The Muppets review

Walter: ...and then, when he thought they were alone, he said, "There's oil under this theater, see! I'm gonna tear it to the ground, see! Sweet, sweet oil, see!" 
Mary: People still talk like that? 
Walter: Maybe that's just how he sounded in my head. 

Director: James Bobin
(2011)

I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting much when I put the Muppets into my blu ray player. It does, after all, star a bunch of puppets that sing and dance to infectiously catchy music. A short while into the film, my expectations were being met quite considerably. There was nothing in the way of worthwhile plot, plenty of one dimensional characters and a perpetually smiling Jason Segal. But once you look past how shallow everything appears, the Muppets is actually a pretty decent film.

As mentioned above, the plot is flimsy at the best of times. The film follows new puppet Walter, his human brother Gary (Jason Segal) and Gary’s girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams). The trio uncovers the plan of evil oil baron Tex Richman to destroy the Muppet theatre for the oil that lies underneath. Enlisting the help of Kermit, they team up to reunite the gang to perform one last show, with hopes to raise enough cash to save said theatre. The first half of the film is like a road trip movie as we become reacquainted with the old gang. This alone will sell the film to many Muppets fans. Everyone’s favourite Muppets make an appearance, complete with their still charming characteristics. One hilarious Meta gag later (a character suggests that it would be quicker to collect the remaining Muppets by montage) and the whole crew is back together, ready to perform. The runtime is ambitious, but a slew of very funny jokes are sprinkled into the spaces where the plot should be. Rather fittingly, cameos are frequent, and Jack Black and Animal attend an anger management class together is sidesplitting. While roles by Neil Patrick Harris and Jim parsons are integrated successfully into proceedings, Selena Gomez seems to only be here because she works for Disney.

Being a Muppets film, there are a fair few musical numbers present. Some are good (the Oscar winning ‘Man or Muppet’) some are rehashes (Rainbow Connection) and some aren’t even Muppet songs (Starships ‘We Built This City’ feels slightly out of place here). The chickens doing their version of Cee Lo Greens ‘forget you’ was a horrible decision though, and marked one of the few times the film failed to put a smile on my face. A special mention should go to Chris coopers rap scene, check out the bonus features to see the full version, very much as weird as it is funny.

So yeah, in many ways the Muppets exhibits the traits of a bad film, but its humour, characters and feel good vibe renders these flaws almost irrelevant. While it’s so sweet you can feel your teeth begin to decay, but the chance to see everyone’s favourite puppets together singing songs and cracking jokes is well worth the metaphorical fillings.

7