It's Time To Light the Lights...

Almost thirty-three years since the first iconic movie was released, Jim Hensen's superb puppet characters once again return to the big screen in The Muppets, a movie I was definitely dying to see.

Alongside the regular Muppet greats that are Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie, Scooter and the rest of the Muppet gang, are the likes of Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper and Jack Black, not to mention a list of Hollywood A-Listers in cameo roles (Neil Patrick Harris anyone?!). The feel-good family movie follows Walter (voiced by Peter Linz), the world's biggest Muppet fan, his brother Gary (Segel) and Gary's girlfriend Mary (Adams). The trio attempt to reunite the Muppets, help them perform one last show, raise $10 million and stop the evil Tex Richman (Cooper), a businessman who plans on demolishing the Muppet Studio in order to drill for oil underneath, all the while trying to fix their own emotional problems.

Whilst this movie doesn't require a great amount of intellectual stimulation to watch and follow the plot line, the general feel behind the movie, almost as though you're welcoming back an old friend, really makes for a worth while experience. It's all the elements that make it a classic Muppet film. With a plot that encompasses a little bit of every genre including romance, drama, action and of course humour, The Muppets is the type of film that even those who weren't fans of the Muppets as children, or who haven't even heard of the Muppets before won't be able to sit, watch and enjoy. Just keep in mind that this movie is aimed a younger audience and the dad jokes and predictable plot points won't seem to matter as much. For the older audience members, it's fun trying to name all the celebrity extras who make their way into the film, and there are a surprisingly large number of them considering it was the Muppets themselves who said, "we all agreed that a celebrity isn't a people." But we'll move past this.

With all this mind, I really enjoyed watching The Muppets. Whilst it could have something to do with the fact that I was such a huge fan of the Muppets as a child, or that I've already seen several of the Muppet movies and know what to expect from them, I'd like to think that it was this movie that really convinced me of my love for the Jim Hensen characters. And I suppose that is one of the biggest draw-cards to go and see this movie: that in this day and age when everything can be animated and conducted in front of a green screen, the fact that a movie where stuffed toys on sticks make us laugh is successful, just makes you think about how wonderful and amazing those parts of our childhood are to us all. If not the Muppets then why not Sesame Street? Or the Fraggles? A large portion of today's society has grown up with those characters and I think that's where a lot of the love comes in to it.

I really enjoyed The Muppets and I am therefore giving it a 4/5. If you want to revisit your childhood or just watch a film where you don't have to worry if one character is actually another's clone or if it's set in the past or the future, then I recommend this movie. And for those who don't think this movie is for them, well, you might just be surprised.




Image available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1204342/