The Muppets – Bohemian Rhapsody
2009 · Directed by Kirk Thatcher
29K Likes
Best comments
1.“Animal is my spirit Muppet.”
More comments
- 2.“I like how halfway through, Animal has a midlife crisis about his momma.”
- 3.“If an extraterrestrial intelligence happens upon one piece of Earth media, it MUST be this.”
The story
By 2009 the Muppets needed a comeback, and Disney's Muppets Studio decided the internet was the new variety show. The very first video on their brand-new YouTube channel, posted in late November, was this: about 70 Muppets taking on Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody against a black screen, a wink at Queen's own 1975 promo. Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Animal, Pepe the King Prawn, Statler and Waldorf, Scooter, Sam Eagle. Rowlf takes the piano, Beaker meeps along, Gonzo and his chickens show up in silhouette and Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem rock out. The finale pulls back into a mosaic of Muppet faces that turns out to be one side of Kermit's video conference. In 2009. A decade before the rest of us lived on Zoom.
Director Kirk Thatcher shot it in a single day with a crew of 20 and called it epic in scale. It passed half a million views in about a day, more than 7 million in its first week and nearly 15 million within five months. Instead of re-recording the band, the track uses the final master of Queen's 1975 original. Disney put it out as a single in December, it reached number 32 in the UK, and it won the Viral Video category at the 14th Webby Awards. Disneyland even projected it on the Fantasmic! mist screens on New Year's Eve.
Studio boss Lylle Breier said the goal was to reboot the franchise. Felt fuzzy, worked fine.
