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Sir Peter Jackson has broken his silence on one of New Zealand cinema’s great mysteries.
Making a surprise cameo late on in episode 7 of Disney+’s The Muppets Mayhem series, the Kiwi film-maker revealed just what happened to his own hard-living felty friends – the stars of his 1989 movie Meet the Feebles.
Visiting the basement of The Muppet Show’s house band Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem’s Los Angeles base The Shack, Sir Peter is greeted warmly by the gang, with bassist Sgt. Floyd Pepper noting that it has “been a while”.
“Haven’t seen you since the that night in Wellington…when we met the Feebles.”
“Yeah, that was a bad night,” Sir Peter replies solemnly, “You know, two of the Feebles are in witness protection and the rest are in prison.”
It’s a moment that will raise a smile amongst Kiwi viewers of a certain age.
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Sir Peter Jackson, with legendary drummer Animal, during his cameo on The Muppets Mayhem.
Released long before his Tolkien adventures, Sir Peter’s second film revolved around the Muppet-like puppets getting into scrapes involving drugs, pornography and prostitution, as they prepared for their biggest performance ever. After Heidi the Hippo went on a shooting spree at the end of the movie, there were apparently only seven survivors from the original Feeble Variety Hour theatre troupe.
Despite a disappointing initial box-office run, Feebles has gained a cult following over the years, with Sir Peter even mentioning it during his 2004 Academy Awards Best Picture acceptance speech for The Return of the King, joking that it [and his first film Bad Taste] had been “wisely overlooked by the Academy”.
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Heidi the Hippo was finally pushed too far and went on a shooting spree at the end of 1989âs Meet the Feebles. Sir Peter Jackson has finally revealed the fate of the survivors.
Of course, since then, the Kiwi film-maker has been lauded and rewarded at plenty of ceremonies, including the 2022 Emmys for his work on three-part documentary series The Beatles: Get Back.
And it’s that fellow Disney+ show that provides the excuse for Sir Peter to appear on Muppets Mayhem. Pitching to helm a doco on the Dr. Teeth-led band, he boasts that Get Back won a few awards and “actually my documentary helped put The Beatles on the map”.
“And Lips [the Mayhem’s trumpet player] tells me you guys are going to be bigger than The Beatles.”
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Heidi the Hippo enjoys a run along the Wellington waterfront in Meet the Feebles.
Even the news that he’s been beaten to the punch by Clerks trilogy and Chasing Amy director Kevin Smith (“After making a lifetime of critically panned R-rated movies, I’m finally ready to embrace family-friendly entertainment,” that film-maker had told the group), doesn’t deter the Kiwi.
“I don’t make movies..I make trilogies. So all you guys need to do is: be natural, don’t look at the camera – and give me your talent.”
The Muppets Mayhem is now available to stream on Disney+.
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