The Details

The Muppets

Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper

Directed by James Bobin

Rated PG

Beyond the Weekly

Official Movie Site

IMDb: The Muppets

Rotten Tomatoes: The Muppets

For their first big-screen appearance since 1999’s Muppets From Space, the Muppets go back to their roots as a scrappy showbiz company putting on a wacky variety show, as they did on the seminal 1970s TV series The Muppet Show.

The Muppets star/co-writer/co-executive producer Jason Segel is a die-hard fan of Jim Henson’s colorful puppet creations, and his love for the characters’ history comes through in a story all about getting the Muppets back together and refurbishing their theater to put on one more show. Segel’s naïve Gary comes from a small town (literally called Smalltown) to Los Angeles with his equally wholesome girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) and his brother Walter, who himself is a Muppet (which raises some disturbing biological questions).

Walter dreams of joining the famous troupe. But first he, Gary and Mary have to help Kermit the Frog get the gang back together so they can save their theater from an evil tycoon (Chris Cooper) intent on tearing it down. It’s one of the oldest plots around, and Segel, co-writer Nicholas Stoller and director James Bobin don’t do anything new with it. The movie stretches itself a little thin trying to cover the Muppets’ reunion, Gary and Mary’s relationship troubles and Walter’s efforts to find himself, but it’s filled with clever jokes, entertaining production numbers and catchy songs (although the best tunes are the recycled Muppet classics).

Segel and his collaborators do right by the Muppets, setting them up for a new generation of fans while honoring what made them so appealing in the first place.