The best compliment that can be given to “The Muppets” is that it feels like a Muppet movie.
The cheerful songs, the witticism and beloved characters are all here in this whimsical revival. Kermit the Frog and crew are back and Jim would no doubt be proud.
Walter is your average young man from Smalltown, USA. It’s a small town (hence the name), a slice of Americana that seems warm and inviting enough (the townsfolk do skip around performing a musical number called “Life’s a Happy Song” and all) but Walter just doesn’t fit in. While his brother Gary (Jason Segal) is perfectly “normal” with a girlfriend, human hair and a large body covered in skin, Walter is about three feet tall and made of felt. He can’t help it, he was born that way.
This may be the reason Walter has always been a huge fan of the Muppets since the days long ago when the gang was relevant and vital. Walter can relate to them. When Gary decides to take his looooong time girl, Mary (Amy Adams), to Hollywood for a little romantic vacation to celebrate 10 years of going steady, he asks Walter along so that they can visit the historic Muppet Studios.
They find the studios abandoned and ran down. The Muppets have long since disbanded, leaving behind a sad and dilapidated theater where the magic once happened so long ago. Walter conveniently uncovers an oil baron’s plot to take over the studio and tear it down to get to the oil beneath. He must be stopped! Walter finds Kermit (voiced by Steve Whitmire) to explain the horrible situation and they spend the majority of the movie getting the band back together so that can put on a show and raise the money to buy the studios back. Sounds about right.
While it is an amazing thrill to see Fozzie, Gonzo and all your favorites back on the big screen, the real star here is the giant human that brought them all together. Jason Segal, along with his writing partner Nicholas Stoller, have pulled off an ambitious feat and re-imagined these cherished characters while staying completely true to the source. The songs work (the hilariously contemplative “Muppet or Man” is a gem), the plot goes right with “The Muppet Movie” as a companion piece and, most importantly the movie is fun! I could go and try to find a better, more fluffy/pretentious word to describe it but fun is the most precise.
First time director James Bobin is also to blame for capturing the marvelous madness of the Muppets. Bobin has cut his teeth on some subversive comedy projects, directing large chunks of the “Da Ali G Show” with Sacha Baron Cohen and co-creating “The Flight of the Concords”. While these shows are aimed squarely at adults, the sensibility is very comparable to the Muppets, especially the “Concords” with its abstract storytelling and existential songs. With Bobin, Segal and Stoller you see current funnymen who have been heavily influenced by the Muppets (this would explain the Dracula puppet show that closes Segal and Stoller’s “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”). As soon as they had some clout in Hollywood, they ran to this project and have given us a real, true labor of love.