I’ve been thinking about The Muppets a lot recently since the closure of MuppetVision 3D. It was the first Disney attraction I ever experienced and I’m gonna miss it. It wasn’t my introduction to The Muppets per se as I knew Muppet Babies and remember getting the first two Muppet Movies on VHS at a birthday party in North Carolina when I was maybe three. Well if you know me, you know my favorite thing to cover is villains and that’s what I plan to do with this series. I wanna look at some Muppets villains. Now, a caveat as Muppets media spans wide and large, these will only be villains from movies that were released in theaters with possibly one exception as I am an Oz fan. Starting with the original Muppet Movie, we have perhaps the most iconic Muppet villain, Doc Hopper.
Muppets Villains are a bit different from other franchise villains. It’s not exactly fair to compare them to the likes of Disney Villains but they do have an iconicness to them (I know that’s not a word but roll with it). The Muppets villains serve as good foils to our group of misfits and weirdos.
The Muppets are a found family and this is observed both in the original movie with them coming together and in the 2011 reboot movie of them coming together again. This is something we will discuss when we get to the 2011 reboot but in many ways, that movie is a retread of what the original movie did. That is something you often see with legacy sequels and while that movie came out before legacy sequels were the norm, it does follow the template of a legacy sequel.
First Appearance
We first get to see Doc Hopper as Kermit is riding his bike and his ran over and we see an ad for Doc Hopper’s Frog Legs (FYI fried frog legs sound gross to me) This first appearance sells you on everything you need to know. Hopper is a ruthless businessman who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. This’ll come up more in the next category when we look at his personality. Even though I said I wasn’t going to look at the TV movies or shows, there is something I wish to bring up from A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. When we see what the world would look like if Kermit hadn’t been born, we see that Hopper would have been successful in franchising his restaurant chain all across America as we see a Doc Hopper’s kiosk in a mall.
This may not seem like much but it speaks to how people would eat up (in this case literally) anything served to them if easily swayed. You know I originally wanted to compare Hopper to an evil version of Colonel Sanders but really all they have in common is being southern gentlemen (use that word loosely). Instead he’s more comparable to Ray Kroc, the man who stole McDonald’s from the McDonalds brothers.
Kroc going by what I’ve read and how he is presented in the biopic The Founder as unscrupulous person who will step on anyone or anything to get his way and that is how Hopper comes across in The Muppets’ first theatrical outing.
Personality
At first Hopper comes off with the charm of a southern gentlemen but that is a facade that quickly evaporates. Remember the Ray Kroc comparison I made I feel that is a good starting point but let’s elaborate on that. It’d be easy to quantify Hopper as an evil businessman villain and to be fair he is but I think there is a bit more to go along with that. A good villain is meant to be the foil of the hero (usually) and we see that here with Hopper. Kermit has a dream of making others laugh, smile and happy. Hopper is only interested in making himself happy through filling with wallet with cash from the customers that come to his restaurant. Some might consider this ambitious and ambition is not bad thing but it is the way one goes about feeding their ambition that determines where they fall.
This again is not to say that having a dream or wanting to make money is bad but consider how Kermit’s dream is in the service of others whereas Hopper’s dream is only in the service of himself, that speaks to where the line is drawn between these two characters and how Hopper serves as a good foil to Kermit.
Grand Desire
I’ve hinted at this a bit already but Hopper is a businessman and will do anything in his desire to get what he wants. We see this throughout how he chases Kermit throughout the movie as seeing a frog that can dance and sing is a way in his mind to open to new business ventures. He doesn’t see Kermit as his own being but just another means to an end and that is what you have to keep in mind when looking at Hopper as a villain. This goes back to the businessman mindset that is so prevalent throughout all of Hopper’s time onscreen.
Lackey
Max
While Hopper has many lackeys that work under him including a mercenary hired to kill frogs, I only want to focus on Max. Max is a good kid who’s just a bit misguided. At first, it seems like he’ll go along with Hopper just make to a quick buck. But late into the movie right before The Muppets arrive at the deserted ghost town, he warns The Muppets that Doc Hopper has gone too far for him. This shows that despite working for Hopper, he does have a good heart.
Most Evil Deed
IMO, this one is a bit harder to pin down. Not because isn’t a bad villain but rather even with how cartoonish he can be, he’s not the type to get his hands dirty. I guess maybe I’d possibly go with the Mel Brooks mad scientist he hired to brainwash Kermit into submitting to him.
Demise
Also, this is kinda anticlimactic and I honestly forgot how he was defeated even after watching this movie. It seems like he is just run off scared after seeing the giant Animal. It’s whatever.
Is Doc Hopper a Good Villain?
