REVIEW: The Muppets
When The Muppets opened in November, I wrote the following on my blog and it holds up now that the film is out this week on home video from Walt Disney.
There has been a tremendous amount of talk in our world about reboots, successful or not, and I just got back from experiencing the year’s single best relaunch of a tired property. Deb, Kate, her guy Mike, and I saw The Muppets and pretty much smiled all the way through, guffawing with pleasantly regularity and wiping away a tear every now and then.
Ladies and gentlemen, please pay attention, because this is how it’s done.
It starts with understanding the property, what has worked in the past and what has not. More than that, though, it is loving the property and all it is about. No one at Disney had the first clue what to do with the property since buying the characters from Jim Henson’s heirs. Yes, Henson wanted the House of Mouse to take care of his people after he was gone, and they’ve held on to them without really having anyone loving them.
You need passion to bring back a property that has been deemed tired and irrelevant by most. Jason Segal demonstrated that passion, oddly enough, in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. He parlayed that into a meeting with the Disney execs and showed them he had the clue: he loved the Muppets and their wacky world.
Thankfully, Disney let him make the movie and then backed away. They didn’t step in and exert any creative control, just kept an eye on Segal and the filmmakers. As a result, we got a movie that contained everything good about the Muppets and avoided trying to be hip and cool. The premise is simple enough, in Smallville, er, Smalltown, Jason and his brother Walter grew up to love and look after one another. But, the time had come for Jason to propose to his girlfriend of ten years (Amy Adams), and neither brother was ready to live apart from the other. Walter, as it turns out, is a Muppet, hence his fascination with them since childhood. The trio head west to visit Los Angeles starting with a tour of the Muppet Theater and Studio, which is when the real plot is launched.
In tried and true manner, Kermit finds out an evil oil baron is ready to seize control of the property to access the oil beneath. If the Muppets can raise $10 million in two days, they can exert a clause in the contract and regain control. SO, it’s time to put the band back together again and we’re off.
There are lovely touches here that sets this squarely in the familiar Muppet world when they hosted a successful television series. There are clips and stills, many scenes include images of Jim Henson, and the metajokes acknowledge the songs just sung the travel shortcut via map, and the successful use of montage to move the story along. Along the way, people sing, people dance, and the evil Baron, a deliciously wicked Chris Cooper, cackles and raps (complete with subtitles).
It’s knowing humor, especially as the Muppets regroup, and find a two hour television slot to host a telethon. We’re treated to wonderful cameo appearances, as in the best of the early Muppet movies, and there’s someone to gasp at for every age. (Neil Patrick Harris gets the best cameo line with “No, I don’t know why I’m not hosting this.”) There’s a joy to watching this film without knowing all the details so when one particular cameo turns up, everyone over the age of 10 burst into laughter simultaneously.
Walter eventually comes to accept that he may be Jason’s brother, but he is a Muppet at heart and is readily welcomed to the group. The Jason and Walter story parallels nicely some of the other long smoldering issues within the Muppets themselves, notably, of course, Kermit and his love for Miss Piggy.
Not all of the humor works, not all of the songs are great but when it works, it works big. Amy Adams’ character, and her arc with Jason, is uneven at best, but she gamely sings and smiles on cue. We get several beloved tunes from the past mixed in with the new pieces and selected rock snippets that are perfectly positioned.
Treating the characters, their personality and history, with respect, affection for the source material, and an understanding how make a contemporary film all got whipped up into a delightful, frothy mess. If only some of the other high profile reboots this year received similar time and attention.
Now, having said all that, I need to applaud Disney for the gorgeous video transfer so the film dazzles on your high def television. The sound is its equal so the experience at home is amazing. The film itself is currently available in a variety of packages but let me suggest you invest in the Wocka Wocka Value pack that comes with the Blu-ray, DVD, and digital copy plus the ability to download the complete soundtrack.
The extras found on the Blu-ray disc are far less engaging than the film itself which is shame since the characters lend themselves to creative and different features. Instead, we get a pedestrian assortment starting with the Filmmakers Audio Commentary as executive producer/co-writer/actor Jason Segel, executive producer/co-writer Nicholas Stoller and director James Bobin take a victory lap. Unfortunately, there’s little new information gleaned from this conversation. Far better is “Scratching the Surface: A Hasty Examination of the Making of The Muppets” (16 minutes) which entertainingly lives up to its title. We have 10 minutes for eight deleted scenes, none of which is missed from the film. Then we have “Explaining Evil: The Full Tex Richman Song” (3 minutes) which allows Chris Cooper to have even more fun. “The Longest Blooper Reel Ever. At Least In Muppet History… We Think (9 minutes) is at least jiggle-worthy. “A Little Screen Test on the Way to the Read-Through” (3 minutes) is a cute little piece as the Muppets give the script the once over.
The film was wonderfully marketed with spoofs of other film trailers and you get nine minutes more of unreleased pokes including “Rise of the Muppets,” “Never” “Green with Envy,” “The Fuzzy Pack,” “Being Green,” “The Piggy with the Froggy Tattoo” and “Green with Envy, the Spoof Spoof Trailer.” The standard DVD only offers up the blooper reel.