The Muppets (2012)

Well, where to start? I absolutely loved this film. To be honest, it might be my new favourite Muppet film, I’m still debating whether I prefer this one to ‘Muppet Christmas Carol’ or ‘Muppet Treasure Island’, but either way it’s really good.

In this 2011/2 release, we follow Walter, the world’s biggest Muppet fan, his brother Gary (Jason Segel) and his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) as they go to Los Angeles to visit the old Muppet Theatre, where Walter finds that Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) wants to acquire the theatre so he can knock it down and drill for oil. Walter, Gary and Mary decide to seek out the Muppets to try and save the Muppet Theatre. By the way Walter’s a Muppet.

First of all the film has a wonderful story. It manages to show how downhill the Muppets ‘lives’ have become ever since the show and the last major theatrical film, their struggle and their rise back to fame, all the while keeping it family friendly. It was also really interesting to see the Kermit, Walter, Gary and Mary travelling across the country and seeing what the others have done with their lives since leaving the show; Fozzie stars alongside the Moopets (A group of rip off characters), Gonzo and his chicken girlfriend have started a plumbing company (Which Gonzo promptly blows up when Kermit asks him to do the show), Animal was in an anger management programme with Jack Black, and Miss Piggy is a fashion designer in Paris, France. Oh, and Rwolf was sleeping in a hammock.

The soundtrack was really good as well, from the songs to just general background music, including, bizarrely AC/DCs ‘Back in Black’, Starships ‘We Built This City’ and Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. Then we also have original songs like the catchy ‘Life’s a Happy Song’, the sad ‘Pictures in my Head’, and the emotional ‘Man or Muppet’. Bret McKenzie, the music supervisor, won an Academy Award for ‘Man or Muppet’, that’s how good the songs were. ‘Life’s a Happy Song’ may have been a bit corny, but to Hell with that, I loved it!

And there are so many references to the old movies and shows as well, Kermit saying “Didn’t you see our (first) movie? We road trip”, the standard ‘rich and famous’ contract from the first film as well, pictures of Kermit with special guests from the television shows (including Jim Henson), the married photo of Kermit and Piggy was taken from ‘The Muppets Take Manhattan’, Sweetums running from the car showroom (Again), heck Kermit and Piggy even perform ‘The Rainbow Connection’ from the first film. It was brilliant, it was truly fantastic for a great Muppet fan like myself.

One of my few problems with the film though is, like ‘Muppets From Space’, there’s too many Muppets, so we don’t really get much interaction with all of them, save the main ones (Kermit, Walter, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie, Animal, Bobo the Bear and Uncle Deadly). We do get some interaction with some of the other Muppets, like Pepe, Sam the Eagle, Sweetums, Rowlf, members of the Electric band, Dr. Teeth, and Beauregard (Nice of him to pop up). Hell, Rizzo the Rat didn’t even have ANY lines! There’s a lot wrong with that!

 

Though there is a new Muppet, sort of, in the form of 80s robot who was a great addition to the film. And it’s always great to see Bobo interact with the villain.

Don’t get me wrong though, the Muppets were still fantastic. The human characters were good as well, the interactions they have with the Muppets, the villainy of Richman. The acting was brilliant as well, there was no fault anywhere. And we have the classic cameos, from the beautiful Sarah Silverman, to the brilliant Neil Patrick Harris, the fantastic Alan Arkin, the legendary Dave Grohl, the talented Whoopi Goldberg, to new stars Selena Gomez and Rico Rodriguez.

And of course, the fourth wall jokes have made a triumphant return, with some great liners like Mary’s “This is going to be a short movie”, or Fozzie’s “That was a big explosion! I can’t believe we had that in the budget!”, or referencing the montage. Probably my favourite fourth wall joke was Uncle Deadly complaining that he’s tired of being typecasted as a villain because of his appearance and his “evil English accent”.

Bizarrely though, at the end, the Muppets don’t win. I’ll repeat, the Muppets DON’T win! Richman knocks down the telephone lines so people can’t donate any more money. Then Fozzie hits the counter which makes a decimal point appear. It was a huge gamble, and it surprisingly paid off. Kermit gives the message that they don’t need a theatre or their name, they only need each other, the warmth, love and support that they give each other, nor should they care if no-one else believes in them, as long as they have each other. Kermit then leads the group outside, where they are taken back by the enormous crowd that cheer them. People fill the streets, praising the Muppets and crying out how much they love them. Now that was a truly emotional scene.

I’m going to wrap this up. This film is brilliant, it has a great story, great jokes, it certainly has the magic of the old films, if not surpassing them in every way. A big thank you has to go to Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller, you can tell they cared a lot about the Muppet franchise, they wanted to return it to the old spectacular quality, capturing the characteristics and emotions of all our favourite Muppet characters and for not using crappy CGI and using the old techniques, including using robotic puppets at some points. This is truly a spectacular film, if you haven’t seen it, go see it.

The Muppets Wizard of Oz (2005)

You know how everyone loves the Muppet versions of great classics like ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Treasure Island’? Do you know how much effort they put into those films, how great the acting talent was, how we laugh at the jokes? Yeah. Now imagine a Muppet film where you don’t get any of that.

I mean, while ‘The Muppets Take Manhattan’ and ‘Muppets From Space’ are my least favourites from the other Muppet films (In fact, they’re starting to grow on me a bit), they at least kept me entertained, which is more then I can say about this film.

