The Muppets

It seems odd to me that kids and teens these days didn’t know about the Muppets. I kind of thought they were like Mickey Mouse in how they are always popular but apparently not. Jason Segel wrote and stars in the new film appropriately named The Muppets. After his big screen puppet debut in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, his involvement makes sense. The story follows Segels’s character, his brother Walter (a puppet) and his girlfriend (Amy Adams) as they go on vacation in California. While there, they learn a plot to destroy the Muppet Theater and must reunite Kermit and the gang to stop it from happening.

To be honest, most of the previous Muppet movies have premises much more ridiculous than this, so the simple concept works well. As this is essentially a re-introduction into pop culture, each character is given a scene to show what they are all about. That process makes the film very episodic, but still funny. That is why The Muppets is successful; the script never loses sight of the main objective, witty comedy. I don’t think the film toes the line of risqué as much as the characters used to in their heyday, but they’re just getting their feet wet again.

Possibly the funniest parts of the movie hails from celebrity cameos, but some of them are too obscure. In one scene it is revealed what Segel would look like as a Muppet and alternately what Walter would look like as a human. I found this to be the most effective cameo in the film. Unfortunately, I am going to make you see the movie to find out who it is. But overall, The Muppets is great return for the iconic characters, even if the last third of the film is one giant episode of The Muppet Show. If there are going to be countless franchises directed towards children, I don’t see why The Muppets shouldn’t be one. Welcome back. (8.2 out of 10)