Behind the commotion of the release of Breaking Dawn, The Muppets opened in theaters on Wednesday, November 23.  We all know Kermit the Frog and Ms. Piggy. However, this generation has no clue why these sock puppets are famous.  Sure they know the faces and voices, but “Muppet Mania” has never really been experienced in recent years. Therefore in 2008, people in Hollywood began working on the movie that would bring those puppets back into stardom.  So The Muppets was released in 2011, much to critical acclaim.
The movie was absolutely hilarious. It had the fourth wall jokes you would expect from a Muppet movie, and it had all of the singing the original show had. The story kicks off with Gary (Jason Segel) and Walter (a sock puppet). They are brothers who have been together their whole life. I tried not to question how a Muppet was biologically related to a human, since thinking about it made my head hurt. Gary and his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) take Walter to Muppet Studios where they discover that people have stopped caring about sock puppets, who haven’t been seen in over ten years. Shocker. So they hatch a plan to save the studios from the oil tycoon Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) by having the Muppets do one last show to raise 10 million dollars, since people are clearly willing to donate to them. The Muppets decide to come back together to perform one final huzzah. Surprisingly, they kidnap Jack Black to host the show.
The movie in general was great. The human characters were hilarious: Gary and Mary are incredibly dorky and have an unusual obsession with singing songs; Tex Richman is a mockingly generic villain (his maniacal laugh is literally him saying “maniacal laugh” over and over again). The Muppets themselves are as perfect as ever, and the new ones are happy additions. What really impressed me was the amount of cameos the movie had. I saw an amazing amount of famous movie stars in the film, including Neil Patrick Harris and Selena Gomez.
But of course, characters don’t mean anything in a Muppet movie if jokes and songs are missing, and this movie has both in large amounts. The songs in the movie are fairly short, with most of them being original songs. The jokes are plentiful, ranging from fourth wall jokes to mocking the songs they sing.
The movie also conveyed a surprising amount of emotion. You could really feel the pain that the Muppets felt at going from superstars to washed-up sock puppets, and you could sense the fear they had at facing an audience again. Kermit’s speech at the end was something I will never forget. The movie made me feel like a total jerk for not supporting and watching the Muppets’ stuff earlier.
But of course, this movie was written for the longtime fans. I could tell that there were a lot of inside jokes and references, and I felt like an outsider. However, there is plenty for newcomers. The movie definitely had the fans in mind, especially towards the end, when they perform the show.
The Muppets is a fantastic movie, be you a Kermit the Frog fanatic, or just someone who thought the movie would be funny. There is much to laugh about for all, and I highly recommend you see it.