Muppet*Vision 3D

Before he died, Jim Henson wrote and directed one last project with The Muppets for the group he was working on selling them to, Disney. The show, which was written for the Disney Theme Parks, combined 3D images, audio animatronics, and live actors for one of the parks' most interactive movies.

The film starts in the queue, with an informative (and hilarious) pre-show, involving Sam the Eagle explaining the safety proceedings before ushering the people in. The actual show involves the Muppets having just perfected Muppet Vision and attempting to demonstrate it through various musical numbers, with varying success.

See also the Muppet Wiki entry and the imdb entry.

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Tropes used in Muppet*Vision 3D include:

• 3D Movie
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: It really takes advantage of popping things out at you with the addition of 3D. At one point, a machine on-screen sucks anything that crosses its radius, including a penguin conducting the live orchestra pit that flies into the screen!
• Captive Audience: Statler and Waldorf.
• Crossover Punchline: At the end, when Waldo thinks he's escaped the film, he shapeshifts into Mickey Mouse. "No one will ever find me now!"
• Everything's Better with Penguins: The orchestra.
• Flat What: During Miss Piggy's little^[1] musical number

Bean: I guess we won't be needing this.
Miss Piggy: What's this?
Bean: Oh, it was for the big water skiing finale.
Miss Piggy: What!?
Miss Piggy: AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

• Funny Background Event: Beaker's interactions with the Muppet Vision 3D machine during their demonstration.
  • Most people miss it when, a few minutes later as Kermit continues the tour, Scooter and Janice ride across the hallway in the background on a double-seat bicycle. While every single other thing in the film is either showcasing the 3D or Played for Laughs, this just...exists. Especially notable since it's one of the very few times you can see Muppets' legs.
• Great Gazoo: Waldo
• Hypocritical Humor:

Kermit: So it's going to be a swell demonstration, and at no time will we be stooping to any cheap 3D tricks.
Fozzie: Did you say cheap 3D tricks?! (blows a party favor at the camera)

• Key Under the Doormat: In the queue
• Large Ham: Waldo
• Letter Motif: Fozzie hires "The Three Ds", consisting of three female singers named Dinah, Dorothy, and Debbie, to sing during the preshow. Debbie fell ill and became temporarily replaced by a Wholesome Crossdresser named Max.
• No Fourth Wall
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In the preshow, Rizzo attempts to pass himself off as Mickey Mouse. Sam is not amused.
• Pie in the Face
• Random Events Plot: This film has absolutely no story whatsoever except the Muppets demonstrating their newly developed three-dimenional viewing technology Muppet-Vision 3D to the audience.
• Scotty Time

Sam: It is a glorious three-hour finale.
Kermit: You got a minute and a half!

• Visual Pun: "Don't you just hate it when your nose runs?"
  • All over the place in the queue. A net full of jello, anyone? Annette Funicello, for those that don't get it.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Waldo
• We All Live in America: Provides the page quote.
• What Could Have Been: The film attraction was originally intended to be the first portion of an entire Muppet Studios land in the park that would include an elaborate dark ride, but the death of Jim Henson lead to the project falling apart.

1. ↑ Little?