Review: The Muppets

Every bit as good as any true Kermit fan’d hope it’d be, director James Bobin and writer/star Jason Segel’s The Muppets is a pure smile-maker. It’s an absolutely charming mix of clever but unsnarky self-awareness and pure jazz-hands song-and-dancery, with a handful of endearingly odd celeb cameos (Dave Grohl, Judd Hirsch) tossed in.

It’s the same mixture that creator Jim Henson used in the ‘70s transform a bunch of odd looking puppets into one of the weirdest success stories in TV history, and it’s played out here in a familiar and unironic fashion, one that’s so thoroughly enjoyable that one wonders why on Earth anyone let 12 years lapse between movies.

 

Walter (performed by Peter Linz) and Gary (Jason Segel) are brothers, growing up in “Smalltown, USA”.  Gary grows into a normal guy, dating a High School shop teacher (Amy Adams), while Walter becomes obsessed with the Muppets and their show, which he discovered via VHS. Soon the three are off to Hollywood to see the Muppets Studio, which has, unbeknownst to them, fallen into disrepair. After breaking into Kermit’s abandoned office, Walter overhears oil magnate Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) discussing his plan to buy the studio, tear it down and drill for oil – assuming that the Muppets can’t raise $10M by the purchase deadline to forestall his evil scheming.

 Soon, Gary, Walter and Kermit are on the road trying to reunite the gang, who have all gone their separate ways – Gonzo a plumbing scion, Fozzy performing in a ratty Reno Casino as part of “The Moopets”, a tribute band, and Miss Piggy ensconced in Parisian luxury as the editor of Vogue Plus Size.

 Of course, the show eventually goes on, as it were, featuring a handful of classic songs and some new ones (the chickens’ clucked version of “F**k You” was my favourite). Once we’re finally able to see the Muppets doing their weird Vaudevillian/Catskillian schtick (the movie is long. Long-long, over two hours, which is my only complaint), we’re reminded of what made them so good in the first place. There’s no come-on, no archness or insincerity whatsoever, but there is a vital intelligence to the whole thing that prevents its sunniness from crossing over into preachiness.

It’s funny and warm and not a bit schlocky, and that’s a winning formula in any decade. Thankfully the folks behind The Muppets – fellow fans, clearly – saw that, and were able to bring it unchanged and smiling into a new century, hopefully for a new generation of adoring kids.