Mahna Mahna

Who doesn't love The Muppets? Though aside from watching The Muppets Christmas Carol religiously every year, I probably haven't seen that many of their feature length adventures, at least not recently. So I wasn't sure what to expect from this story wise when it isn't based on a classic tale to begin with. I was pleasantly surprised by a story that handled multiple characters with different goals and motivations pretty well. I'm gradually trying to learn more about what goes into the movie script writing process and parts of it just stuck out to me as exactly the approach that's recommended. Am I going too overboard taking this kind of approach to a Muppets film? Well partially I can't help but start to pick out these details, but I also think that it's worth mentioning that a film primarily for kids still cares enough about these aspects and isn't worried about the audience holding multiple plot threads in their head, even if they are pretty simple.

Other than the initial fake trailers, I hadn't really been searching out every bit of information on the film before watching it, so I was unaware that alongside the human actors the main character was a new Muppet called Walter. Walter is the brother of Gary, played by Jason Segal, who has gradually become a favourite of mine. I'm not sure whether I first became aware of him in How I Met Your Mother or Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I probably saw both of them roughly at the same time. He was clearly the best part of the latter though and I loved his musical puppet show in the finale of that, which makes him seem like a natural fit for a Muppets film. He doesn't stray too far from his usual characters but that was fine by me.

I also like Amy Adams for her role in Enchanted, I thought she did a great job of bringing a traditional Disney cartoon princess into the real world. The over the top nature of bursting into song and dance routines in the real world always makes me smile and this same kind of feel is brought to this film. As a pair she and Jason make a good team and really embody this kind of old school feel of not taking yourself too seriously. The initial trio is a slightly uncomfortable one, with Amy's character Mary reluctantly allowing Walter to join her and Gary on a tenth anniversary trip to Los Angeles.

This leads to the main plot where Walter discovers stereotypical oil magnate Tex Richman's plans to take over the Muppet studios and drill for oil underneath. To prevent this from happening they go to visit Kermit and convince him to reform The Muppets and perform one last show, scouring the country to find the now disbanded team. The film never forgets that a lot of its story is very clichéd and plays on this for laughs a lot during this process ("Lets get the rest by montage", "Lets travel by map, it's much faster"). There are also plenty of cameos in this section, I embarrassed myself by blurting out "Heh, Dave Grohl" to my wife in one scene, where he plays 'Animool' in tribute band 'The Moopets'.

Miss Piggy turns out to be the hardest Muppet to get back on board, due to her history with Kermit. I don't know if it's just down to age but I find myself liking her much more than I did when I was a kid, back then she just seemed loud and annoying. Playing her off against Kermit's hesitance to really commit to anything seems to make her a much more sympathetic character. The fact that I can sit here and think about an age old puppet character's motivations and feel that they were quite realistically portrayed has got to be one of this films great triumphs surely...

If I had any criticisms of it I would possibly say that Walter's discovery of his own talent kind of comes out of nowhere, but then I think it's more about how he gets the confidence to share it. Oh, and I would have liked more Gonzo :) Special mention should also go to the Oscar nominated song 'Man or Muppet', which I hope goes on to win it. I'm sure every man can identify with it, I'm not sure if it was written with the English use of muppet in mind but that's certainly how I thought of it. It's simultaneously funny and touching in a strange sort of way, which you could say to sum up the whole film really. Go see it if you haven't already, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.