), Followed that up with 9 to 5 (not a frock flick, but at this point, 1980 is feeling way too vintage for my ego). Now I’m starting on Best Little Whorehouse, which does begin with a quick time lapse history of the Chicken Ranch, so there is a smidgeon of FF content there, plus some more early 1980s “vintage.” Clue will probably be next in line, and if I can find Ferngully anywhere, I can also get a good Robin Williams fix.
Muppet Treasure Island is when Miss Piggy finally gets the grand entrance she’s always wanted … and deserved.
Three Men in a Boat is one of the funniest things ever written! Now I must find and watch that movie!
My favorite summation of why A Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island work so well will always be this: “The reason Michael Caine and Tim Curry are so good in their respective Muppet movies is that Michael Caine treats the Muppets as fellow actors, and Tim Curry treats himself as a fellow Muppet.” RIP Tim you will be sorely missed.
I recently saw a Vogue video of Miss Piggy going through her different looks throughout the decade. Tim Curry came up in conversation as one of those relationships that didn’t work out. She also had enough historical looks I’m wondering if I can do a WCW Pateron request.
It’s not often that an actor can come this close to upstaging the Muppets, which is really impressive (see also: Bowie). This hurts a lot, not just because Mr. Curry was a uniquely talented actor and singer, but he was an icon, as was Dolly.
The world just feels a little bit dimmer to me now, with the loss of two of my all time favorite, fabulous, performers. RIP.
It’s been a horrible week. It began with Shelley Fabares’ passing, then Michael Wright (“The Five Heartbeats”), Leslie Parrish, Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, King Harold of Norway and voice actor Peter Cullen. That’s just too much.
It’s weird – I realized the Dolly was like the late Queen. She was always in my awareness as far back as I can remember, seeing her albums in record departments or music stores, then her movies and a lot of t.v. came along, and she was everywhere. And Tim – egads. I associate Rocky Horror with my youth, because he was doing the show in Hollywood at the Roxy when I was in h.s. Now I will have to watch Muppet Treasure Island. Been watching and rewatching Tim’s clip from Pirates of Penzance on YouTube, the Joseph Papp version, which is not remotely historical, but it was so much fun. Got taken to see that on my 21st birthday. Here, I love the fact that even Muppet costume sketches exaggerate the proportions of their bodies. Kermit and Piggy’s legs aren’t nearly as long as they are in the sketches. I think I need a real life cosplay of Piggy’s red stripey number – too cute. And thanks for including that interview with Tim. The fact that he could keep a straight face – he’s my hero. This has been an awful week for pop culture losses. No more, please…
So very sad to lose Tim! He was so much fun to work with. I’m so lucky to have crossed paths with him. Thank you for this tribute. Polly Smith
As I recall Mr Curry once played William Shakespeare in a TV production and made rather a good fist of the role (He was probably too handsome and dashing for my mental image of the Bard of Avon, but it’s an entertaining combination of role & player).