Walt Disney Pictures,
Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper, Rashida Jones, Alan Arkin, Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman, Emily Blunt
Gary (Jason Segel) and his muppetlike brother Walter (PeterLinz, voice) are huge Muppet fans. Walter’s dream is to someday visit the Muppet Studio in Hollywood. Gary and his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) are about to celebrate their 10 year anniversary of going together by taking a romantic trip to Los Angeles, and the surprise is that they are talking Walter along. First stop is the Muppet Studios but Walter discovers that the Muppets are all separated and the studio is in ruin. Not only that, but evil rich man Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) is planning to buy the property to tear it down and drill for oil on the property. Walter and Gary track down Kermit to try to put the band back together for one show to raise the money to save the studio.
So Jake is released from prison and picked up by his brother Elwood, and they head of on a quest from God to put the band back together and save the orphanage for the penguins. Oops. Wrong movie, but same story. But for those of us who have spent most of our lives with the lovable Muppets, it’s really nice to see them again. Really this is a pretty decent film. I’m not sure they needed Gary and Mary as full sized live people to interact with the muppet characters, but I guess it’s ok. They deal with lots of humans anyway, so it’s ok. The story of Mary wanting a quiet and romantic anniversary dinner alone without Walter is probably the only slow part of the story, but it does help to setup the Muppet style ending. The best part is how well developed the personalities of these cloth and wire characters are, and how we recognize their idiosyncrasies right away. There are some really funny scenes as well.
This is technically a sequel to The Muppet Movie from 1979. The Muppet Movie was by far the greatest of the series of full length Muppet films. That movie covered how Kermit the Frog left the swamp seeking fame and fortune in Hollywood and how he picked up the whole gang along the way on this adventure. This film covers what happens after the Muppet Show (weekly TV show) is cancelled, and the Muppets go into retirement. But a lot of the music and jokes, and especially references from the original movie are brought into this film. I don’t want to give too much away, but many of these references are really funny. There are some cool cameos too, just like in the original.
All in all, this is a great film for both children and adults. The Muppet humor has always been very clever, but the characters and songs keep the kids attention, while the adults catch the puns and jabs that go over the kids heads. (For example, I love how this guy keep calling Kermit “Mr. The Frog”.) I really enjoyed this, and I am really sad that I had to wait SO long to get this film out of Netflix! I was on vacation the week it finally arrived and I got caught in the “Very Long Wait” trap! I gotta start using my Redbox account in these cases! If you haven’t seen this yet (although I’m pretty sure you probably have), I recommend you pick this one up, and have a neat family movie night. This is one of the best family films in 2011.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
