Running Time: 1 hour, 38 minutes
Rating: PG
Director: James Bobin
Quick Impressions:
I’ve taken a long time to write this review because I just don’t know what to say about The Muppets. I saw the movie over a week ago on opening day, and I was extremely, almost uncharacteristically excited about it. I had high hopes for Muppet rejuvenation because I like Jason Segel and thought his use of puppets to put on a Dracula musical at the end of Forgetting Sarah Marshall showed the right kind of enthusiasm and genuine love for all things Muppety. And I liked the movie. I didn’t love it, but I found it about nine hundred times better than anything the Muppets have done since the horribly premature death of Jim Henson in 1990.
For my money, there are three good Muppet feature films—The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper (my favorite), and The Muppets Take Manhattan. The movies that came after that just aren’t as good, although A Muppet Christmas Carol is, at least, watchable. The specials the Muppets have done for TV (after Jim Henson’s death, I mean), have been awful, just awful. They’re always more disappointing because you watch them hoping against hope that they’ll be able to recapture at least some of the magic that the Muppets originally brought to the screen.
A decided improvement over post Henson projects that have come before, The Muppets was enjoyable from start to finish. I didn’t find it as funny as I’d hoped, but its heart was in the right place for sure, and it wasn’t as sappy and pointless as a lot of the other Muppet outings since Henson’s death.
The Good:
The music in this movie is phenomenal, so cheerful, innocently amusing, and catchy. I loved it, particularly the infectious “Man or a Muppet” song which I haven’t been able to stop singing since I left the theater. I left the movie and immediately bought the soundtrack, even though it meant going to two stores and looking pretty hard. Normally, I buy all media from amazon.com, so the music definitely made an impression.
As the end credits rolled, I made the discovery that the songs were written by Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords. (That made sense since the movie was directed by Conchord’s director James Bobbin, and Kristen Schaal had a long cameo.)
What makes the Muppets so uniquely charming is that they offer a naively skewed view of the world. Their humor is funny because it’s innocent, sincere, enthusiastic, but a little bit off (in a way that they don’t realize). The off-kilter humor brought by Jason Segel, Nick Stoller, James Bobin, and Bret McKenzie is slightly different than the equally zany humor that the Muppets used to bring in Henson’s day. But it’s still funny and charming and feels refreshingly new and alive (instead of stale, desperate, and hollow like other post-Henson Muppet outings have been).
The decision to make the movie a musical was brilliant. I don’t think a Muppet movie could have succeeded without rousing musical numbers. The music is the heart of the movie, and many of the best, brightest, funniest, and most touching moments come during song.
The Muppets also succeeds by remembering its origins. Several jokes within the movie are funny because they echo moments in earlier Muppet movies. The film also offers scenes that we would expect from Muppet movies—i.e. Kermit and Piggy walking through the city having a lover’s quarrel, a rallying of the other Muppets to help Kermit when he’s given up hope, Kermit giving a heart-warming speech that inspires everyone around to break into song.
Funniest Scene:
I love Kermit’s reaction when he learns how the others have taken it upon themselves to procure a guest host.
Best Scene Visually:
My favorite part of the entire movie was the “Man or a Muppet” song, including a brilliant cameo featuring the perfect actor to play Walter’s reflection. Another great visual moment comes when Kermit walks through his empty mansion, looking up wistfully at the portraits on the wall while singing “Pictures in my Head.”
Best Joke:
Lots of the humor provokes smiles instead of laughter—stuff like 1980s robot and the option to travel by map—but they’re genuine smiles, not forced ones. Several of the cameos are quite clever, jokes in and of themselves.
Some of the most amusing and delightful moments of the movie come during the actual show that the Muppets put on during their telethon. Watching these numbers really made me wish for a revival of The Muppet Show.
Best Scene:
The best scenes in the movie belong, of course, to the Muppets. I’m particularly fond of Miss Piggy’s first scene, and the scenes of Kermit rounding up the old gang also provide lots of laughs and sentimental moments.
But I have to say, it’s pretty amazing that Jason Segel and Amy Adams are able to pull off an entire opening musical number without any Muppets involved. (I realize that Walter’s involved, but he’s a very manly Muppet, and nobody came to the movie clamoring to see Walter.) Amy Adams is probably the perfect actress for this role, and Jason Segel does a truly amazing job. Such an exuberant display of wide-eyed innocence can backfire horribly if the audience laughs at you instead of with you, but here it works because Segel and Adams remain completely in character and true to the spirit of the film.
The Performances:
After Jim Henson died, I had a really hard time adjusting to a new voice for Kermit the Frog. Now I’m used to Kermit, but all the characters formerly voiced by Frank Oz sound really off to me.
That said, all of the performances in the film are very solid. I’ve already praised Jason Segel and Amy Adams. Chris Cooper seems to be having a ball as mirthless oil baron Tex Richman. I’ve never seen him in a part this unabashedly zany before. I’d imagine it’s an enjoyable departure from his usual serious roles. All the people in cameo parts seem to be having loads of fun, and Rashida Jones gets in the right spirit, as well, as stressed television executive Veronica.
The Negatives:
The movie makes you smile. The only thing more cheerful than the catchy songs are the faces of all the actors. It could have been a little funnier, but it certainly couldn’t have been any happier.
I do think they should have given more backstory for the villain. Listening to the soundtrack on the ride home, I discovered a bridge in Tex Richman’s rap that was cut from the movie (probably for time, possibly because it’s not very easy on the ears). In the bridge, Richman explains clearly and directly his motivation for hating the Muppets so much. Even though the movie does explain his motives very briefly in a late scene, the comment is easy to miss, and for those who don’t catch it, his earlier behavior may seem quite baffling.
My only other complaint is just a personal quibble. Old Muppets outings featured Kermit as the undisputed protagonist. It was odd to also have a human story in the mix. (Of course, Gary and Mary had the right kind of childlike innocence and Muppety enthusiasm.) I realize that the Muppets aren’t as famous as they used to be—but they’re still a lot more famous than Walter. It’s not like younger generations were introduced to the Muppets by characters they already know and love. How many elementary school kids know and love Jason Segel? Surely he’s not this generation’s Kermit the Frog! Still, the movie turned out well, and I suppose since I’m already a fan of both the Muppets and Segel, I have no right to complain.
Overall:
I can’t imagine that anyone would regret seeing this movie. The mood is positive (to say the least), the songs are wonderful, the humor is inoffensive, and the characters winning. The Muppets are back, and I hope they’ll be back again soon.