The Muppets (2012)

With the approaching American Summer film releases, I can feel the great buzz thats beginning to ripple through casual popcorn chewers and cinema die-hards. I know for one Thomas is anxiously vibrating in anticipation for Prometheus in early June. When January first rolled round, if you had asked me what movie I was most looking forward to I would have mimicked pulling a cape over my mouth and growled "Dark Knight.... Rises" (because I am cool like that).... but now I am not so sure if it will take the crown for best movie of this year. This may be a case of a frog devouring a bat.

Brushing your teeth, never looked this fun.

I decided to take two of my young family friends to the movies as an excuse for me to go and see Jason Segel's 'The Muppets'. Now, I am absolutely a sucker for a kid's movie, that much I will never argue against. I like to think that whilst I can appreciate and love movies of an artistic pedigree, I can also chill out for a night with a bit of old fashioned family fun. That said, I did not expect to love the muppets latest hijinks to the ridiculous degree that I did.  The opening segment had me, I was blasted into the mayhem, 5 minutes was all it took and I was not only entertained, but so so so emotionally invested. I don't think that the story particularly resonated with me, its themes are nothing special: but damn if you are a sucker for nostalgia this one is gonna knock you out in the first round. The humour is everything you would expect from Segel, but tailored to be family friendly.... at least for the most part.

The muppets are fantastic, but despite their homunculus construction, these creatures at no time feel heartless and despite their charicature design they in no way steal the show from the very human tale of Gary (Segel) and his muppet brother Walter (Peter Linz). Its a story that like I mentioned is nothing we haven't seen before, but it is one that rolls along nicely. Its one of those stories about brothers trying to find their own place in the world and independence all paralleling the story of the muppets trying to figure out if they have a place in a world that has evolved a long way since they first played the music and lit the lights.

And this movie kinda summarises what I want in any film or television show (and no it is not muppets [even though I genuinely believe there is not a single movie ever made that would not benefit from their presence {except Spanglish.... that movie is beyond salvation... not all the muppets in the world}]). It has a heart. Now that heart can happy and full of song like the muppets, it can be dark and brooding, sweet, sorrowful, angry, infatuated, dying or jolting between any combination of these... but it has to have that pulse. Now, I immediately understand having typed this how ridiculously pretentious and corny that sounds (but thats OK.... blogs are meant to be pretentious right?) and I know that this is something that cannot be gauged without having seen the movie... beginning to end. Each movie or item of pop culture needs to be assessed on a case by case basis, otherwise gems like the muppets can sadly slip under the radar.

'The Muppets' is available on Blu-ray and dvd on May 16th here in Australia, which incidentally is my birthday.... Here's looking at you Universe.

Alex

Life's a fillet of fish.... yes it is.