Production Notes
Although the supporting characters were created specifically for this movie, the performers behind them are no strangers to the world of the Muppets. Croaker was performed by Bill Barretta, who also performs Pepe the King Prawn. Goggles was performed by Joey Mazzarino, a writer, lyricist, and Muppet performer for Sesame Street who also co-wrote the teleplay for Kermit's Swamp Years and Muppets from Space. Blotch was performed by John Kennedy, who has been a supporting Muppet performer for years.
The opening and closing sequence also introduces Horace D'Fly (voiced by Bill Barretta), one of the few computer-animated Muppets (In the outtakes reel that rolls during the end credits, Horace complains about having to be swallowed up by Kermit and asks, "Can't we use CG in this scene?").
The character Pilgrim was realized in some scenes as a trained dog, and other scenes as a Muppet that was identical to the live dog.
The outtakes reel at the end of the film includes an alternate version of the song "The Rainbow Connection" performed by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.
Some of the puppets that appeared in Jim Henson's Animal Show appear in the pet shop scene singing "Life as a Pet." The puppets included Chauncey the Sea Turtle, Rhonda the Raccoon, Hector the Spider Monkey, Galahad the Grasshopper Mouse, Pearl the Pika, Penelope the Yellow-Footed Tortoise, and Ernie the Mongoose.
The behind-the-scenes featurette involves a Muppet named Joe the Armadillo (who is a recycled version of Dooley the Armadillo from Jim Henson's Animal Show) interviewing various members of the production staff and crew (Watch for his "big scene" in which he is inserted into the pet store sequence with some clever post-production editing).
Read more about this topic: Kermit's Swamp Years
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