The Muppets (James Bobin; 2011)
My immense excitement for The Muppets was somewhat dampened when I learned of Frank Oz’s disapproval of the screenplay and lack of participation in the production. How could you make a Muppet movie without Frank Oz?—Jim Henson has an excuse. Thankfully, my trepidation was (almost) entirely unjustified. The Muppets, at its best, feels much like the Muppet movies of old (very occasionally), and at its worst, is like a really great cover of a classic song with a few extra quirks added (most of the time). The choice to treat the Muppets as a long broken up, forgotten comedy troop gives the first half of the film a sweet, melancholy tone. “Pictures in My Head,” one of many excellent new songs composed by Flight of the Conchords’s Bret McKenzie, literally made me cry.
Some things did bother me. The new voices for Frank Oz’s characters (Miss Piggy, Fozzie) felt off. Although most of the celebrity cameos were well chosen (Jack Black, Donald Glover), the Selena Gomez cameo was irritating and stank of Disney shoving their shit product into a Muppet movie, as did a garish Cars 2 billboard which appeared in two shots.
Regardless, The Muppets is a good example of how to do a franchise revival properly. I hope the team behind this film gets to make a couple more.
