A sign of a good movie: It’s carried the conversation for at least an hour after viewing. You’ll proudly admit to seeing it in theaters.
A sign of a great movie: Hours later, you can and still are quoting it. It’s also up for an Academy Award or two.
The sign of an instant classic: Well, that requires a little more explanation.
Directed by James Bobin, “The Muppets” finally puts its namesakes back where they belong—on top.
It seems easy enough. After all, who doesn’t love the Muppets?
But after several failed television specials since the Muppets last trip to the silver screen, it began to seem doubtful that they would ever make a triumphant comeback.
With its simplicity, sweetness, well-placed fart shoes, and a song and dance number just for good measure, “The Muppets,” reminds us what we’ve been missing all these years, and that the world does still need the Muppets.
Of course, a good story (and fart shoes) only go so far without a good cast of characters to bring it to life, and that cast is led by a Muppet debut—Walter.
Walter (voiced by Peter Linz) is the world’s biggest Muppets fan, even if his stature doesn’t reflect that. When his brother Gary (Jason Segel) invites him to accompany himself and his girlfriend of 10 years, Mary (Amy Adams), on their trip to L.A., it seems that all of Walters dreams have come true.
However, when he discovers oil tycoon Tex Richman’s (Chris Cooper) plot to tear down the Muppets’ theater and drill for oil, well, you can guess where it goes from here. The Muppets have to get back together and come up with a just impossible enough plan to save their beloved theater.
It’s not an overly complicated story, and even comes complete with a side-note or two to help us along, but it allows the Muppets to do what they do best—make us laugh.
A lot of that laughter comes courtesy of one of the Muppets other biggest fans, Jason Segel. If you’re not aware that Segel (who also stars as Gary) co-wrote the screenplay (with Nicholas Stoller) for “The Muppets” then you’re missing out on half of the magic of this film. The perfect combination of intelligent, absurdist and physical comedy allow Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Roowlf, Beaker, Dr. Bunsen, Scooter, Waldorf, Statler et al to once again do their thing (along with some awesome highly stylized human performances too).
It’s hard to put into words what a successful relaunch the likes of ”The Muppets” does for the fans of this funny, fuzzy, felt crew. All we can really say to those who made it happen is, thank you.
So, to fill in the blanks from earlier. Is “The Muppets” a good movie?
No.
A great movie?
Possibly.
But it’s definitely an instant classic.
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…just for fun:
