the reason Michael Caine and Tim Curry are so good in their respective Muppet movies is that Michael Caine treats the Muppets as fellow actors, and Tim Curry treats himself as a fellow Muppet
If I'm not mistaken, he reads audio books! Unless those are all pre-stroke as well. He is, however, comfortable making public appearances again, so that's pretty good too, at least.
It took me until I saw that guy on tiktok who does a Nigel impression to learn that Tim Curry was the voice
Edit: So I misunderstood this comment and came to the wrong conclusion. I thought they were talking about Nigel Thornberry from Eliza and the Thornberry's
Man... I love this description so much, like a glimpse into the intellectual processes that go into the acting on screen, in best case scenarios like this one - top actors surrounded by sock puppets - there are crucial and consistent choices to be made.
It's like what they say about dogs and cats.
Dogs see themselves as fellow humans.
Cats see humans as fellow cats.
I wish the "top serious actors being in Muppet films" continued to be some kind of badge of honor. (Kinda like how getting a Weird Al cover means you're officially big time).
C'mon I wanna see Muppet shenanigans with Liam Neeson, Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds!
There should've been one with Alan Rickman!
I'm aware I'm missing a ton of talented names and I'm quite impressed I remembered those off the top of my head, but you get my drift lol.