The Muppets

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: November 23, 2011

7.8	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 393 Ratings

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ShiiraJan 15, 2012

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Nothing says "keep out" quite like an electric fence. The visitors, however, aren't deterred, not even after Walter gets fried trying to scale the high voltage security system, which protects the faded green star from his public. Kermit has become a recluse, living alone in a Shangri La-like mansion, bitter over being surpassed by the far-edgier Avenue Q puppets(disguised as The Moopets, here). 80's Robot, a sort of manservant(shades of Sunset Boulevard), is his Rosebud. It's not 1979 anymore. In The Muppet Movie, the narrative culminates with the burgeoning theatrical players stepping into the lair of Worldwide Studio head Lew Lord. The very familiar man behind the desk appraises them, then over the intercom, tells his secretary to prepare a contract, which allows the frog to direct the Muppets' origin story. Sitting alone on his director's chair in an empty soundstage, it's hard not to imagine Kermit as a stand-in for Orson Welles, on the verge of directing his own Citizen Kane, a first film without any studio interference. Ironically, in The Muppets, Kermit has turned into Charles Foster Kane. He's Citizen Frog, an exorbitantly wealthy amphibian who lost his empire...and pig. Without Kermit no longer acting as her impresario, Miss Piggy, no doubt, found out the truth about her singing, just like Kane's second wife, the failed opera singer. Like Mrs. Kane, the pig realized that her popularity was rigged, due to the undue influence of a powerful alpha male. But whereas, the opera singer ends up on skid row, eking out a living as a club owner, Miss Piggy thrives, serving as the editor of French Vogue. The pig wears Prada. Still harboring a grudge over the frog breaking off their wedding engagement, Kermit leaves France without his muse. "You never intended to marry me," the pig complains, and frustratingly, due to the thematic parameters of a children's movie, Kermit's misgivings about the woman whose likeness adorns his entrance gate, is never brought to light. Past films offer clues, though. In "The Muppets Take Manhattan", the beautiful swine expresses her jealousy over the frog's friendship with a NYC waitress, whom the pig misinterprets as a love interest. As it so happens, Juliana has fashion designing aspirations. Miss Piggy's meteoric rise in the haute coutre industry could be a response to her paranoia about an interspecies relationship, more kinkier than their own. Unlike past Muppet projects, the subject of sex emerges from the subtext. Surely, the frog and the pig, and for that matter, Gonzo and his harem of chickens(Camilla is a swinger), got it on, but there was never any evidence of animal lust, no godforsaken byproduct of cross-breeding. But in The Muppets, there is verifiable proof that sex occurred between a puppet and a human. Walter isn't Gary's imaginary friend, but an actual flesh and blood brother, so to speak. In a montage, an off-screen adult, a human one, presumably the mother, measures both boys against the side of a doorway, where Gary sets new highs in verticality throughout their shared childhood, while Walter remains forever short, victimized by a form of dwarfism. The father, the probable muppet and absentee dad, isn't around to help his son feel normal. Lucky for Walter, the human brother does what he can to assimilate the felt one, but to some degree, as suggested by the post-modern diegesis, the film, therefore the subject, approaches his "skin" as an egregious malady, a disease. At the carnival, the movie references Rocky Dennis from "Mask", in the scene where Walter sees himself as a tall person in the same sort of funhouse mirror that the deformed boy, afflicted with a cranial enlargement disorder called lionitis, realizes his dream of normalcy through the same reflection trick. Walter's reaction to The Muppet Show is telling; it's the first time he lays eyes on his own kind, way back when Kermit could lay claim to being a comedy king. Now the frog is a has-been, or worse, a never-was, thanks to a history-challenged modern audience, too young to remember the puppet troupe's heyday. Their nearly non-existent cultural currency entails that they abduct a celebrity(Jack Black) to host a comeback show, bringing to mind, for some, Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy, in which Rupert Pupkin kidnaps a Johnny Carson-type named Jerry Langford. The broadcast just happens to be a telethon, the genre that links The Muppets to the 1983 film, since Langford is played by Jerry Lewis, the host of so many MDA shows. In The King of Comedy, Rupert has a hard time distinguishing fantasy from reality, the same dilemma bedeviling Kermit, who believes that they're close to reaching the ten million dollar plateau, when in actuality, the tote board reads something far short. The people in the audience: Are they real? After all, the show starts with an empty studio. And what about the mob outside? Does this all play in Kermit's head?… Expand

