Channel Z

It’s Time To Play the Music.  It’s Time to Light the Lights.

Just came back from an advanced screening of The Muppets.  I’m really going to try not to be too spoilery here - but this is a truly wonderful, fantastic, miracle of a movie.

Since Jim Henson died, it’s felt like the rest of the team associated with the Muppets have been very afraid to allow their characters to grow and change without Jim’s hand (actually literally) guiding them.  

Other than a few clever internet shorts, I haven’t enjoyed much of anything that’s been made since Henson’s death, so I went in to the movie with a healthy dose of skepticism.  I was prepared for this new crew of film makers and artists to “not get” my childhood as much as a lot of the people who have been handling the characters over the last twenty years.

How happy I am to be proven wrong.  This is the Muppet movie that five year old me, fifteen year old me, twenty five year old me and just me-me has been waiting his whole life for. Finally, a project with the Muppets that takes big risks and gives big rewards.  

The writing on the characters is dead on.  Jason Segel and Nick Stoller allow our fuzzy heroes to go though struggle and actual emotions.  The only way we are ever going to care about puppetered pieces of felt is if we care about the personalities beneath them - this is a facet of the characters’ popularity that has been seriously lacking from Muppet projects since Henson’s death.  Finally it is back.  Fozzie sounds like Fozzie, Piggy like Piggy, Uncle Deadly (!!!) like Uncle Deadly.  Kermit gets excited, frustrated, daunted and inspiring in the way I remember.  This is what makes the entire core and structure of the movie work.

Then there’s everything else.  And everything else is awesome.  The characters of Gary, Mary and Walter are an amazing way to see the Muppets through a fresh set of eyes and are a perfect way to introduce the Muppets to new audiences.  The new songs by Brett McKenzie completely sparkle.  Some are really happy, some are touching, some are just totally hysterical and they all hit their tone perfectly.  All the jokes land!  This movie is just as funny as any Apatow-era comedy.  After years of the Muppets only being kind of funny, after previously being a franchise that housed work by some of the best comedic minds of the 20th century (Jerry Juhl, you are missed), this is a huge, huge relief.  My fellow comedian friends are going to adore this movie.

The entire movie has a wonderful texture.  James Bobin, the director, derserves a lot of credit for directing a truly multimedia film, almost as adventurous in technique and spirit as an experimental television project by Jim Henson himself.

The Muppets, finally, after a hiatus too long, have truly returned. For the sake of future generations of kids who will then become adults and will raise kids of their own, let’s hope these beautiful creations from the mind of a gentle genius never leave us again.