Muppet Treasure Island (1996): But Also, It’s Tim Curry

This week, we’re heading for the high seas with Muppet Treasure Island (1996), in memory of the brilliant and wonderful, Tim Curry.

Tim Curry’s Long John Silver is charming, dangerous, funny, warm, and somehow exactly the person you want Jim Hawkins to stay away from and become best friends with at the same time. Because yes, he’s a thief. Yes, he’s a pirate. But also, it’s Tim Curry.

We talk about Curry’s remarkable ability to make menace feel like an invitation, why he treated the Muppets as completely real scene partners, and the heart he brings to a role he genuinely loved. Along the way, we get into Jim Henson’s legacy, Rizzo quietly carrying half the movie, Miss Piggy’s surprisingly impressive gams, found family, the dangers of charisma, and why growing older sometimes changes the way we connect with the things we loved as kids.

Mostly, though, this one is for Tim. For the laughter, the voice, the music, the villains we couldn’t help loving, and a career that gave us so many reasons to keep inviting him into the blanket fort.