The Muppets [Celluloid Hero]

The Muppets (2011)

I am a Muppets fan. I've professed my love previously here; I love the intentionally bad puns and corny jokes, I love the celebrity cameos, I love the musical numbers. Admittedly, it took a while for me to get to watch this latest movie in the Muppet franchise.

Writer Jason Segel revealed his love for the Muppets in his movie "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", and jumped at the opportunity to write the newest installment of the Muppet franchise. It was an interesting idea, taking someone who grew up on the Muppets and giving them control over the characters they loved. It's a sort of "fan-fiction" mentality, and I was intrigued to see how it would turn out.

For the most part, I feel like it was a success. The story has been done many times in Muppet history, the jokes were more groaners than laughers, but there was still a certain comfort in spending time with these characters again. I had a pretty big smile glued to my face for almost the entire movie.

The only thing that hurt the  movie was that, at times, it got too self-referential. I understand the idea of the meta-reality, having the Muppets in the real world trying to stage a comeback for the Muppets, while I'm watching a real Muppet comeback. Still, I felt like there were almost too many wink-and-nod, elbow-poke, grin-at-the-camera moments. Despite all that, I was entertained overall, and my Muppet fandom remained intact.

On the [Celluloid Hero] scale, The Muppets gets a 7 out of 10.

[Each week, Varacchi explores cinema from his own perspective. From indie to foreign to mainstream, he'll watch it all. Suggestions and recommendations are welcome, leave a comment below. CLICK HERE for the Celluloid Hero archives]