Wednesday, November 23rd was the opening day for The Muppets. I took my husband, 2 of my 3 kids, and myself to see it. Below is my own personal opinion of the movie and in no way reflects the other Gurus of Disney Guru. ~Theresa Cook
The Muppets are back, though I never considered them gone. As a child growing up in the late 70’s early 80’s, I remember watching The Muppet Show was something we looked forward to each week. Then the movies started to come out, and as quickly as the appeared, they were gone.
Kermit and several other Muppets have always made cameos through the years in movies and television. Today, they are back on the big screen.
The Muppets new movie is under the Disney name and not Jim Hanson. It’s 1 hour and 33 mins in length and in my opinion, a bit too long.
Before the feature starts, you are treated to a Toy Story short entitled, “Small Fry” which picks up where we left off in Toy Story 3 as Bonnie, her mom, Buzz, and Rex visit a local fast food joint where the Happy Meal toy is from a Zurg movie. Bonnie asks for the mini, 6 inch Buzz Lightyear instead of the Zurg belt buckle that she is given, but is informed that they are out of “Buzz”. A mini Buzz, who is on display, decides he wants to be played with and leaves the display case to be Bonnie’s new toy. What happens next is a story about rejection and how to handle it and how friends are important in times like that: a reminder that you are never really alone in the world.
The Muppets opens up with a narrative about two brothers, Greg and Walter. Greg is human and Walter is . . . well . . .Muppet, though he doesn’t know this and struggles to find himself. You quickly watch them grow up and become adults, yet along the journey, you discover that Walter is a huge Muppets fan.
Walter is invited to join his brother and his girlfriend Mary (played by Enchanted’s Amy Adams) to Los Angeles where they decide to make a stop at the former Muppets studio AKA the old Universal Studios . . . hmmm.
When Walter strays away from the group to explore Kermit’s old office, he over hears a fat cat talking about his plans with the run down, abandoned studio. Walter is shaken by what he hears and seeks the help of Kermit the Frog. They need $10 million to save the studio and the Muppet name and only a few days to do so. With the help of all the Muppets, the group holds a telethon to help raise the money by midnight, or lose everything.
Now, before I give my honest opinion, let me clarify something.
*The statement made here is strictly the opinion of Theresa Cook and is no way that of everyone at Disney Guru. This is purely an unbiased review of a new movie.*
Okay, well . . .as I stated above, it’s too long for the story line. The first hour barley held my husband’s, our two youngest children’s (my oldest didn’t want to even see it), and my attention. My 3 year old had the hardest time sitting through the whole thing, while my 5 year old had no problem until the last 30 mins.
It is a musical with some subpar songs that made you cringe each time. I thought with Amy Adams in it, we’d get some catchy little tunes like in Enchanted. Instead, they seemed to be trying to parody other songs. It didn’t work.
It was great seeing the whole Muppet cast together again and doing what they do best, and the celebrity cameos were many, including Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and Nirvana, as “Animool”.
A lot of the humor was tongue in cheek or visual and often fell short. Wow, I can’t believe I don’t have many positive things to say about this movie.
In my honest opinion, wait till it is on DVD to rent or Netflix. My kids are easily entertained and they weren’t impressed with this movie at all.
On the bright side, there were a ton of previews for some new Disney movies that are going to keep me very busy this year such as; Brave, a new Snow White movie with Julia Roberts, a Borrowers movie with animation like in Ponyo, and more.
So, I guess something good DID come from seeing this movie! We would love to know what you thought about the new Muppet’s Movie??
5 Comments.
Longtime Muppet fans will undoubtedly have more fun than young ones, but for the most part, it’s a witty, delightful romp, that shows you that you can still be funny, without ever being mean still in 2011. Good review. Check out mine when you get the chance.
Thanks for commenting, Dan. I too am a fan of the Muppets and grew up watching them on TV. (yes, I’m old enough) lol. Muppets Christmas was just on the other day and I was able to see a difference in the quality of the two movies. Jason Segal wrote the part of Gary with himself in mind. Since he was a big part on the making of this movie, maybe that’s why it’s wasn’t, in my opinion, Muppet style. ~Theresa
Correction: Yhe name of Jason Segal’s character is Gary. . .not Greg.
My husband and I saw this and thoroughly enjoyed it. I can understand your criticisms, though. Have to say, it was not the same without the voices of Jim Henson or Frank Oz. But, in my opinion thoroughly enjoyable. But I didn’t expect a whole lot. Definitely not as good as the original movies, but fun nonetheless.
I agree, it was a good-hearted movie, but can not be compared with the original ones. I went in there expecting that too. And yes, the loss of voices by Jim Hanon and Frank Oz was missed. Thank you for your comment! 🙂