“If I’m a man, I’m a Muppet of a man”

After a month long marathon of Muppets (read here) it’s great to finally see the latest Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller (the minds behind Forgetting Sarah Marshall and by proxy the vampire puppet musical featured in that movie). Seeing where the creative minds of this iteration of the Muppet tale are coming from with their previous projects it’s easy to see them as the best choices for doing a Muppet movie, and this movie, while claimed to be a compromised end product, is probably the best Muppet movie that we could probably ever get at this point in time while still being a great movie.

If I were to look you dead in the eyes and say that this movie is perfect I’d be lying, but damn me if I don’t love it for its faults as much as its positives. One would think in the world we live in today, filled with cynicism and crude humour, that an entity such as the Muppets wouldn’t be able to exist – a though that is dealt with in the film itself – but somehow it is. Somehow the film not only is able to happen but at the end of the day, while admitting to the realities of this world, still pulls off its heartwarming consciousness in a way that satisfies all involved.

Muppet movies are always entrenched in it’s own world where anything can happen and a villain always happens to stand between the Muppets and greatness. In this iteration its Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) who wants to buy the Muppet Studio and dig for oil. The ridiculousness and “evil” character plays perfectly in Cooper‘s hands.

The only thing that stops this film from being pitch perfect are a couple of set pieces which feel lost in editing. The newest Muppet character of Walter, the biggest Muppet fan and Gary’s (Jason Segel) brother, has a moment towards the end of the film that was never set up at any point throughout the film’s prior hundred minutes as well as a sloppily explained quirk with Richman’s character. These small nitpicks of the film stand between the film and perfection, but at the end of the day I don’t ask for perfection but rather for what I ended up receiving, an entertaining movie where I just couldn’t stop grinning with Muppets in it.

The film features a lot of popular culture tracks including “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, “Forget You” and “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”, as well as a few Muppet favourites including: “The Muppet Show Theme” and “Rainbow Connection”, but there’re a slew of new great songs like “Life’s a Happy Song”, “Me Party” and “Muppet or a Man” all written (or co-written in some cases) by Bret McKenzie (of Flight of the Conchords fame) and it’s a brilliant fit. The music, like in Flight of the Conchords, has the right blend of fun, introspection and narrative to keep the film moving forward in such a way that the musical pieces never feel like we’re pausing for a gratuitous moment.

What the film does best though is its ability to be self referential and wink at the camera without feeling distracting. There’re numerous moments where the film admits that it’s a film – “drive by map” – and it’s allowed to do insane things or how it knows that people have to say yes in order for the movie to move forward, otherwise “it would be a short movie”, it’s fun.

Rating 9.0/10