The Muppets Review

After thirty years, the Muppets have finally made a mainstream return in the form of Disney’s The Muppets, a re-imagining  of the beloved children's’ series starring lovable hand puppets of all shapes and sizes. This time, the formula is injected with a modern twist in the form of a plot that tries valiantly to follow both the exploits of a human couple with ties to the Muppets, and the troubles of the living puppets themselves. This gamble only partially pays off, however. Neither story feels fully realized and both tales end up feeling rather incomplete by the time the credits roll.

Based in a world where the living puppets are more or less accepted in society and are never questioned or pointed out as abnormal, the film centers around puppet Walter and his friend (brother?) Gary (Jason Segel), who is planning a vacation to Los Angeles with his longtime girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams). He happily takes Walter along for the trip to see the now run-down Muppet Studios, which Walter has come to idolize, despite Mary’s hidden disappointment towards Gary’s devotion to Walter. Soon, Walter has discovered the plans of an evil philanthropist (Chris Cooper) to buy Muppet Studios and harvest the oil underneath. The trio locates down-and-out Kermit the Frog and together they set out to put on a big reunion show to raise the money necessary to keep their lease on the studio. The plot is pretty standard stuff and, disappointingly, never goes anywhere, failing even to provide any unexpected twists. 

However, the real stars of The Muppets are, of course, the Muppets, and it’s here that the film manages to redeem itself to an extent. It’s still as fun as it ever was to watch Animal go crazy on his drumset, and Fozzie bear’s terrible jokes still retain some groan-inducing laugher all these years later. Most of the film’s last third or so is made up of a good ol’ Muppet telethon, and this portion ends up being not only the most nostalgic, but the strongest portion of the film. 

These classic antics still work well, but many of the new elements the film tries to pull off fall a tad flat. The relationship between Kermit and Ms. Piggie, while amusing, doesn’t provide any emotional depth. The human aspect of the film is shallow and formulaic. While Segel and Adams play off each other well, ultimately neither of their characters are all too interesting. First they love each other, then there’s tension, then there’s the apology and then (spoiler alert!) he proposes. It’s all very conventional and, though it’s new content as far as the Muppet formula goes, it isn’t fresh in any other context.

A big part of the original Muppet Show was celebrity guests, and The Muppets pulls no stops on this front. There are plentiful cameos and even a few reoccurring characters with substantial ties to the plot whom I won’t spoil for you, as those moments that make you think to yourself “Wow! I never thought I would see _______ in a movies about the Muppets!” are some of the best the film has to offer. 

It’s hard to classify The Muppets in any distinct genre. At first, it seems like it wants to be a musical, boasting some particularly catchy songs in the first third of the film. Then the cast largely goes silent on the musical front (with a couple exceptions, including the hysterical "Man or Muppet", a highlight of the film) and we start to get near-uncountable references to pop culture of all kinds. Towards the end, it stars to feel like it’s trying to reignite some sort of television or film franchise based on the Muppet brand by leaving things largely open. But throughout all of this, The Muppets is so ridiculously over-the-top that it’s darn near impossible to take seriously, and this is both a strength and a weakness of the film. At times it feels only natural that the gang be this insane, but during other scenes, particularly those involving human characters, the goofyness becomes unnatural and even awkward. 

I wanted to love The Muppets. I wanted to walk out of the theatre ready for a revitalized franchise to take shape, whether that meant a film saga or a new Muppets series. But after seeing the end result, I’m not sure whether this gang of thought-to-be-timeless puppets is quite ready to take on the demands of the modern entertainment scene. The film is always entertaining, but rarely coherent and often feels disappointingly dated. If you’re a hardcore Muppets fan, odds are you will enjoy this. But these puppets have a very distinct way of doing things, and from what this movies tells me it’s not going to do much to entice a new generation of fans. 

Final Score:

6.0/10
"Satisfactory"