The Muppets

Starring: Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper

Directed by: James Bobin

Rating: I Liked It

I have been a Muppet fan since I was a kid.  Honestly, I've watched very little of the show, but I am a huge fan of all of the movies: The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and the Muppet specials.  "Muppet Family Christmas" is one of my favorite holiday specials ever.  I even enjoyed the later Muppet films like Muppets from Space and Muppet Treasure Island that a lot of people didn't care for very much.

With that said, I can't quite put my finger on what didn't quite come together in this film.  I did enjoy several parts of it, but overall, it didn't hit the same level as its predecessors.  I'll cover some of what I think the issues were below...

The Good:

• If they movie had been awful, I wouldn't make this statement, but it wasn't awful.  Seeing the Muppets on the big screen again in any capacity is well worth the wait.  
• Chris Cooper raps one of the main musical numbers in the film.  That's right: Chris.  Copper.  Raps.  
• The musical numbers in general were pretty good.  If you can get past the overly corny opening number, you'll be all set.  
• Fozzy Bear has graying eye brows.  It was a nice added touch.  
• I liked all the actors that did cameos.  One in particular, I won't spoil it, was awesome.  
• The brightest parts of the film are toward the end when the Muppets actually put on the show.
• Getting to see Kermit, Piggy and then the rest of the gang to a rendition of "Rainbow Connection" was priceless.  

The Bad

• Some of the voices were spot on to the original: Kermit, Piggy, Dr. Teeth, etc.  Some of the voices were just different enough to notice.  I know there isn't a lot you can do, and I'm not blaming anyone, but you'll really miss Frank Oz and Jim Henson here.  
•  The cameos in this film were a little too short for the most part.  Some of the actors were on screen for only a second and didn't even have speaking parts.  What happened to spots where people like Steve Martin played a waiter and had a few lines? 
• There were a few Muppets that I thought should have had bigger parts.  We didn't see Rizzo at all hardly, Pepe was only in one scene, and a lot of the side characters were only in the background.  It was almost like the movie focused too much on the human actors and not enough on the Muppets.  In a movie like this, the human characters should play second fiddle to the Muppets, but Segel and Adams had one of the main plot points pushing the story.  I felt like their part could have been played down some.  

The Ugly: 

• There was a somewhat epic failure to capture the humor the Muppets once carried so well:
• Statler and Waldorf's jokes weren't very clever at all.  They were mostly severely corny word plays.  
• The human characters (with the exception of Cooper) were trying to be Muppets almost.  Don't do that!  Play your supporting role as a human.  
• The gags were just cheesy, and the ones that were good were ruined by pushing the punchline too far.  For example, the crew "travels by map" at one point to France to get Miss Piggy.  It's a clever idea where we see the red line form on the map and the car pulls up out of the ocean and onto a beach in Cannes.  The one step too far?  Segel rolls down his window and takes a breath like he had been holding it the whole trip. 

Overall, the movie definitely had its moments.  It was much more emotional toward the end than any other Muppet film I've seen.  I think the main issue comes with trying to bring something from a different generation of comedy to modern times.  It was almost too wholesome.  The Muppets always balanced the line between adult and child entertainment.  Disney knows how to do this well, too.  Look at the Pixar films (i.e. Kids obviously aren't going to understand a "lazer envy" joke in Toy Story), they walk that line very well.  

I was really, really excited to see this; so, maybe my expectations were too high.  Then again, they were built up by the trailers that led up to the film's release.  The trailers seemed like the writers and director had gotten a pretty good grasp on this type of comedy.  Unfortunately, I feel like they fell a little short.  On the other hand, characters themselves were exactly what they should have been, and I love that the Muppets are still just that: lovable puppets to which we can all relate. 

All of the teaser spoof trailers for the movie were great, but I think this is my favorite.  

I recommend checking them all out if you haven't.