MUPPETS' 'ISLAND' TRULY WORTH TREASURING.

Byline: Chris Hewitt Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

I would prefer seeing Fozzie Bear in a movie over just about any flesh-and-blood actor I can name. And if Miss Piggy's on board, too, then porcine me up.

What I'm saying is that it's swell to have the Muppets back in "Muppet Treasure Island." Kermit the Frog is Capt. Smollet, commander of a rickety ship that is threatened by Long John Silver (Tim Curry, giving a remarkably subtle performance for a guy whose co-stars are made of felt). All of the familiar members of the Muppets gang show up in one role or another. Even the cranky old guys from the balcony, Statler and Waldorf, adorn the prow of the ship and, as Statler says, "It could be worse. We could be in the audience."

Actually, being in the audience is just fine. The humor is the punny, irreverent stuff you remember from "The Muppet Show" ("He's dead?" Ratso says as he checks out a corpse. "And this is supposed to be a kids' movie!"). The action moves quickly, the running gags are plentiful, and Kermit and Miss Piggy still are entangled in the love that dare not snort its name.

It does seem a little unfair that "Muppet Treasure Island" withholds Miss Piggy from us for the first 75 minutes. The pig would have been just the thing to perk up the middle part of the movie, which begins to drag under the weight of too many sub-Gilbert and Sullivan musical numbers. It's also too bad that Jennifer Saunders (Edina, from TV's "Absolutely Fabulous") disappears after the first couple of scenes. She's uproarious as a roll-with-the-punches innkeeper and, with her fake nose and enormously padded behind, she should be declared an honorary Muppet.

"Muppet Treasure Island" is good but not great, and that, undoubtedly, has to do with the absence of the late Jim Henson. You'll miss Henson when you hear Kermit speak - it's an adequate impersonation of Jim Henson's Kermit, but it's a deeper voice, as if the frog has a frog in his throat. The movie misses Henson's good-hearted inventiveness, too, but there's ample evidence that the second generation of Muppeteers are almost as good at pulling the strings as the first.

THE FACTS

The film: "Muppet Treasure Island" (G; there are a couple of mildly scary fight scenes).

The stars: Tim Curry, Kevin Bishop, Billy Connolly, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Brian Henson. Screenplay by Jerry Juhl, Kirk R. Thatcher, James V. Hart.

Running time: One hour, 39 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Three Stars.

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO

Photo Kermit the Frog, right, captains "Muppet Treasure Island," with Sam Eagle as first mate.