One of the biggest pieces of fan fiction ever, The Muppets have been rebooted by Jason Segal (who you will remember had some puppet scenes in Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and director James Bobin (one of the creative minds behind Flight of the Conchords and Ali G).

The world The Muppets exist in now is a world where they are all but forgotten --- they are used-up-has-beens, and the only people who have seen them in 20 years are those who cling to their old VHS tapes of The Muppet Show.   “What is it, 1978?” a kid says smarmily when he sees a character wearing a Kermit the Frog Halloween costume.  In this world, no one cares about The Muppets anymore, which echoes real life to some degree.  There’s a whole generation of kids that have grown up without them.  I think this was a brilliant way to set up the story --- it’s a fictional comeback, but it’s also a comeback that is mirrored in reality.  It works really well.  The movie is nostalgic and subversive enough to appeal to the older crowd, but a silly, goofy ride, complete with fart shoes, for the iPod generation.  (Okay, I was rolling in the aisles, laughing at the fart shoes too…).

Jason Segal plays Gary and Amy Adams plays his girlfriend Mary.  They decide to go on a trip to LA and Gary’s Muppet brother Walter tags along, a bit of a third wheel.  Walter has never fully accepted his ‘muppetness’ and wishes he could find his place in the world.  While touring the now decrepit Muppet Studio, Gary, Mary, and Walter discover a plot by a rich oil tycoon to tear down the studio and dig for oil.  They strike out to find Kermit and get The Muppets together for one last show to save the studio.

The other interesting thing about the world these new Muppets inhabit is that it’s a post 9-11 and Occupy Wall Street milieu --- we live in real cynical times.  The people we trust with our money are thieves and education is going down the toilet, in favour of a sick and twisted celebrity culture.  A culture where you’re given more respect for being a slobbering hussy of a mess like Snooki, and you’re derided for being the kind of person who reads books.  The worst of our humanity is on display, every day, on every TV screen.  Our movie bad guys are no longer the Soviets or the Nazis --- now it’s the rich jerks that control our every move and steal from us at every turn --- we lose jobs and homes while they collect bonuses for their ponzi schemes.  In the case of The Muppets, the baddie is a hand-wringingly evil and rich oil tycoon (Chris Cooper) who steals from the Muppets and laughs in their faces.  They are going up against a character we recognize as untouchable, both legally and financially.

The movie digs into all of this and acknowledges it, which was mighty sharp.  And The Muppets, of course, represent the flipside.  The Muppets are all rainbows and optimism.  Normally, such feel-good pursuits are too cheesy for me, but I believe in the power of The Muppets.  Their message and the execution of it have the combination to the vault that is my cold, dark heart.  I just sat their grinning stupidly at the whole thing.  It’s so silly and innocent, that you just can’t help it.  They know that taking on this oil tycoon is impossible, but a Muppet has to try anyway.  I wish the world had a little bit more Kermit the Frog in it.

As a side note, I think one of the reasons we believe in Kermit so much, is because he is real.  Yes, I’m aware that he’s not a real talking frog; he’s a felt puppet with a guy’s hand up his butt.  But we’ve been trained since childhood to see these characters as real entities.  I’ve seen this puppet peddle a bike, and even more so, when Muppet show guests, or even real life interviewers are questioning him, they address him as a real person.  They aren’t winking to the audience because they’re talking to a puppet --- they’re really chatting it up with Kermit the Frog.  This helps an audience suspend its disbelief well beyond those interviews.  Have I thought about this frog too much?  Maybe, but I’ve had since childhood to do so.  And while we’re doing full disclosure here, I may as well add that I’m pretty sure that Yoda is real too, or at least he was until they CGI’d him.

The movie is well written and hums along, breaking the fourth wall more than once as they reform the Muppets and plan for their big show.  It has a heart as huge as the Muppet stage, milking the nostalgia well, without resorting to melodrama (well, unless Miss Piggy is involved, which is expected!).  I will even admit to being choked up near the end, when Kermit makes his big speech.

As with any Muppets movie, we have a ton of cameos --- everyone from Sarah Silverman to Dave Grohl (playing a hilarious cabaret rip off of Animal).  I even saw Mickey Rooney in there --- I didn’t even know he was still alive!

Was it perfect?  No.  I think it could have been funnier on the whole, some of the songs could have been a bit cleverer, and some of the filmmaker’s great ideas could have been taken further.  For example, there are a few scenes with The Moopets, a cynical replacement for The Muppets that Chris Cooper’s oil tycoon is trying to bring to fruition to replace our heroes.  The Moopets are all hip hop doppelgangers, mean Muppets with bling and attitude.  But they don’t explore this, and the Moopets don’t even sing a song!  Perhaps part of the problem is that they spend a little too much time getting the gang back together, and not enough time exploring some of their other ideas.

However, don’t take that criticism too harshly; The Muppets is a wonderful movie and a great reboot to a franchise that we should never lose sight of.  It is our innocence and our optimism, two things that we seem to lack these days.  And I hope the kids dig back and find the treasures of the show itself.  They may not get some of the 70s guest stars, but watching the Swedish Chef “bork” up a storm or seeing Gonzo being fired out of a canon is pretty much timeless.   Who knows --- maybe the success of this film could mean they get a whole new TV show.

4 Dorks out of 5 on the Geek-o-Meter.