"The Muppets" Review

Well, I'm back. I don't want to say anything about how consistently I'll be posting, because I don't know if I will have time right now for regular content, but I still have things to toss out to the web.

Also, before the movie gets any older, I thought I'd share my impressions on "The Muppets".

I've only seen one episode of the original "Muppet Show", but I did watch regularly the TV show "Muppets Tonight", and I grew up with most of the prior Muppet movies. I also have YouTube playlists of various muppet videos, including some of the old muppet advertisments.

I thought "The Muppets" was pretty fun, for the most part, though there were elements the film could have done without.

For me, the general charm of the muppets in their films and TV shows is that it's their world, and the humans are just living in it. I didn't get that sense with "The Muppets". The plot involves Gary (Jason Seagal), and his muppet brother Walter (voiced of Peter Linz) set out to save the Muppet Studio, with Gary's girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) being drug along for the ride. A large portion of the movie is given over to Gary and Mary's strained relationship, which I found myself caring about much less than whether the muppets getting their groove back.

When I read that Jason Seagal is a hugely passionate muppet fan, I thought that explained quite a bit about the direction he took with the film. It felt as though he was projecting his own fantasies into the work, which didn't totally kill it, but it did detract from the story. I will say, however, that the "Man or a Muppet" number, tied to Mary's pivotal "make your choice" question, was quite good.

Also, once the Muppet Show got going, it definitely retained that special, hilarious muppet spirit. While the movie could have been better, I'm hoping that it was spark a muppet renaissance, as they've most certainly "still got it".