Film: The Muppets

  It’s time to start the music! It’s time to light the lights! It’s time to meet The Muppets! 

That’s right after a decade of mediocre direct-to-dvd movies, following the horrendous ‘Muppets From Space’, the Muppets that you know and love are finally back on the big screen. Rather than acknowledging this time it states that the Muppets broke up years ago, allowing this movie to tell the story of their comeback. And this is Kermit and co. just as you remember them; hilarious, musical and totally off-the-wall crazy. 

When Walter, Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) find out that the old Muppet studio is to be closed down and demolished, they set out on a mad scheme to reunite The Muppets for one last show. The plot may sound similar to past Muppet projects and it is, particularly the bringing the gang back together story from ‘The Muppets Take Manhattan’. However, the slightly thin plot allows the characters to be themselves - you know totally mental - and they are all here from Fozzie to Miss Piggy and even less popular ones like Scooter. Muppet tropes like travelling by map and speeding things up with a montage are fully embraced in a loving tribute.

The movie does do enough to keep things fresh however, with the inclusion of new muppet Walter, and the love story between Gary and Mary stopping this from being a total re-tread. What’s surprising is how realistic some scenes are, the portrayal of how low some of The Muppets have sunk since their retirement is particularly heart-wrenching. Anyone hearing Kermit sing about how much he misses his friends who doesn’t feel a bit emotional may be missing a heart. The on again / off again relationship of Kermit and Piggy is addressed in a very realistic yet sweet fashion. There are also some fantastic songs both new, provided by the writers of the ‘Flight of the Concords’ , and old, though those hoping to hear ‘Mahna Mahna’ will have to wait for the credits. 

The movie isn’t totally perfect, the relationship between Gary and Mary in particular is pushed to the sidelines quite a bit in favour of the Muppets antics. The villain (Chris Cooper) is also a bit pathetic, you know he’ll never beat the Muppets so there’s no sense of peril. While the movie promises A-list cameos, whether they succeeded or not depends on your opinion of Jack Black is. They do get some great B-list stars in there though, the appearance of Neil Patrick Harris may or may not have got me more excited than should be considered healthy (and he’s right he should have totally hosted the show). 

The power of nostalgia wins out in the end and there is a lot here to keep the children entertained too, who wouldn’t love the insanity of the Muppets. Hopefully this is a whole new start for the Muppets.