Sunday 12 February 2012

The Muppets

The Muppets return to the big screen to prove there is still life in the old sock puppet yet. 

And it's all thanks to Jason Segel. As a long-serving fan of the original The Muppet Show, Segel had been keen to bring the ragtag bunch of felt favourites back for years. His script with Nicholas Stoller finally won Disney over and its no surprise. Segel clearly understands the phenomenon (ahem) of the Muppets and has stayed loyal to their brand. This is chaotic, bonkers, tongue-firmly-in-cheek humour but, most importantly, it is innocent, family-friendly and harmless. That is the charm of the Muppets. They are lovable misfits in a cynical world but their optimism and good clean fun never falters.

Segel has kept the plot simple: the Muppets have to reunite and put on a show to raise $10 million otherwise the Muppet Studios will be destroyed. Luckily, they have help from their biggest fans, brothers Walter (a muppet) and Gary (Segel), plus Gary's girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams). And that is all the plot that we need. Segel realises that fans just want to see their favourite Muppets cause mayhem in a series of sketches and that is what audiences are given.

Segel has also steered clear of the flaws of the previous Muppet movies, whereby the Muppets have had to squeeze their personalities into Dickensian characters or pirates. Instead, Segel has had the foresight to just let the Muppets be themselves. It is a crowd-pleasing move because fans simply want to see Kermit be Kermit and Miss Piggy be Miss Piggy. After all, it was their lovable personalities from the 1970s The Muppet Show that made them famous in the first place. Why should they be anyone else?

You might be concerned that Segel has been pressured to update the Muppets for a modern audience. But never fear. You won't find the Muppets texting or tweeting or downloading apps. The only modernising that you will find are a few visual background gags - Scooter apparently works for Google, Beaker and Dr Bunsen have been working on the Large Hadron Collider - and these are welcome enough without tarnishing the retro appeal of the gang.

Segel's humour is perfect for the muppets, with much play on the muppets' inherent self-awareness. For instance, everyone seems to know they are in a film: Waldorf draws attention to the fact that he has just explained a key plot point in the movie, Fozzy comments on how expensive an off-screen explosion appears, the characters 'travel by map' to cover great distances in a matter of seconds and 80s Robot (a new and brilliant addition to the gang) suggests that they recruit several of the muppets via montage to save time.

The songs will also bring out the laughs. With James Bobin as director, fresh from directing Flight of the Conchords, there was always going to be great dellivery of the musical numbers. And even better, Brett Mackenzie, co-star of Conchords, flew over from New Zealand to act as Bobin's Musical Supervisor. We therefore get great musical numbers such as Life's A Happy Song, Party of One, Chris Cooper rapping and the Oscar-nominated Man or Muppet, which also serves as the highlight of the film (especially when we glimpse Walter's human reflection).

However, whilst the songs are a hit every time, the cameos are a mixed bunch. The Muppet Show always prided itself on its guest stars and in their heyday they based whole episodes around Roger Moore, Gene Kelly, Vincent Price, Steve Martin, Twiggy, Julie Andrews, Peter Sellers and the cast of Star Wars. Unfortunately, the same A-list standards are not maintained in 2012. You therefore get a bizarre combination of veterans (Mickey Rooney, Alan Arkin, Whoopi Goldberg) alongside whoever happens to be popular at this point in time (Zack Galifianakis, Selena Gomez and familiar faces from popular TV such as Community and Modern Family). There are even blink-and-you'll-miss-them cameos from Dave Grohl and John Krasinski. They all just feel a bit pointless.

The only cameo that feels worthwhile or even gets enough screen time to make an impact is Jack Black's appearance as himself. And fair play to Jack: his loud, manic, brash brand of humour is perfectly suited to the Muppets. Also, his diminishing popularity allows him to be a pleasing target for the Muppets' relentless abuse. But aside from Jack, they should have featured guest stars properly or not at all.

But little niggles like this can be fixed in the future because, thanks to Segel, the Muppets once again have a future. They are lean, green and back on the screen. 

You'd be a Muppet to miss this show.

★★★


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