Muppets Film Review

The Muppet Movie is stupendous. It has all the fresh and humorous moments that any movie, not just a kids’ movie, would need to be considered interesting. The film starts out, surprisingly, not with the Muppets but with two brothers in a quaint small town. The only thing odd is that one’s a puppet and one is not. The film could have easily turned cliché in the first twenty minutes when they set up the three main characters. Luckily, it’s mostly played for laughs. They sing, they dance, and they have loving relationships that last for years. Instead of groaning and sighing over these overused Hollywood tropes, however, you have to laugh because you know they are making fun of themselves; a benchmark of any Muppets production.

The main character is Walter, played by Peter Linz, a young puppet struggling to keep up with his human brother Gary and to ‘fit in’ as any piece of felt trapped in a human world would do. Gary, Jason Segal, on the other hand is struggling to let go of his brother and live his own life, a choice that is brought up from his long-term girlfriend Mary, Amy Adams. Gary and Mary are celebrating their ten-year anniversary in Los Angeles and Walter tags along because he wants to see the Muppets Studio. While some people find it strange that it’s a good twenty minutes into the film before we see the Muppets themselves, I praise the film for taking the time to develop the plot and not rushing in with too many new characters.

Having only seen their first movie and a few Christmas specials, the Muppets are not only in character but also do not change their personality to fit the modern audience. Miss Piggy remains Miss Piggy, with all of her lovable bluntness and presumption. Kermit is still the shy and soft-spoken leader. In a rounding-up-the-gang montage, packed full of jokes, Gonzo and Animal get their own entertaining subplot.

This film does suffer from an overwhelming number of cameos. At the beginning it is a bit subtler but by the finale it gets to the point of being ridiculously dragged out. There’s been some criticism that has surfaced due to the main villain being an “evil” oil company CEO named ‘Tex Richman’ played by Chris Cooper. I, however, found it another over-the-top performance played for laughs. We shouldn’t dwell too deeply in the politics behind a kids’ movie.

Overall the fantastic plot, character development, and two-second jokes are probably the funniest parts of the movie. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to see a well-done, humorous, and nostalgic movie.

Tags: general interest, music and arts, sibleyscribe