Cast: Kermit the Frog, Walter, Jason Segel, Amy Adams
Directed by: James Bobin
Written by: Jason Segel
Genre: Comedy, Musical

As I sat in the dimly lit theater waiting for the seats to fill up, months of anticipation was bubbling up inside of me. I had been excited to see these characters again, laugh at them, and really enjoy myself for a little bit. But then the credits started rolling… and I realized how misplaced my thoughts were. It hadn’t been months of anticipation, it’s been decades. I wasn’t excited to laugh and enjoy the fuzzy characters, I was yearning to reminisce with very old friends. And I realized that The Muppets isn’t just another reboot to a beloved and forgotten series… it is oh so much more.

My jubilation for this film is forcing me to make a very simple statement up front: The Muppets is the most important film to be released this year, (or perhaps in years).

It has been thirty years since The Muppet Show went off of the air and out of our homes, but not our hearts. Sporadically over the decades, the gang has found their way onto the big screen in The Muppet Movie, The Muppets Take Manhattan (which was this writer’s first ever moviegoing experience as a child), Muppets in Space, and renditions of classic stories like A Christmas Carol and Treasure Island. In their extended and varied career, their humor has only gotten better with age.

The plot of this adventure follow Gary (Segel), Mary (Adams) and Walter as they venture from Smalltown, USA to Los Angeles in order to see the Muppet Studios. Upon arriving, they are distraught at seeing the place in shambles, and even more overcome by stumbling upon an evil oil man’s (Chris Cooper) to demolish the studios to drill for oil. The only way the guys can save the studio is to raise ten million dollars through an old fashioned telethon, only… over the last thirty years, the Muppet gang has gone their separate ways and need to be reunited in order to pull the show together.

Due to the valiant efforts of Jason Segel and his crew, they have single-handedly re-awoken Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzy, and company once again (and hopefully for all). I only half joke when I say that Segel should be honored with the Nobel Peace Prize for his dedication and love in bringing back something that we’ve all been missing during the Muppet’s dormant period. Something pure. Something integral to finding happiness in this insane world of ours.

The Muppets represents the purest form of entertainment. The zany humor doesn’t strive to cater to a specific demographic, save for audience members looking to get their money’s worth. But it is the unabashed sentiments that the Muppets stood for, and stand for, that set these guys apart from any other brand of entertainment. There are no subversive politics here, no wink-wink-nudge-nudges to adults believing they are at a children’s film; just the simple belief that we all feel like outsides sometimes, and that we all have a place to laugh with the Muppets. It’s simple: they’re our family – mine, yours, his, hers, theirs, ours.

As the film modestly hints at, in the last thirty years since the end of The Muppet Show, our society (via entertainment) has become a depressing and cynical place with the popularity of reality shows, nihilistic films, and morbid televised politics. And of course with the inception of social media, celebrity and civilian opinions alike are pumped into our brains faster than we can even process them. These, of course, are my didactic thoughts, not the film’s, and I do not wish to shove an agenda down your throat. My point is only that it seems we’ve forgotten how to have a good time and the answer lies in Gonzo’s misguided stunts, and Fozzie’s outdated jokes, and Miss Piggy’s diva karate chops, and in Mahna Mahna.

The Muppets doesn’t set out to change the world, but it has the potential to, or at least it has right attitude to make a positive impact. And at the risk of alienating some readers, if you have an aversion to seeing this film, pawning it off as childish fodder, you need to recheck your priorities. It contains the closest thing to the elation of pure happiness any movie has presented since Capra’s heyday. And while that might just be this writer’s opinion, if I can choose to shove one thought at people, it would be to check your disenchantment at the door and force yourself to go see this movie.

Lastly, I want to extend a personal ‘thank you‘ to Mr. Segel, whose commitment to our friends has rekindled in me a connection to the joy of being a child and the joy of being an adult.

USA. 98 minutes. Rated PG.

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