Review of The Muppets (2011) by Melvin W — 21 Jul 2012

Walter: Kermit, you're my hero. You're on my watch. .

"Muppet Domination".

I have to admit that I have never been a big fan of the Muppets. It wasn't a big thing when I was growing up, so I never got that into it. With that said, I liked this movie to the extent that I could. Obviously, I'm not the target audience for this one. This is for lovers of the Muppets, young and old. People who grew up on these guys will absolutely love the film, but for me, I felt out of the loop. There's a lot of self-referencing jokes and of course I'm not going to get most of them. So, I wasn't able to get everything out of the movie that big fans were. .

The Muppets follow two brothers, one a puppet, Walter, and the other a human, Gary. They take a trip to LA to see the Muppet studio, which is decrepit. They also learn that an oil tycoon plans to tear it down and drill for oil. So, the two and Gary's longtime girlfriend find and tell Kermit. In order to save the place, they must raise $10 million. In order to do that, Kermit, with the help of the three fans, gets all the Muppets back together to put on a telethon to raise the money. .

The Muppets was actually a pretty fun time, even for someone like me who isn't familiar with them. There's a huge cast and endless cameos. Jason Segel and Amy Adams are front and stage along with The Muppets themselves. Also making appearances are Emily Blunt, Rashida Jones, Neil Patrick Harris, Jim Parsons, Mickey Rooney, Jack Black and countless more. The movie is pretty big for a children's feature and there's a lot of in-jokes. To the extent that I got the humor, it was actually quite funny.

I wasn't able to love it to the extent that many others did, but I still feel comfortable saying this is a good film. I'm sure it was a nice piece of nostalgia for all the adults that grew up on it and I'm sure they were happy to shoe it to their kids to maybe get them interested in it. It's a joyous film that the whole family can enjoy and who knows, maybe this is a new start for the Muppet franchise.