BEFORE: And Neil Patrick Harris carries over from "The Smurfs", doing one of about three dozen cameos in this film. Geez, if I can't link in and out of this film, I should just pack it in.
THE PLOT: With the help of three fans, The Muppets must reunite to save their old theater from a greedy oil tycoon.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "The Muppets Take Manhattan" (Movie #1,264) and "The Great Muppet Caper" (Movie #1,265)
AFTER: Another element that carries over from "The Smurfs" - the use of very tired rock songs, once again AC/DC's "Back in Black", and also "Bad to the Bone" and "We Built This City". Who the heck were they trying to appeal to, the original MTV VJ's? (Full confession, I love most 80's music that hasn't been overplayed, and I tolerate "We Built This City") The original songs in this film fare much better, but I guess someone felt they might not have been recognizable enough, so dust off the old cassette tapes from the 80's...
Also, like "The Smurfs", this is a very self-referential film - it's a movie that knows it's a movie, talking about "plot points" and in some cases, addressing the audience directly. But we've come to expect that sort of thing from the Muppets, after watching them talk to the home audience on "The Muppet Show" time and time again.
The film also treats the Muppet franchise as one that's worn-out and in a state of disrepair, which may reference the real-world events after Henson sold the franchise to the Disney empire. I'm a cynical man, so I firmly believed that Disney bought the Muppets just to shelve them, creating less competition for Disney movies in a tough marketplace. And they may have remained shelved even longer, if Jason Segel hadn't come along and revived them. How do you know when a franchise has run its course? (the existence of "Muppet Treasure Island", I'm guessing) And how do you know when the time is right to bring it back?
The story focuses on two brothers, Gary and Walter, one of whom is obviously a Muppet, though they never address how this came to be. Was Walter adopted? Are Muppets born to human parents, making them some kind of mutation? If not, then how exactly are Muppets created? Maybe the world is better off not knowing...
Walter's tough childhood is assuaged by watching "The Muppet Show", and seeing people who look like him each week on TV. When the brothers take a trip (along with Gary's girlfriend) to California, they visit Muppet Studios, which is in shambles, and find out that the Muppets have gone their separate ways, so they've got to reunite them before the old theater gets destroyed.
This hearkens back to the first "Muppet Movie" in many ways, the montage of driving cross-country to assemble the various talented performers, in order to put on a show. This time it's a telethon, to raise enough money to buy back the theater from its owner. I got really worried when there was a prominent "hobo" character in the audience, I feared the film would rip off the ending to "UHF", but it didn't.
In addition to getting the team back together, Gary and Mary's relationship is tested, Walter discovers his hidden Muppet talent, and the Muppets remind the audience (including us) that they're ready to perform again. Maybe not in the same way they did before, but maybe in a new way. They bring back "The Rainbow Connection", the anthem for anyone who left Smalltown, U.S.A. and moved to the big city to become an actor, comedian, filmmaker, or even a puppeteer. I'm not a huge Muppet fan, but having moved to NYC at 17 to attend film school, I can relate to the sentiment.
NITPICK POINT: I could see the hidden clause in Kermit's old contract working as a plot point, but would you really expect to find oil under a Hollywood theater? Do you see a lot of oil rigs in downtown L.A.? This seemed like quite a stretch.
The good news is, they're already working on a sequel to this - but the bad news is that according to a trailer I saw last week, "The Smurfs 2" is also on the way. More good news, I'm done with children's films and I can move on to more adult comedies, and set myself up for the start of my February topic.
Starring Jason Segel (last seen in "Bad Teacher"), Amy Adams (last seen in "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian"), Chris Cooper (last seen in "The Kingdom"), Rashida Jones (last seen in "Friends with Benefits"), Jack Black (last heard in "Kung Fu Panda 2"), with cameos from Alan Arkin (last seen in "Marley & Me"), Jim Parsons, Whoopi Goldberg (last seen in "Sister Act 2"), Ken Jeong (last seen in "The Hangover Part II"), Zach Galifianakis (ditto), Kristen Schaal (last seen in "Get Him to the Greek"), Sarah Silverman (last seen in "Funny People"), Donald Glover, Emily Blunt (last heard in "Gnomeo & Juliet"), James Carville, Judd Hirsch, John Krasinski (last seen in "License to Wed"), Selena Gomez, Mickey Rooney.
RATING: 7 out of 10 dress rehearsals
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