0 of 3 users found this helpful03

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paulomatsuiDec 7, 2011

Based on so raving reviews (here and on IMDb) and with the fact that I really liked the characters when I was a kid, I went to see it tonight. Maybe I shouldn't have read them and kept my expectations low...
It felt like a good joke stretchedBased on so raving reviews (here and on IMDb) and with the fact that I really liked the characters when I was a kid, I went to see it tonight. Maybe I shouldn't have read them and kept my expectations low...
It felt like a good joke stretched out for an hour and a half. There WERE some funny moments, but I agree with spr123: seeing all those people dancing in a 60s musical was kind of weird.
This movie was SO over the top with this "let's break into this song" whenever a character is given a question.
Maybe it's just me - since I don't like that "Glee" series either - but I was really disappointed with what they done with my beloved characters.… Expand

0 of 3 users found this helpful03

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EnormoDec 4, 2011

This film spent too much time focussing on the story of reintroducing the Muppets and not enough time reintroducing why the Muppets were so wonderful in the first place.

The characters that drove the movie were the non-Muppets Jason Segal,This film spent too much time focussing on the story of reintroducing the Muppets and not enough time reintroducing why the Muppets were so wonderful in the first place.

The characters that drove the movie were the non-Muppets Jason Segal, Amy Addams, and Walter the puppet. Not only were the characters generic and utterly forgetable but they forced the movie to play by predictable people rules rather than the insanely absurd logic of the Muppets. What you ended up with is a movie with Muppets in it rather than a Muppet movie.

Was the plot reasonably entertaining? I guess. Were there occasional funny and absurd moments? Yeah. Did they get the tone of the Muppets down? Sort of. Unfortunately, "reasonably", "occasional", and "sort of" are the last three words I would ever want to apply to something as weirdly inspired and proudly original as the Muppets.

Maybe having Jason Segal write and star in this movie was a mistake. The Muppets should have been the stars of this show, not him. If your desperate for a Muppet fix, I'm sure you'll be somewhat pleased with this movie. Otherwise see it on DVD.… Expand

3 of 9 users found this helpful36

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VyrasJul 23, 2013

An average family movie with some laughs to be had. Predictable plot, pretty standard characters, don't expect much, if not for anything else watch it for all the celebrity cameos.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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schnitzDec 16, 2011

An enjoyable nostalgia trip made by clearly devoted fans of the original TV series and early movies, but lacking the smartness and the comic density of the original. Kermit's voice is annoyingly wrong, his "acting" consists of incessantAn enjoyable nostalgia trip made by clearly devoted fans of the original TV series and early movies, but lacking the smartness and the comic density of the original. Kermit's voice is annoyingly wrong, his "acting" consists of incessant mouth contortions, and his character is missing the spine and moral strength that made him a leader a generation ago. Other characters, even Piggy and the human leads, are two dimensional, as though they're playing roles, rather than being, um, themselves. Only the new muppet, Walter, has a real character, but even that is thin.

I enjoyed it, as did my 4 year old, but my 7 y.o. was bored, as was my wife, who commented that it's pretty much a girls' movie.… Expand

3 of 11 users found this helpful38

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spr123Nov 27, 2011

This movie wasn't really the best I've ever seen. First of all, the plot is very predictable, you know what's going to happen next. The producer tried to be funny, but he wasn't. It was really cheesy.Maybe it's just me. I've read a lot ofThis movie wasn't really the best I've ever seen. First of all, the plot is very predictable, you know what's going to happen next. The producer tried to be funny, but he wasn't. It was really cheesy.Maybe it's just me. I've read a lot of positive reviews of this movie. Also, grown adults singing and dancing was a little weird. I would relate the movie to Barney, or maybe the Wiggles.… Expand

2 of 20 users found this helpful218

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BlackBlurMar 13, 2013

I decided to watch this movie in the hope that it would be cute, humorous and entertaining. However, I was majorly disappointed. I didn't find any comedy in the songs, the jokes, or the characters. Perhaps it's time for the once charmingI decided to watch this movie in the hope that it would be cute, humorous and entertaining. However, I was majorly disappointed. I didn't find any comedy in the songs, the jokes, or the characters. Perhaps it's time for the once charming Muppets to retire, as they've lost their touch. I was so, incredibly bored for such long stretches of time I nearly walked out of the theater; I would have been more entertained watching the 10-hour loop of Nyan Cat on YouTube. Now, I've read some of the other user comments saying that this movie was perfect for those who grew up with the Muppets, and perhaps that's were the positive reviews come from. From the eyes of a 13-yr-old, though, this movie was incredible boring. My 11-yr-old sister and my mother (she's 39 forever) watched the movie as well agree with this view, so I doubt it's the age difference that made this movie much a catastrophe for me. I wouldn't waste my dollar twenty-five on a red-box rental, either.… Expand

1 of 5 users found this helpful14

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