REVIEW The Muppets (2011)

The first of a few posts I have planned, that have been hanging around for a while, first up I review The Muppets.

I love the Muppets. The Muppet Show was before my time but I was still exposed to it at a young age. I watched all the movies and even the spin-off shows, Muppet Babies and Muppets Tonight, I just loved these characters.

Beyond that, I just loved Jim Henson. His work had an imagination, charm and sincerity that was missing from all the other entertainment I was exposed to as a kid. Where most childhood staples were cynical advertisements for toys, Jim Henson created original and unconventional designs that were not immediately marketable but had real heart and character.

I will admit I never quite got over the fact that Jim Henson died. When he died he took a bit of magic away from the world that we never got back. The Muppet product began to fall into disrepair, the films increasingly lost touch with what made the characters stand out from the crowd and, eventually, they disappeared. The last time the Muppets were a major presence on the big screen was in 1999, the last time they were on TV was 2005 in a forgettable Wizard of Oz remake.

So bringing the Muppets back is a tall order, especially since the coveted child demographic were barely a twinkle in their parents eye when the characters last mattered.

One of the best decisions that writers Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller made in resurrecting the characters was addressing their absence from pop culture.It’s part of the film’s story and theme, returning to the past as a way of paving way for the future.

It carefully uses nostalgia with a sincerity that I felt was missing from Super 8 (REVIEW), which left it feeling superficial. The Muppets has reverence for the past but understands why it worked so well; The Muppets are timeless. They don’t need changing or updating, it just needed to be done right, with a sly wink to the changing pop culture landscape and their struggles to adapt. Segel, Stoller and director James Bobin get it right.

My initial fear, when facing the marketing for The Muppets, was that the film would have a severe imbalance in terms of character focus; we got a lot of Jason Segel and Amy Adams but not quite so much Kermit and co. Thankfully, the film gets the balance right.

We have Walter, the newest Muppet and our window back into the world of The Muppets, and his mini existential crisis as he tries to wrestle with the idea of being a Muppet in a Man’s world. Then we have the relationship woes of Gary and Mary (Segel and Adams), with Gary struggling to find a perfect balance between being a good friend to Walter and being a good boyfriend to Mary. All the while Chris Cooper’s Tex Richman delivers some deadpan brilliance as the evil oil baron who can only express laughter by saying “Maniacal laugh.”

Then we have the Muppet gang; the main character arc belonging to Kermit as he tries to re-build some bridges with Miss Piggy after pushing her away.

Kermit has trouble vocalising his feelings for Piggy; he always looks at the bigger picture, trying to play the ring leader to his band of merry lunatics, but never narrows it down to the smaller picture. He wants what is best for everyone, overlooking what is best for him.

Despite her diva behaviour, Miss Piggy loves Kermit. She probably shouldn’t, she’s got champagne tastes and Kermit is soda pop, but all her superficiality and selfishness melts away when she looks at that frog. She just wants to be his world. That’s kind of beautiful.

Their relationship is given the most depth and heart since the original Muppet Movie, this development in their dynamic is just another way of paying tribute to what worked and giving it a dash of modern observation.

Even Animal gets a character arc, that’s pretty fantastic, I’m sure you’ll agree.

While the Muppet and human stars are well represented, the guest stars leave something to be desired. The Muppet Movie featured the likes of Mel Brooks, James Coburn, Dom DeLuise, Elliott Gould, Paul Williams, Bob Hope, Madeline Kahn, Steve Martin, Richard Pryor and Orson Welles. The most bankable stars to appear in The Muppets are Jack Black and Zach Galifianakis, with the majority of the guests are decidedly low rent, mainly being sitcom stars with the most popular faces being Jim Parsons from The Big Bang Theory and all he does is mime along to a song.

The Muppet Show attracted bigger names, while their lack of traction in pop culture is the overarching theme of the movie, it would have been nice to see some bigger names than Kung Fu Panda and Sheldon Cooper.

Aside from Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo et al, the one name that really drew me to this film was Bret McKenzie. One half of New Zealand folk-parody duo, The Flight of the Conchords, McKenzie was tasked with the job of writing the songs for this film, following in the footsteps of songwriting legend and regular Muppet collaborator Paul Williams. McKenzie does a great job, several tracks sound remarkably like something the Conchords would produce (Let’s Talk About Me, Man or Muppet ) but key tracks like Life’s a Happy Song and Pictures in My Head are quintessentially Muppet songs.

I was overjoyed to see the Paul Williams penned Rainbow Connection, originally from The Muppet Movie, returned for this film. I can’t help but get emotional during this song; it’s a beautiful piece of music that epitomises the optimism that Jim Henson brought to the world.

Mild spoilers…

I have one criticism regarding the music selection, and it’s purely related to ordering, but I wish Rainbow Connection was the Muppet Telethon’s finale, not Walter’s whistling Caruso. I felt Kermit and Miss Piggy’s story arc was more ‘present’ throughout the film than Walter’s existential crisis, despite that getting a song to it. I think Rainbow Connection cements, not only Kermit and Piggy’s reconciliation, but the moment where all these characters finally come together to become The Muppets again.

It’s a better musical piece, it’s more emotionally satisfying, and it’s a beautiful little tribute to Jim Henson’s legacy. Walter’s moment is nice but it feels like this newcomer snatching away the triumphant finale that these beloved characters deserve, he could have proven himself with his whistling performance prior to Kermit’s Rainbow Connection finale and then joined the other Muppets in the big chorus to show that he now belonged.

It’s my only real criticism of the film, just a minor tweak of the script and I would have zero qualms about giving this a full score.

…end spoilers.

The Muppet Telethon is generally the best stuff in the film, giving a glimpse at what it might be like to see The Muppet Show return and that’s exactly what I want to see more of; but that’s just another success of the movie. If The Muppet Movie was a wacky but heartfelt origins story to the original Muppet Show, this could serve as a wonderful equal to a Muppet Show revival.

It’s not as good as The Muppet Movie but it’s the best thing to happen to The Muppets in a world without Jim Henson, it’s the first time someone has even come close to recreating that magic. They did him proud.

Grade
A