The Muppets (2011)

The film franchise returns with its best installment yet

By Trevor Dobbin

The Muppets. Directed by James Bobin. Written by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller. Starring Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper, Rashida Jones, Jack Black, the Muppets. 98 minutes. Rated PG.

There are not enough adjectives in the English language to describe how much I love The Muppets (2011)—the film franchise's return to cinemas after a 12-year absence.

Of course I'm biased, having been a lifelong fan of Jim Henson's wonderfully weird creations, starting young with Sesame Street, and then moving on to the short-lived Fraggle Rock. I watched the Muppets through their many different forms, from The Muppet Show on syndicated TV and DVD, to its many films, and to its seemingly endless output of television specials.

In some aspects The Muppets is a documentary, substituting life-long fan and the film's co-writer Jason Segel with the equally fanatical character Walter, and the in-movie Muppets Telethon corresponding to the film's real-life box office performance. Following creator Jim Henson's death in 1990, the film franchise slowly dwindled, producing the respectably successful Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island, which earned profitable box office returns in and of themselves, but failed to capture the masses to the extent that the '80s movies did.

A low point was hit in 1999 with Muppets in Space bombing in cinemas, and receiving a merely mediocre critical reception. Things turned around when the incredibly multi-talented and funny Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother, Freaks and Geeks), stepped in. His accurately titled screenplay The Greatest Muppet Movie of all Time!!! dropped the high concept of later Muppet films and promised a return to form of the franchise's Muppet Show from the late '70s.

Just as the Muppets experienced a lengthy real-life absence from the theatrical movie world, the in-movie performers also fell from public eye, only now to a greater extent, existing in a frightening world where they were no longer popular and had been disbanded for many years.

Upon the news that a wealthy oil tycoon—the brilliantly named Tex Richman (Chris Cooper)—plans to buy the closed Muppet studio and theatre with the intent of destroying it to mine for oil, three fans go to Kermit the Frog to tell him the news and encourage him to bring the team back together to raise the money to buy back the studio.

The Muppets must succeed against all odds, in a culture that has grown cynical since their disbandment; a culture which has seemingly outgrown the wholesome entertainment they had provided.

The most devoted of the three fans is an actual Muppetoid named Walter, who found solace in The Muppets at a young age, which grew into a life-long admiration and love. His brother Gary (played by the very-much-human Jason Segel) shares Walter's Muppet love. Together, with Gary's girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams), they go on vacation to Los Angeles: a trip intended to be a romantic anniversary getaway for Gary and Mary, but which soon becomes a mission to bring back the beloved troupe.

The versatile Adams was born to be a Muppets movie actor, her radiant and gleefully innocent on-screen presence warms audience's hearts with every line and dance. And let us not forget that she is simply a wonderful singer.

Segel has a history of being the most lovable person in any film or television series he appears in, and is a contender once more, smiling from ear to ear the entire film, his real-life excitement of fulfilling a life-long dream bursting through in Gary as early as the film's opening dance number “Life's A Happy Song” all the way up until the rolling of the ending credits.

I have always been a fan of musicals at their most unorthodox and eccentric, and The Muppets with its handful of musical numbers is not far from joining the ranks of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Once More, With Feeling, as far as my most ideal musicals go.

The group number “Life's A Happy Song,” as its title implies, is just about the cheeriest song ever recorded, and in Muppets tradition, it is humorous, catchy, and infectiously enjoyable, first succeeding as a comedy number and then coming through a genuinely great song. “Me Party” has more of the same wholesome value in its cleverly funny lyrics; and to echo a previous statement, Adams sounds fantastic.

Even Chris Cooper joins in on the fun with an off-the-wall number of his own, while the most humorous of the songs is probably “Man or Muppet,” which starts with Segel solemnly singing to himself, “I reflect on my reflection,” a line worthy of Shakespeare if you ask me.

Like in all the great musicals, though, not every song is a feel-good uplifting number. Kermit takes the stage in the melancholic “Pictures in My Head,” as he reminisces on the past, recalling memories with his former Muppets but showing doubt towards any success of a reunion. This is a scene which will bring tears to the eyes of many long-time Muppet fans, and for this reviewer it is possibly the most emotionally powerful sequence these characters have ever been involved in.

In Charlie Kaufman-esque moments of self-aware meta-referencing, The Muppets is a film the characters not only realize is a film, but an ongoing one, with parallels to other Muppet properties and our real-world universe. It even visually acknowledges the existence of Jim Henson, as well as tying together every other Muppet film and television form into one sensible stream of continuity.

The Muppets has always been about bringing laughter into the world, and this movie does just that, and also so much more. It creates hope. For 98 minutes everything you know to be negative and unpleasant is removed from the world. It makes you believe that dreams can come true, just as they did for Jason Segel and Walter.

This is a movie for anybody who loves to laugh, anybody who loves a good story, or anybody who simply loves to be entertained (and really, who doesn't?). The Muppets is a perfect source of entertainment for all ages, and is the most pleasing film experience I have had all year. I cannot wait to watch it again.

Share