May the 4th Be With Moi!
In celebration of Star Wars Day (May 4th), Disney has released a delightful treat for fans of both galaxies far, far away and felt-covered divas. Miss Piggy recounts the plot of The Empire Strikes Back in a 2-½ minute video on Instagram and Facebook.
The Muppet Universe: Where Species Don’t Matter
One fascinating aspect of this crossover is how Miss Piggy treats Yoda. Despite both being puppets created by the same performer in real life, Miss Piggy shows no special affinity for the Jedi Master. In fact, she dismisses him as “some Jedi guy. Looks kind of like a green chihuahua in a burlap sack. Didn’t like him. Weird voice.”
But that’s the muppet thing. In the universe of Muppets there is no distinction between human and muppet. Like, literally, in their mind, there is nothing different from muppet and human. She gives no preference to Yoda because he’s a muppet.
This perfectly illustrates one of the most charming aspects of the Muppet universe: within their world, there is absolutely no distinction between humans and Muppets. The characters genuinely don’t perceive themselves as being different from humans in any fundamental way. Miss Piggy doesn’t give Yoda preferential treatment because he’s a puppet like her—in her reality, there’s no such category as “puppet.”
The Frank Oz Connection
What makes this interaction even more meta is that both Miss Piggy and Yoda were originally voiced by the legendary Frank Oz. The irony of a Muppet character criticizing another character’s “weird voice” when both were performed by the same person adds a delicious layer of self-referential humor that longtime fans will appreciate.
It’s worth noting that Frank Oz is still active at 81 years old. He continued voicing Yoda for Star Wars Episodes 8 and 9, maintaining a remarkable continuity in the character across decades. However, he hasn’t voiced Miss Piggy since 2007 for a TV movie, likely due to the natural changes in his voice as he’s aged. The role of Miss Piggy has since been handled by other talented performers who maintain her distinctive personality while bringing their own nuances to the character.
The Disney-fication of Beloved Franchises
Another interesting element in this crossover is how it reflects Disney’s ownership of both franchises. In the video, Carrie Fisher is referred to not as a “Star Wars Legend” but as a “Disney Legend”—subtly reinforcing that these formerly independent properties now exist under the Disney umbrella.
This corporate reframing raises intriguing questions about how we perceive these characters. If Star Wars is now fundamentally a Disney property, does that make Princess Leia a Disney Princess? What about Padmé Amidala? One of the hardest pills to swallow will be Yongti, Nightsister Princess of Dathomir… as a Disney Princess.