A man is trapped underwater in a diving bell. His body crushed in a painful position, as limited oxygen is pumped into his lungs through a rubber tube. He is kept down there for three hours at a time, over a span of five days. To add to the discomfort, one arm is held vertically above his head and locked into place. He could have died.
This is the opening scene to The Muppet Movie, and if you cannot recall it, it’s because none of this happens on screen. Instead, the viewer soars down from the heavens and slowly focuses on a frog, sitting on a log in a swamp. The frog is strumming a banjo and earnestly singing The Rainbow Connection, a north star of a song so beautiful and true that it remains a standard 40 years later. It’s a scene so magical that you don’t think at all about the man in the diving bell, his trapped arm bringing that frog’s dreams into life.
