Muppets Take Manhattan is Coming to 4K

Just ahead of its 40th anniversary next year, Sony Pictures today announced that Muppets Take Manhattan will be released on 4K Ultra on October 24th. The new edition will carry over bonus features from previous iterations of the disc release, as well as including an all-new director’s commentary track from Frank Oz, the veteran puppeteer who made his solo directorial debut on the film. The movie, which debuted in 1984, was the final feature film featuring the Muppets made during creator Jim Henson’s lifetime; he passed away in 1990, and the next Muppet movie would be 1992’s The Muppet Christmas Carol, directed by Henson’s son, Brian.

Muppets Take Manhattan is also famous for a fantasy sequence in the film, which introduced the Muppet Babies, toddler versions of the lead Muppet characters, who would go on to have their own animated series from 1984 until 1991 (and then got a revival from 2018 until 2022). A planned Disney+ series, Muppets Live Another Day, would have picked up where Muppets Take Manhattan left off, but was cancelled.

Muppets Take Manhattan, which came after The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, was a financial and critical success, earning $25 million off a budget of around $8 million. Henson turned most of his company’s attention to projects like Fraggle Rock and Labyrinth after Muppets Take Manhattan, and never found another Muppet film script that he liked enough to drop his many other projects to make it.

Here’s a rundown of bonus features on the new edition:

• Feature remastered in 4K resolution from the original camera negative with Dolby Vision, plus all-new Dolby Atmos immersive audio, with 4K picture and Atmos sound mix approved by director Frank Oz
• Also includes English 5.1 + mono
• Special Feature:
  • NEW: Feature Commentary with Director Frank Oz

BLU-RAY DISC

• Feature presented in High Definition
• 5.1 audio
• Special Features:
  • Interview with Jim Henson
  • Muppetisms: Miss Piggy™ & Kermit the Frog™, Pepe™ and Fozzie Bear™

Here’s the official synopsis for the film:

Broadway bound, the Muppets take Manhattan by storm in this magical musical about breaking into show business! Fresh out of college, Kermit, Fozzie and the entire cast of Kermit’s musical “Manhattan Melodies” head for the Big Apple with plans to turn their small play into a big hit! All they need now is someone to produce their show! But when no one in town will even meet with them, it’s up to Kermit to believe hard enough for all of his friends that the show WILL go on! Family entertainment has never been more fun than this comedy marking Frank Oz’s solo directorial debut.