Seeing The Muppets a few weeks back was truly a trip back to my childhood, with a nice modern aspect. But, let’s start at the beginning.
First, is the Toy Story “Short” that prefixed the movie. In a word, wonderful. In fact, the short was nearly worth the price of admission all on it’s own. It was humorous, cute, and all and all, enjoyable. I guess there was another Toy Story short before Cars 2, but as a fellow reviewer said here, “No interest” (Cars is probably my least favorite Pixar movie).
So to the movie, The Muppets. It was extremely enjoyable. Funny, cute, and a great trip back to the glory days of the muppets. The story is told from a “Muppet” who was raised in a normal family, who loved the Muppets, and gets a chance to travel to Hollywood to see Muppet Studios, etc. The story progresses from there, and we see the far distant Muppets rejoined for a story that ends up smelling a bit like UHF (telethon to raise enough money to save the station, only without Michael Richards), and the story ends up being “Be true to yourself, or be there for someone else”. Singing is there (and presented much like it was in Enchanted, there it seems perfectly natural, but people are aware they are singing), as is the concept that the Muppets are perfectly normal. Some might argue that the story was overly silly, but I think it struck a great cord of honesty to Jim’s Muppets, and what the Muppets may become in this new generation. It’s been at least a decade since the Muppets were relevant. Honestly, it’s about time they showed back up.
I’d highly recommend the movie, and fully intend to go see it again either in the normal theater, or the cheap theater in a month or two.
[xrr rating=5/5]
