10 Genius Movie Tricks You Totally Take For Granted

10. Kermit Being Puppeteered While Riding A Bike - The Muppet Movie

If you first saw The Muppet Movie as a kid, you probably never even stopped to consider how the hell the filmmakers managed to have Kermit (Jim Henson) ride a bicycle in a wide shot at the start of the movie with his full body visible yet no obvious puppetry in the shot.

You simply accepted the movie magic, right?

But with the critical mind of an adult, the shot is even more impressive, given how few "tells" there are for how the crew executed it.

In actual fact, the Kermit puppet was posed on the bike with its hands and feet attached to the pedals and handlebars, while it was controlled from above by a massive crane rig, with invisible wires connected from the bike to the crane.

Basically, the bike was "puppeteered" from above, but as a hilarious series of outtakes show, it was far from easy to achieve a convincing impression that Kermit was indeed riding the bike.

And beyond that, shooting had to be stopped periodically due to the sun, which cast harsh shadows of the crew on the ground.

Pay close attention to the completed sequence in the film and you'll notice that most of the wide shots of Kermit occur with overcast weather, despite the rest of the scene taking place in bright sunshine.