Muppets provide laughs for both adults and children

It has been many years since a vaudeville team first made its big break in Hollywood but in this day and age, their old-fashioned style and sense of humour has left them in the lurch. Disbanded and disconnected, they must overcome past differences in order to reunite and save their landmark theatre before the mill of industry chews it up and spits it out for good.

That’s the plot of the new eponymously titled Muppets movie. In case you don’t know what Muppets are, they’re animated mostly animal characters that combine the best of puppetry and marionette work. These creatures speak English and interact with people in the real world, encountering the best and worst of humankind everywhere they go.

Here, a happy-go-lucky guy named Gary (Jason Segel) has a little brother named Walter (acted and voiced by Peter Linz). Walter relates more to the world of the Muppets so when Walter and his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) plan a trip to Hollywood, Gary brings Walter along just so that he can see the Muppets’ old theatre.

When they get there, they see the dilapidated place and sadly learn that an oil tycoon named Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) is going to tear it down and start digging for oil. According to the contract that the Muppets signed a long time ago, the only way that they can save it (and retain the use of their name) is to come up with $10 million.

So they have a telethon. Most of the movie is about how Gary and Walter inspire Kermit to travel and traverse the world to visit all of his old chums and get them to sign up for the adventure, too. All of the old gang is there including Rowlf, Fozzie, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker, Waldorf and Statler, Gonzo and Camilla the chicken, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem (including Sgt. Floyd Pepper, Janice, Zoot, Lips, Scooter and Animal), Sam Eagle, Swedish Chef, Lew Zealand, and Crazy Harry. Oh, Miss Piggy is there too, of course.

It’s a strange thing to say but I don’t think that the Muppets are as expressive as they used to be. Seriously. When I was a boy I’m certain that their eyes blinked and moved around, too. I wonder if they have succumbed to the Hollywood bad habit of aging stars by getting too many Botox treatments.

Obviously they didn’t and none of that really matters. They haven’t lost the ability to make me laugh so hard that you can’t wipe the smile off my face. It’s a rare talent for any movie to get children and adults laughing simultaneously. The Muppets does that several times and for that it (and its writers Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller) should get high praise.

And I still get chills when the lights go down, the curtains open up and the chorus starts singing, “It’s time to play the music…”

If you can look past the dark and mature content matter – aging performers finding themselves irrelevant and disconnected with the greater social network and society in general – then everything in this movie is fantastic. There are several scenes where characters spontaneously burst into song. There are numerous cameo appearances by celebrities from today and days of yore, all the way from Selena Gomez and Zach Galifianakis, to Alan Arkin, Whoopi Goldberg, Ken Jeong, Sarah Silverman, Emily Blunt, Leslie Feist, Dave Grohl, Neil Patrick Harris, Judd Hirsch, John Krasinski and Mickey Rooney.

Every little facet and nuance of the traditional Muppets is included here and frankly, I just want to go see it again. My kids agree with me on this one.