Movie Review
Getting the Gang Together Again
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: November 22, 2011
How do you reboot an entertainment
juggernaut that began to fade before most of its young audience was
born? In the case of the Muppets, you make a leap of faith and hope that
the charm of these Jim Henson creations, which once flooded children’s
television and movies, remains irresistible.
Realizing the potential for consumer
burnout, you overlook that the later Muppet movies disappointed at the
box office. (Maybe it was time for a break.) You trust that if you do it
right, Generation X moviegoers, for whom the Muppets are the
near-sacred equivalents of the baby boomers’ Howdy Doody troop, will
welcome them back with open arms and misty eyes and take their children.
And so you have “The Muppets,” Disney’s endearing, silly, smiley-faced movie directed by James Bobin (“Flight of the Conchords,” “Da Ali G Show”) and arriving on a marketing tsunami. The happy news is that it has been done just about right, which means conceptually and technologically left alone.
These are the same old, adorable Muppets, as sweetly innocent and likable as ever. Winking at itself, the movie is casually, amusingly self-reflexive. In one joke Kermit the Frog considers telephoning President Carter. “The Muppets” makes no attempt to match the wisecracking hipness of the “Shrek” movies. If it doesn’t provoke belly laughs, it elicits many affectionate chuckles.
The score features more than a dozen songs, including the inevitable “Rainbow Connection,” done as a banjo-laced singalong. There is a rap number, and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” arranged as a barbershop quartet. New songs by the musical director, Bret McKenzie, include a ballad that asks, “Am I a man or am I a Muppet?” The answer to that rhetorical question, whether you are human or a Muppet, is, of course, both.
To resurrect the franchise, Disney enlisted Jason Segel, the star of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” and that movie’s director, Nicholas Stoller, as screenwriters. Mr. Segel, an outspoken Muppet devotee, plays Gary, an overgrown child who shares a house in Smalltown, U.S.A., with his brother, Walter, a puppet so obsessed with his famous TV counterparts that he dreams of becoming one of them.
With his flailing body language, Mr. Segel’s gawky and naïve Gary recalls Pee-wee Herman. To celebrate his chaste 10-year relationship with his girlfriend, Mary (Amy Adams), he decides to take the three of them to Los Angeles to visit the Muppets’ studio.
What used to be a thriving entertainment factory has fallen into such disrepair that it resembles a creepy, abandoned museum. Itching to buy the place, tear it down and drill for oil is Tex Richman (Chris Cooper), wittily played as a hissable archvillain and Muppets hater with a reptilian squint.
To save the place, Gary and Walter decide to round up the dispersed Muppets and do the old Mickey-and-Judy thing of putting on a show to raise the $10 million needed to buy the studio and save it. Kermit, whom they discover in a Bel Air mansion, leads the roundup. Fozzie Bear is found in a Reno, Nev., dive, performing with a second-rate Muppets tribute band, the Moopets. Gonzo, a plumbing magnate, and Animal, who is taking a course in anger management, follow, as do the rest. Plans are laid for a reunion telethon, but no network is interested.
“In this market you guys are no longer relevant,” declares a snippy TV executive (Rashida Jones), who voices the challenge facing Disney. She changes her tune when an emergency leaves a hole in the schedule, and the Muppets are given a short deadline to fill in the gap.
The most reluctant recruit, Miss Piggy, now the editor of French Vogue, is still miffed at Kermit’s shyness toward her. Their stalled romance parallels the courtship of Gary and Mary, which almost ends when he forgets their anniversary.
For the final telethon the Muppets kidnap Jack Black, who is not especially well used in the movie, to be their celebrity host. At the last minute the stage-shy Walter, pressured to perform, discovers his special talent as an operatic whistler and wins his place in the Muppet clan, and the movie lays on the inspirational shtick.
If the reboot achieves commercial liftoff, which seems likely, there will be a lot more to come, and the rather bland Walter may develop a more defined personality. But the flaws are minor. The rainbow connection is a smooth, unbroken arch.
“The Muppets” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). It has some slightly off-color humor.
THE MUPPETS
Opens on Wednesday nationwide.
Directed by James Bobin; written by Nicholas Stoller and Jason Segel; director of photography, Don Burgess; edited by James Thomas; music by Christophe Beck; choreography by Michael Rooney; production design by Steve Saklad; costumes by Rahel Afiley; produced by David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman; released by Walt Disney Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes.
