Bringing the Muppets back to the big screen smacks of everything that’s wrong with movies today. It’s yet another attempt to squeeze a few dollars out of a moldy franchise.
Don’t tell that to Jason Segel.
The “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” star is a Muppet true believer, and when given the chance to reboot the felt-laden franchise he refused to settle for mediocrity.
Segel’s “Muppets” – he co-wrote and stars in the film – rekindles the humor and charm of Jim Henson’s creations while acknowledging how awkwardly they fit in the 21st century. Kid’s films are all about 3D glasses, Buzz Lightyear and computer animation, not old-school puppets who live to put on a show as if it were still 1979.
If any kiddie franchise can yank audiences back in time, it’s the new, improved “Muppets.”
The film introduces us to Walter, a human-like muppet voiced by Peter Linz. Walter and his brother Gary (Segel) embark on a tourist trip to Los Angeles where they plan to visit the old Muppets studios. Gary’s longtime squeeze, Mary (Amy Adams), comes along for the ride, but she hopes to get some alone time with her beau.
The old studios look like they would need a massive restoration just to be worth condemning, but a game Walter enters all the same just to soak in the memories. He ends up overhearing a plot by an evil oil baron (Chris Cooper) to raze the place and suck up the black gold buried underneath.
That simply won’t do, so Walter, Gary and Mary set out to find Kermit the Frog to see if he can somehow stop the oil baron from completing his wicked plans. But Kermit hasn’t seen the old Muppet gang in ages, and even if he can reunite them it’s still a long shot that they can raise enough money to buy back their old turf.
Never count out the Muppets, or a movie packed with enough meta-gags to make the “Scream” franchise blush.
“The Muppets” isn’t ashamed to acknowledge the culture deficit in play. Rashida Jones of “The Office” plays a TV executive who bluntly tells Kermit the Muppets are about as hip as Right Said Fred. That won’t stop them from putting on a show or Segel from instigating a number of bouncy musical numbers along the way.
“Muppet” movies are known for their celebrity cameos, but the new film struggles to make the most of its middling star power. Jack Black scores some laughs as both an anger management guru trying to tame Animal the drummer and, later, as an addled version of himself forced to co-host the reunion show. But other celebrities, like Selena Gomez, Neil Patrick Harris and Whoopi Goldberg, simply enter the frame, acknowledge the crowd and leave without firing off a funny line.
Why bother showing up? And does a Muppet film really need the Ragin’ Cajun himself, James Carville, to make an appearance?
The film’s early musical numbers are so enchanting you wish they’d decorate the rest of the film. But “The Muppets” forgo singing and dancing in order to get the gang back together, a feat made possible by a goofy “travel by map” plot device. If you’ve ever seen a film use dots on a geographic map to plot the hero’s course, you’ll grin like a toddler at the gag.
Segel isn’t as comfortable with the dance numbers as Adams, but he can’t so much as nudge that big, ol’ grin off his face. He’s earned it. He helped bring some old friends back to the big screen with all their humor and integrity intact.