I do think villains in Muppets movies get better as the movies go on. Hello, Tim Curry as Silver. But Doc Hopper is a fine villain for their first movie being a good opposing force for Kermit and the ideology of having a dream that makes others happy whereas Hopper is self-interested. That’s not a bad thing mind you and I don’t think Henson would say it is bad to be self-interested but sometimes dreams are better with friends.
Join me next time as we look at Nicky Holiday.
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I would wonder what exactly happened to Doc Holiday given that he just disappears near the end of the movie. Aside from that, he was a decent villain for their first movie (Also, Disney closing MuppetVision was a mistake).
Agreed on both counts
Well, it’s implied in some later Muppet productions that Doc Hopper still had a few frog legs restaurants, but probably not the huge chain that he was envisioning. As far as we know, he didn’t try bullying some other frog into being his spokesfrog after giving up on trying to get Kermit to sell his frog legs (live or stuffed). In any case, he certainly was a good villain for the first movie.
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And yes, I agree that closing MuppetVision was a mistake. Especially during an anniversary year. Not a move that makes Muppet fans think Disney has any faith in the Muppet franchise to still be relevant.
That part is why I was inspired to do this series
A pretty good analysis of Doc Hopper as a foil to Kermit. The heartfelt speech Kermit gives during the showdown with Doc Hopper helps to sum up the differences between the two, where Kermit points out that his dream of singing and dancing and making people happy is the kind of dream that gets better the more people you share it with.
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Yes, we never do find out what eventually happened with Doc Hopper’s business, but given that Max was smiling and laughing when the giant Animal appeared while Doc Hopper and the others ran away in fear, I’d like to think Max quit working for Doc Hopper at that point. With first hiring the mad doctor, and then the professional frog killer, Max clearly felt Doc Hopper was going too far and was probably planning on handing in his resignation as soon as the meeting with Kermit was concluded.
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Speaking of which, you left out the fact that the ghost town was not on the original itinerary. Kermit only chose to go there after Max gave him the heads-up about Doc Hopper’s escalation of his harassment of Kermit. Kermit realized that he can’t pursue his dreams while also being pursued by a bully, so he chose the ghost town as a good location for a showdown. (Which ended up being a good choice, as Kermit and friends ran into Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker, whose experiment caused Animal to grow to giant size and scare off Doc Hopper and company).
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As for Doc Hopper, he probably gave up on having Kermit (either live or stuffed) be his spokesfrog. But what happened then? Did he give up on the idea of having an actual frog do commercials for Doc Hopper’s Fried Frog Legs, or did he find some other frog to try and pressure into doing it? I don’t think we ever really found out.
You’re right, I did forget that omission. I have to imagine if going by the alternate universe where Kermit was never born, his chain never really took off.
My guess is that Doc Hopper’s career went downhill. After deciding continuing to pursue Kermit was more trouble than it was worth, word got out about Doc Hopper’s more insane stunts (such as putting a radio ad where he threatened Kermit). Kermit got famous (and presumably was more easily able to get lawyers and such, who could sue Doc Hopper for using Kermit’s face on those billboards among other things), and no other frogs wanted anything to do with Hopper either.
As for his most evil deed? Well, kidnapping Miss Piggy and threatening to cook her for breakfast unless he met with the mad Professor Krassman is one candidate. But for me, I think it’s his Redemption Rejection moment after Kermit gives his heartfelt speech, Max shakes his head and indicates he and Doc Hopper are not friends, and Kermit (giving Doc Hopper the benefit of the doubt) says he doesn’t believe Doc Hopper is a bad man and that deep down, he wants to let Kermit and friends go to follow their dreams. Doc Hopper’s response is to order the frog killer and the other unnamed henchmen to kill Kermit, and they are stopped by the appearance of the giant Animal roaring at them.
The Muppet blog Tough Pigs had an interesting entry about how different audiences reacted to Max’s disowning Doc Hopper. It notes that (according to Brian Jay Jones’ Jim Henson biography), Jim Henson and Frank Oz disagreed on whether or not Doc Hopper was redeemable. Jim Henson thought he was, but Frank Oz felt that Doc Hopper should be a bad guy to the end.
From the blog post:
Doc Hopper’s only redeeming quality is that he genuinely seemed to like Max and was hurt when Max did not consider him to be a friend. Some Muppet villains might have their redeeming qualities (Tim Curry’s Long John Silver is one), but others not so much. In Fraggle Rock, nearly every antagonist with a speaking role is redeemable with the one exception of Wander McMooch, who appeared in two episodes of the original show. Jim Henson’s involvement in the show and Frank Oz’s non-involvement may have played a factor in that.
Anyway, I look forward to your analysis of Nicky Holiday and his role as jewel thief and rival love interest in The Great Muppet Caper.
Doc