WITH: Jason Segel (Gary), Amy Adams (Mary), Chris Cooper (Tex Richman), Rashida Jones (Veronica), Jack Black (himself); and Walter, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, the Great Gonzo, Animal, Statler and Waldorf, Swedish Chef, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker, Sam Eagle, Rowlf the Dog, Scooter, and Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem Band.
And so you have “The Muppets,” Disney’s endearing, silly, smiley-faced movie directed by James Bobin (“Flight of the Conchords,” “Da Ali G Show”) and arriving on a marketing tsunami. The happy news is that it has been done just about right, which means conceptually and technologically left alone.
These are the same old, adorable Muppets, as sweetly innocent and likable as ever. Winking at itself, the movie is casually, amusingly self-reflexive. In one joke Kermit the Frog considers telephoning President Carter. “The Muppets” makes no attempt to match the wisecracking hipness of the “Shrek” movies. If it doesn’t provoke belly laughs, it elicits many affectionate chuckles.
The score features more than a dozen songs, including the inevitable “Rainbow Connection,” done as a banjo-laced singalong. There is a rap number, and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” arranged as a barbershop quartet. New songs by the musical director, Bret McKenzie, include a ballad that asks, “Am I a man or am I a Muppet?” The answer to that rhetorical question, whether you are human or a Muppet, is, of course, both.
To resurrect the franchise, Disney enlisted Jason Segel, the star of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” and that movie’s director, Nicholas Stoller, as screenwriters. Mr. Segel, an outspoken Muppet devotee, plays Gary, an overgrown child who shares a house in Smalltown, U.S.A., with his brother, Walter, a puppet so obsessed with his famous TV counterparts that he dreams of becoming one of them.
With his flailing body language, Mr. Segel’s gawky and naïve Gary recalls Pee-wee Herman. To celebrate his chaste 10-year relationship with his girlfriend, Mary (Amy Adams), he decides to take the three of them to Los Angeles to visit the Muppets’ studio.
What used to be a thriving entertainment factory has fallen into such disrepair that it resembles a creepy, abandoned museum. Itching to buy the place, tear it down and drill for oil is Tex Richman (Chris Cooper), wittily played as a hissable archvillain and Muppets hater with a reptilian squint.
To save the place, Gary and Walter decide to round up the dispersed Muppets and do the old Mickey-and-Judy thing of putting on a show to raise the $10 million needed to buy the studio and save it. Kermit, whom they discover in a Bel Air mansion, leads the roundup. Fozzie Bear is found in a Reno, Nev., dive, performing with a second-rate Muppets tribute band, the Moopets. Gonzo, a plumbing magnate, and Animal, who is taking a course in anger management, follow, as do the rest. Plans are laid for a reunion telethon, but no network is interested.
“In this market you guys are no longer relevant,” declares a snippy TV executive (Rashida Jones), who voices the challenge facing Disney. She changes her tune when an emergency leaves a hole in the schedule, and the Muppets are given a short deadline to fill in the gap.
The most reluctant recruit, Miss Piggy, now the editor of French Vogue, is still miffed at Kermit’s shyness toward her. Their stalled romance parallels the courtship of Gary and Mary, which almost ends when he forgets their anniversary.
For the final telethon the Muppets kidnap Jack Black, who is not especially well used in the movie, to be their celebrity host. At the last minute the stage-shy Walter, pressured to perform, discovers his special talent as an operatic whistler and wins his place in the Muppet clan, and the movie lays on the inspirational shtick.
If the reboot achieves commercial liftoff, which seems likely, there will be a lot more to come, and the rather bland Walter may develop a more defined personality. But the flaws are minor. The rainbow connection is a smooth, unbroken arch.
“The Muppets” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). It has some slightly off-color humor.
THE MUPPETS
Opens on Wednesday nationwide.
Directed by James Bobin; written by Nicholas Stoller and Jason Segel; director of photography, Don Burgess; edited by James Thomas; music by Christophe Beck; choreography by Michael Rooney; production design by Steve Saklad; costumes by Rahel Afiley; produced by David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman; released by Walt Disney Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes.
WITH: Jason Segel (Gary), Amy Adams (Mary), Chris Cooper (Tex Richman), Rashida Jones (Veronica), Jack Black (himself); and Walter, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, the Great Gonzo, Animal, Statler and Waldorf, Swedish Chef, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker, Sam Eagle, Rowlf the Dog, Scooter, and Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem Band.
More About This Movie
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Multimedia
Related
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Wocka, Wocka, Wocka! Muppet Antics Resume (November 20, 2011)
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It’s Time for Your Face-Lift, Miss Piggy (April 10, 2011)
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On Composing for Kermit the Frog (November 20, 2011)
