Gary (Jason Segel) and his brother Walter (voiced by Peter Linz) live in Smalltown, USA. They have lived there all their lives, and have always done everything together. Now as adults, they still live together in the same house they grew up in. Oh, I ought to mention something here: Walter is a Muppet, though he doesn’t know that just yet.
But when they were younger, and saw The Muppet Show on television for the first time, Walter discovered what had previously been missing in his life. He became the Muppets’ biggest fan, and would give anything to visit the hallowed Muppet Studios in LA.
Gary and his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) are going to Los Angeles to celebrate their tenth anniversary. Knowing how much it means to him, they ask Walter to come with them, so that he can finally achieve his dream of seeing the Muppet Studios.
But when they get there, the building is deserted. The Muppets have completely disbanded, gone their separate ways, and the studios are about to be sold to oil baron Tex Richman (Chris Cooper), who plans to demolish the buildings and drill for oil underneath.
Walter overhears his plan, and he, Gary and Mary find Kermit the Frog and insist that he get the gang back together for one last show to try and raise enough money to be able to buy the studios themselves.
The screenplay, by Jason Segel & Nicholas Stoller, is actually quite good. There are so many beautiful moments in this film, especially for fans of the original Muppet Show, or indeed any of the classic Muppet movies.
The songs – written by Bret McKenzie, one half of comedy duo Flight of the Conchords – blend well into the score, by Christophe Beck, and move the plot forward while also deepening our understanding of the characters; this is the sole purpose of songs in a musical, and the fact that the songs in this film do this so well means that this film (as a musical) works precisely as it should.
Performances by the cast are adequate for the genre. There is nothing particularly spectacular about the acting of any individual, but the singing and dancing abilities of all involved are something to behold. This film is unashamedly a musical in the classic sense, with huge song and dance numbers similar to those you find in the Hollywood musicals of the 1940s and 1950s.
There are an enormous number of cameos in this film. I won’t go into detail of them, but will give you a list of names. So, we have Alan Arkin, Zach Galifianakis, Ken Jeong, Jim Parsons, Kristen Schaal, Sarah Silverman, Donald Glover, Emily Blunt, Whoopi Goldberg, Selena Gomez, Rico Rodriguez, Dave Grohl, Neil Patrick Harris, Judd Hirsch, John Krasinski and Mickey Rooney.
Add to that two hilarious performances from Rashida Jones as a television executive, and Jack Black as himself, and you’ve got one of the biggest casts of any musical I’ve seen for quite some time.
This film did have a sequel three years later, which I will be reviewing in due course, so stay tuned for that.
Director James Bobin has brought us a pretty good film, another entertaining musical for the whole family to enjoy. It brings a smile to my face every time I watch it, but also a tear to my eye every time I hear Kermit sing The Rainbow Connection (for the first time on screen since the death of Jim Henson all those years ago).
8 out of 10.
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