Muppets

We saw The Muppets last night, and we saw the late show. I only mention this because that dictates the type of audience you get, meaning no kids, a handful of adults, and some teens.

I'll start by saying I really liked the movie. If I could do half-stars, I think I'd give it a 4.5 out of 5. I'm a huge Muppet fan; love the sense of humor, but mostly love it for its pure creativity, and I truly enjoy those little characters as if they were real, which is how it's supposed to be. I've been known to cry a few times listening to Kermit sing "It's Not Easy Being Green." And I gotta say when they were panning through Kermit's old office last night, looking at all the banjos on the wall, the pictures with multiple guests on The Muppet Show, and numerous other iconic props, I teared up.

We saw the movie with my cousin and his fiancé, who are also fans. The rest of the people in the theatre, hard to tell. We were definitely the 'most-laughing' group in there. And as I mentioned there were teens there too, who, as teens usually are these days, were completely disrespectful of everyone else there and annoying. They made fun of the movie the entire time. Why in the world would you go see something you have no intention of liking? And when they weren't doing that, they were talking, for the whole theater to hear. I seriously contemplated being that chick who walks out, asks management to ask them to leave, and hope they can't subconsciously pick out my car in the parking lot. It was beyond annoying. So this leads me to my [now obvious] realization: if you are under the age of, let's say, 20, you should not see this movie. Exceptions to this rule are if you are indeed a Muppet fan, like British and dry humor, or are involved in the arts somehow.

So moving on from that. The movie was great. They took an angle to the story similar to Toy Story 3. In Toy Story 3, the 'old toys' are dealing with the fact that Andy got older and doesn't play with them any more, and they've been kind of forgotten about. It had been ten years, I believe, since the previous Toy Story 2, so that is exactly what they acknowledged with the story: Hey, it's been ten years, so let's do that and ask what has changed in the last ten years? The Muppets is a similar thing. The story is set up around the fact that it's been years since their last gig, and they've been forgotten about and replaced by other things. So they try to round up the gang, and you get to see what each Muppet found a separate career in once "the old gang" fell apart. The story itself felt natural and geniune, as did Toy Story, because it is fans like myself revisiting things we loved in our childhood that have since gone by the wayside.

I don't think it was quite the epic, comic genius of Jim Henson 30 years ago, but it was as good as it will ever get for modern times. Yeah, some of the voices were a little off, but the differences were forgivable. The jokes were very well done though, and they referenced themselves often just like they used to; referring to the camera being there, Statler and Waldorf asked a question and were like "Did we just reveal a key to the plot?" "Well I hope so, otherwise I just wasted the audience's time!" "Doh-oh-oh-oh!", etc.

There were a few more songs than normal, though. Even though I'm a fan of musicals, some of them just felt unnatural. When Amy Adams sang a song solo at a diner, it just felt kind of off. That song was not needed. But! Many of the other songs were hilarious and the lyrics would take you where you didn't think they would go, one of my favorites being the "Am I a Muppet? Or am I a Man?" or whatever it's true title is.

I had heard from a movie critic that Jason Segel, who helped write, and the director, James Bobin, approached this movie very carefully. They didn't want to blow it out of the water or make it so over the top, as many movies are these days (kids ones especially.) They really wanted to make it like the Muppets they remembered as a kid. I appreciate that, and it definitely came through. They did NOT try to outdo the movies of old, just be on par with them. All in all, it was a lot of fun and if you laughed at the Muppets back then, you should give it a shot.