Spinning off from Boom! Studios' The Muppet Show Comic Book, Muppet Classics was a series of five four-issue miniseries adapting classic stories and fairy tales.
The miniseries consisted of Muppet Robin Hood, Muppet Peter Pan, Muppet King Arthur, Muppet Snow White and Muppet Sherlock Holmes, the last miniseries being the last comic book of The Muppets published before Boom lost the license.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Heroism: Muppet King Arthur has Mordred (portrayed by Robin) gladly step aside when King Arthur proves himself worthy of being ruler of Camelot by being willing to sacrifice his position to save his people, when the original legend had Mordred planning to usurp his uncle's throne to the very end.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- In Muppet Peter Pan, Smee (as played by Rizzo) is turned a lot more villainous as opposed to the loveable oaf he was in the book, probably to make up for the fact that Hook (as played by Gonzo) is an Adaptational Nice Guy.
- Muppet Sherlock Holmes makes it so that Irene Adler, who was in opposition to Holmes but not actually a criminal in the source material, has actually been Professor Moriarty's adopted sister conspiring with her brother to do in Sherlock Holmes.
- Animated Actors: Muppet Robin Hood has Robin the Frog address the confusion that may result from his uncle Kermit playing Robin Hood by having his own character be named Squirt, while Muppet Snow White more explicitly has the characters treated as the Muppets acting out the parts rather than the characters from the original story interpreted as looking and behaving the same way as the Muppet characters.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: The third issue of Muppet Snow White has Doc (Dr. Teeth) ask the audience if they're ready to rock, whistle and whistle while rocking.
- The Cameo: A lot of minor Muppet characters appear in crowd scenes. Including ones where it's kind of unclear if they're actually included in the Muppets franchise as owned by Disney, such as the La Choy Dragon.
- Composite Character: Muppet Sherlock Homes has two instances of merging characters from the source material into a single character.
- Duncan Ross from The Red-Headed League is revealed to be an alias of Holmes' nemesis Professor Moriarty, when the original story had him a separate character from Moriarty.
- Miss Piggy portrays Irene Adler, who uses the alias Miss Hudson (loosely based on Sherlock Holmes' landlady Mrs. Hudson).
- Copycat Mockery: The third issue of Muppet Robin Hood has a bit where Friar Tuck (portrayed by Fozzie Bear) annoys the Sheriff of Nottingham (portrayed by Sam the Eagle) by using a puppet of him to copy his movements.
- Curse Cut Short: In the third issue of Muppet Robin Hood, King Richard (portrayed by Pepe the King Prawn) interrupts Dr. Teeth.Dr. Teeth: Who knew the holy land was hot as h—King Richard: I said enough complaining! Enough!
- Interactive Narrator: Gonzo and Rizzo, nominally playing the Brothers Grimm in Muppet Snow White, follow the action around to act as narrators, much like they did in The Muppet Christmas Carol. This time around, as the story is a lot sillier and has more an air of "the Muppets are putting on a production and things get slightly out of hand", the other characters are perfectly aware that they're there and often acknowledge them. At a few points in the story they even begin acting as directors, with Rizzo getting a director's chair and everything.
- Mythology Gag: Rowlf previously played Merlin in a sketch on The Jim Henson Hour.
- Not His Sled:
- Muppet King Arthur ends with King Arthur marrying Morgana Le Fay and Sir Lancelot marrying Guinevere instead of the other way around. Justified since Kermit is playing King Arthur, Miss Piggy is playing Morgana Le Fay (who is not Arthur's half-sister as she was in the original legend), Gonzo is playing Lancelot and Camilla is playing Guinevere.
- Rather than having Snow White awakened by the prince's kiss and marrying him, Muppet Snow White ends with Snow White hooking up with Pepe the King Prawn and the Evil Queen attempting to marry Prince Kermit.
- One-Steve Limit: Lampshaded in Muppet Robin Hood, which has Kermit in the role of Robin Hood. Kermit's nephew Robin acknowledges that there would be confusion if he appeared in the same story where his uncle plays a character named Robin, so he instead goes by Squirt for the story.
- Related in the Adaptation:
- Muppet Robin Hood makes it so that Maid Marian is Prince John's niece.
- Muppet Sherlock Holmes reveals in the end that Irene Adler is actually Professor Moriarty's adopted sister Mary Moriarty.
- Running Gag: The Muppet King Arthur miniseries has a recurring gag of Mahna Mahna and the Snowths butting in whenever a character says something that vaguely sounds like "Mahna Mahna" and proceeding to briefly sing a version of the song "Mahna Mahna" using the word in question. Sir Sam the Eagle tries to avoid the running gag, but Kermit/King Arthur persuades him to go along with it anyway.
- Unrelated in the Adaptation: Morgana Le Fay is neither Arthur's half-sister nor Mordred's mother in Muppet King Arthur, which notably prevents the obvious problems of having King Arthur marry her rather than Guinevere.