Before I get into the plot, let’s have a look at who’s in this. I’ll go into more detail in a minute, but I’ll just read the names in order and give you my first reaction.

Ashanti: “A singer. That’s...good.

Queen Latifah: “Oh that’s even better,”

Jeffrey Tambor: “Tambor? Didn’t Gonzo’s people make you Earth’s ambassador and took you away? Is this where they dumped you?

David Alan Grier: The cop from ‘Jumangi’?...That’s pretty cool.

Quentin Tarantino: Ah that’s gre...wait, what?

Yes, that’s right, Quentin Tarantino is in this film. That’s...bizarre. Okay, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt fir...
Quentin Tarantino: And then...just as Dorothy and the Wicked Witch charge at each other, BAM, blowout fight scene! The gals whip out these huge samurai swords, and they just TEAR IT UP! I'm talking kung-fu! T'm talking walking on walls! I'm talking explosion everywhere! (Imitating explosions) Psshh. Psshh. Psshh! I'm talking Oz in flames! Burn baby burn! You digging it?
...Dude! This is a kids film!
Quentin Tarantino: Okay fine. We pull back on the violence. Pull back on the explosions. Pull back on the burn baby burn. Alright...ya' know. Less kung-fu. But instead, are ya ready? Ya ready?...Morphing. Crazy morphing! We're talking Piggy into Gonzo, mutating into Scooter. Scooter turning into a big, busty vampire vixen who explodes in a sea of crimson blood! Hahahahaha. All done in the classic Japanese anime style. You know, for the kids.
...................................What the Hell is wrong with you?! This is a Muppet film! Not 'Ichi the Killer'!
Kermit the Frog: Um, yeah. Sounds...expensive.
Really Kermit? That's your only criticism here? Not "this will give kids nightmares for ten years?" And yes, this was Tarantino's only scene in the film. And he got one of the top billing slots! His scene was pointless! All it did was break the flow of the film!

Granted he should get top billing compared to the other actors and actresses in this! Okay, Grier as Uncle Henry is actually really good and, while I’m not a fan of hers, Queen Latifah has done quite a few films and TV shows, at least she has some acting talent to play Aunty Em.

But Ashanti? She can sing, I’ll give her that, but she can’t act to save her life! And guess what? She plays Dorothy! Yeah! We have to deal with her for the whole bloody film! And what does Ashanti follow this film up with? ‘John Tucker Must Die’ and ‘Resident Evil: Extinction’...where she was pecked to death by crows. Something Paul W.S. Anderson got right with that franchise.

Anyway, the film is dragged down A LOT by Dorothy, mainly because of Ashanti, but also because of other aspects. Let’s have a look at the basis of ‘The Wizard of Oz’, Dorothy wants to run away from home, but being sent to Oz makes her embrace her home and family, about the love, care and support family can provide. In this film, Kermit is the Scarecrow, Gonzo is the Tin Man and Fozzie Bear is the Lion. Bizarrely Pepe is Toto, because Dorothy isn’t allowed to keep dogs, so she has a pet prawn. What? Was Rowlf the Dog not available? Anyway.

Scarecrow: I want a brain.

Ah yes.

Tin Man: I want a heart.

Yep, that sounds right.

Lion: I want courage.

Yes everything’s in...

Dorothy: I want to be famous!

...order...what did you just say?

Yes, Dorothy wants to go to see the Wizard, not because she wants to go home, but because she wants to be a famous star. You selfish bitch! Are you serious? You just crushed the whole point of the Wizard of Oz storyline! And you know what? She gets her wish from the Wizard and then decides she wants to go home! She even essentially slats the Wizard and tries to make us feel bad, but it’s your own damn fault! And then when she gets home she says she wants to stay home, but Aunty Em persuades her to go with the Muppets and be a superstar. So Dorothy effectively learns NOTHING! I guess Aunty Em thought it was better when she was gone.

So why does Dorothy want to become a movie star rather than go home? She’s shallow I suppose. Is that really how shallow society has become? Is that how trivial family and a normal life has become? I think the producers wanted the film to appeal to a younger audience, somehow forgetting that it’s a Muppet film and ALREADY appeals to a younger audience!

But then again it alienates the younger audience with the jokes in this film. Pretty much every single joke in this film is for a more mature audience, such as the Tarantino thing above, or Angel Marie wanting to be spanked. The other jokes are all pop culture references, which will either go over your head, or aren’t funny; whoever wrote the jokes seems to have mixed up the Muppets traditional fourth wall jokes with pop culture. So the film has alienated the younger audience, and bores the older audience. The special effects are awful too.

In relation to the original story, the film does more closely resemble the book, which is good in a way, it keeps the fact that the Wicked Witch of the West (Miss Piggy) controlling the Winged Monkeys via a magical cap and the Kalidahs are also kept in. It stuck to it too well, with the Lion saving Dorothy by himself after the Scarecrow and Tin Man are torn apart. While it does stick to the book, it does mean that Scarecrow and Tin Man are wasted, whereas in the 1939 film, they help save the day and can actually learn something.

So yeah, this film is awful. The acting from most of the humans are mediocre and the Muppet Pepe was pretty good, but Ashanti is terrible, any decent actor is greatly underused, the effects are crap, forgettable songs, the jokes are just dreadful, Hell, the Muppets themselves look bored stiff! This film lacks the magic that any of the previous Muppet films had, and on its own it’s just an awful, awful movie.