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The Muppets are back!

Ricky Compton, 2:30 pm, Friday, 24 February, 2012

The Muppets have propelled onto the big screen once more for their latest film.

It’s not the most original storyline in the world, and it’s pretty obvious from the beginning how the film is going to end…but it’s The Muppets! Now yes, I am going to have quite a biased reviewer hat on for this one as I grew up watching pretty much every film The Muppets made. At one point in my younger life I’d watched A Muppet Family Christmas so many times that my parents could actually recite the entire film.

As you would imagine, it’s incredibly hard to review a film involving The Muppets without getting nostalgic. From the offset, the film shows the main character (funnily enough a muppet in appearance) watching classic episodes of The Muppets and forming an obsession over them. When the film was picked up to be written by Jason Segal and Nicholas Stoller, it struck the memory of the puppet scene at the end of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and this brilliant song. From that point Segal was clearly in a position to reboot The Muppets.

What I loved about the film was that it was true to its origins. The Muppets were the same models, they didn’t use over-the-top CGI or try to phase out the old school puppetry. I mean, you can still clearly see the fingers in Kermit’s head, because they film accepts that we know they’re puppets.

This also leads to a running joke throughout the film of breaking the fourth wall and acknowledging the fact that they’re in a film. Quotes such as “This is going to be a short movie” and “Let’s pick up the others in a montage” are typical examples that show the film isn’t taking itself too seriously.

It’s entertaining throughout and all of the nostalgia is still there, sending shivers down my spine in a particularly song by Kermit early on in the film. Perhaps not the best film to see on Valentine’s day but it was certainly one that I’d love to see again. Don’t expect anything more than a traditionally slapstick, musical Muppet extravaganza …but that isn’t really a bad thing? Not in the slightest!