The Muppets

After a 12-year absence from movie houses, the Muppets returned in 2011 with The Muppets, a nostalgic paean to the cultural value of the felt puppets and their gentle satire. Jason Segel, a long-time Muppet fan, co-wrote and stars in the film, and while it did great business and no doubt warmed the hearts of Muppet fans, I found it to be lazy and not very inspired.

The premises is that two brothers, Gary (Segel) and Walter (Peter Linz), are big Muppet fans. That Walter is a Muppet himself is unspoken, a kind of very subtle joke. I was reminded of Steve Martin in The Jerk, who "was born a poor black child." Walter is so obsessed with The Muppets that he tags along on a trip to Los Angeles with Gary and his longtime girlfriend, Amy Adams. They visit the Muppets studio, which is crumbling, and Walter learns that an evil oilman (Chris Cooper) wants to buy the studio and tear it down to drill for oil.

The only way to stop Cooper is to raise ten million dollars so the Muppets can buy it back. Segel, Adams, and Walter find the Muppets, now scattered to the winds, to try to get them to put on a show to raise the money. This part of the film has some nice humor. Kermit is living in a dark mansion like Norma Desmond, but is on board immediately. He finds Fozzie Bear in a Muppets tribute act (called The Moopets). Eventually they track down them all, including the unhinged drummer Animal, now in an anger management program.

The only problem is getting Miss Piggy, now an editor at Vogue in Paris. Of course she will eventually sign on (the on-again off-again love affair with Kermit, which is strangely disturbing to me, given that they are not the same species) finally draws her in. But there's lots of logistical problems, such as getting the old theater in shape, getting a slot on a network, and then securing a celebrity host. Finally it all comes together, after Jack Black is kidnapped and hosts while tied to a chair.

Some of this is funny, most is not. Segel and Adams act in a gee-whiz manner, although a subplot is created when Adams leaves in a huff because Segel won't propose to her, and she has a lamentable musical number called "Me Party." Cooper overacts, and is given an unfortunate opportunity to rap, which I never, ever, want to see him do again.

The Muppets, as might be expected, has numerous cameos, from Dave Grohl to Alan Arkin to James Carville. Small children many enjoy its gentle humor, while Muppet die-hards will no doubt get a lump in their throat when the theme song of the show is played, or when Kermit pulls out a banjo to do "The Rainbow Connection." But for us who find the Muppets an okay diversion, this film disappointed.

The film did win an Oscar for its song, "Man or Muppet," which was sort of an existential look at the identities of Gary and Walter (it turns out that if Walter were a man, he would look like Jim Parsons). A lot was made this year that there were only two nominees in the Best Song category. All I can say is that of the sixty-some finalists, if "Man or Muppet" was one of the two best than the rest must have been abysmal. I'll say it again--it's time to drop this category.