What are the two greatest performances by flesh-and-bones actors in Muppet films? Why, Michael Caine as the grasping old miser Ebenezer Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol, and Tim Curry as duplicitous pirate Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island. But the reasons for their excellence in the world of fur and googly eyes are completely opposing. Caine acted like a human and treated the Muppets as such. Curry was a Muppet. Few actors could ever pull that transformation off, but then they’re not Curry, who grins, cavorts, and laughs like he was to this madcap manner born as he sets sail into Robert Louis Stevenson’s great adventure. – Richard Whittaker