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Resurrecting an old thread here...
I looked into the two cuts of TMM a few years ago, and came up with the following:
The original 1979 cut of the movie, as passed by the BBFC, ran to approximately 97 minutes. Barring a couple of UK home-video releases in the 80s (see next paragraph) I don't believe this has been seen since.
A second cut, running to about 94 minutes, appears to have been the 'standard' version of the film for the last 30 years. It was used for all home-video releases that I'm aware of up to and including the DVDs except for two: a 1982 laserdisc from Precision Video (catalogue number LVITC0011) and a 1986 VHS from Virgin Video (catalogue JH1006), which was re-issued by Palace Video (HPV001) a few years later.
Both laserdisc and VHS versions of the 97-minute cut used the same transfer: an open-matte telecine of a 35mm print done to a pair of 2" Quad videotapes, with the tape-change occuring around the 54-minute mark. The telecine was slightly zoomed-in, which is fairly common for transfers of that age. Unfortunately it was also suppressed-field, so it's fairly low-resolution. It was, however, stereo.
The print used was in poor condition, with numerous breaks and consequent loss of footage at each break ranging from a couple of frames up to several seconds. All breaks were repaired on tape. Fortunately almost all of the missing material exists in the 94-minute cut, with only a few frames completely lost.
Major differences include:
- an extended sales-pitch from Doc Hopper as he tries to convince Kermit to sign on as his spokesfrog
- an extended montage as Dr Teeth recaps the movie for the benefit of the band
- extended chase between Doc Hopper and Max and the rainbow-coloured Studebaker
- totally different musical arrangement of "Never Before, Never Again"
- additional verse in "I Hope That Somethin' Better Comes Along"
- additional shots of the giant Animal and during the scenery-collapse in the final scene
- dialog from the Muppets during the closing credits
The 94-minute cut includes approximate 5 seconds of additional reaction shots during the scene with Lew Lord, but as the 97-minute print has a good deal of material missing throughout due to damage it's entirely possible that these shots were simply lost.
Using the laserdisc and the UK DVD release, I was able to reassemble the 97-minute cut in reasonable quality and produce an anamorphic DVD master - this is the one listed on MuppetDanny's site, mentioned in an earlier post in this thread. Picture and sound were extensively restored (insofar as was possible - there's only so much that can be done with the poor-quality transfer used for the laserdisc). I also located and had transferred a 35mm theatrical trailer from the film's original US release, a 16mm TV spot and the Super8 'home movie' version of the film, all of which are included as extras.
