REVIEW: The Muppets (2011)

One of the most purely joyful films of the year, The Muppets is less a franchise cash-in than a labor of love from one generation (spearheaded by co-star/writer Jason Segal) to the children’s icons of yesteryear, who haven’t been on the big screen since their last movie flopped way back in 1999. It's also (and here's where it gets postmodern) less a “Muppet movie” than a movie about Muppet movies. One critic called it a work of "canonical fan fiction", and there's no better description, since what we have here is a tribute to the tropes, themes, characters, style, and importance of children's entertainment, with the creators inserting themselves into a franchise they grew up on. Indeed, given its sensibility, the whole thing may have more in common with "Flight of the Conchords"—from which it gets its director and principle songwriter—than it does with previous Muppet films. And while most Muppet fans I know have loved what Segal and co. did with it, I have, in all fairness, encountered a few who reacted adversely, not least of which is Frank Oz, the original Miss Piggy, who left project over creative differences.

Still, if the film's execution comes self-consciously from hip newcomers, that outsider perspective also gives the film the most crucial aspect of its identity. The classic characters are resurrected here with such nostalgia that when “The Rainbow Connection” is brought out near the end, it’s not self-plagiarism but homage, and it caused a feeling of reverence to settle over the theater. Yes, the film is so indifferent to its own narrative that it solves the main plot conflict in an outtake. But it knows that the secret to comedy is throwing the jokes so fast that if one is too easy, a better one will arrive before long, and it sustains this energy so well that to complain about anything as trivial as a narrative risks coming across as sociopathic. And with moments like the opening musical number ("Life's a Happy Song", performed in the colorful streets of Smalltown, USA), the film hits a peak.

You don’t need to get the in-jokes or know the “Flight of the Conchords” connection to recognize that the Muppets here aren’t just for children, but for the media-savvy, hip-to-be-square young adults who still have a soft spot. So the film is well aware that the world of children’s entertainment is so squeaky-clean that it's begging to be parodied—but it doesn’t want to cynically write off this innocent wonderland, either. It may sometimes gets a laugh from irony, but it knows that unashamed sincerity can be so much better. See it and be merry.

4 out of 5 stars.

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The Muppets is out on DVD this week from Disney.