Phenomenon!

The Muppets: ****/*****

I had this really bad day at work last Friday. Any Friday is bad, but this one was particularly nasty. I planned to see Hugo afterwards, but I really needed something less complex (and shorter) to take my mind of my misery. So in an almost spontaneous burst of 'whateverism' I went to see The Muppets instead. Oh my, am I glad I did... I left the theatre happy and in a positive mood (which according to my colleagues is a rarity these days).

Why turned the experience out to be so uplifting? Because the Muppets are plain simple fun! There's nothing more to them, and nothing less. And this attitude has kept them popular and alive for well over thirty years, despite their notable absence in the last decade. Now that they're back, it's surprising to see how much they've stayed the same, despite the passing of creator Jim Henson and Frank Oz' unwillingness to participate in their latest venture. They're still puppets (and the occasional man in a suit) performed by puppeteers and tireless craftsmen that make them feel fully alive, without the almost obligatory use of CGI which rules Hollywood animation today.

Even in terms of plot nothing much has changed. Bottom line is a variety show needs to be put up and despite the usual setbacks the old team succeeds perfectly. Of course, the necessity for the show is a bit more severe this time, considering the old Muppet studio is being threatened by a deliciously stereotypical greedy oil baron by the name of Tex Richman (played with an abundance of maniacal laughs by Chris Cooper) who plans to tear it all down and drill for oil, while at the same time acquiring the Muppets' name with the intent to exploit it solely for profit, resulting in his creation of the Moopets, a team of 'harsh and cynical Muppets (consisting of minorities and New Jersey type puppets) for a harsh and cynical world'. Of course, you can question the political agenda the film makers had with this villain and his minions, which right wing America – thanks to the Fox channel – certainly has done, outing the Muppets as 'Marxist puppets', but in the end it could have been any type of greedy, sleazy character in his place. How about a wealthy and overly powerful, conservative, Rupert Murdoch type media tycoon next time? The negativity brought by the bad guy is of no consequence, and neither are his sinister goals: it's the cheerful attitude displayed by the good old Muppets that sticks with us for days.

Of course the story has to start with one Muppet, and it's not Kermit this time. Enter Walter, a rather generic Muppet who has grown up with his human brother Gary (a likeable Jason Segel) watching and loving The Muppet Show. (The concept of a Muppet and a human being actually related by blood is a bit uncomfortable and raises intriguing but disturbing questions about Muppet procreation, but we're not supposed to consider this at all, and certainly kids won't. After all, the idea of a pig falling for and even marrying a frog with the full intent to 'raise tadpoles' is equally alienating, but few children would even stop to think about this for more than a few seconds. If adults see this as disgusting, it's their own sense of reading too much into these things that gets the better of them.) Gary has the problem of not being able to choose between maintaining his relationship with Walter, or moving on with his girlfriend Mary (a 'too cute to be true' kind of Amy Adams). Walter is blind for this and only cares about the Muppets, which eventually results in both brothers having to decide where their allegiances lie: are they men or Muppets? This naturally also deslves into the typical 'believe in yourself' and 'follow your heart' type of memes being thrown out all over the place in the second half of the movie, but despite these life lessons being cliché ridden they don't get in the way of the real fun, which is the only thing the movie really strives to be, at which it succeeds wonderfully.

When Walter discovers the old Muppet facilities are in grave danger he seeks out Kermit who, Kermit being Kermit, is immediately willing and able to help. In a string of scenes we see Kermit and Walter getting the old team of our most beloved Muppets together, resulting in a hilarious montage of characters being re-recruited in rapid succession, with the intention of not ruining the pace of the movie. It's clear from such comments the Muppets are as self aware of their being in a movie as ever, which is exactly the way we like them. When the final obstacle, which turns out to be Miss Piggy's obsessive love for Kermit that hasn't made her able to get over her separation with her little green friend, is out of the way, the challenge of putting up a show that brings the Muppets back into the audience's collective conscience is on, resulting in the usual silly sketches and situations, all the while being sabotaged by Richman and his band of nefarious anti-Muppets. But even the bad Muppets eventually take the side of the real Muppets. It would be impossible for anyone not to do so.

Of course the human element has not been forgotten. In fact, on occasion it's awkwardly dominating, especially in the scenes with Gary or Mary singing and dancing with other humans while there's not a Muppet in sight. Fortunately these scenes work well enough to make us care enough about the human actors not to see them as getting in the way of our true heroes, and their respective song and dance numbers are merry enough to make us roll with them. But the film sees its greatest moments of strengths whenever it's just a bunch of Muppets goofing around, preferably mockingly making fun and play of a celebrity in a cameo role, of which there are plenty (the most memorable ones being provided by Jim Parsons, Emily Blunt and Zach Galifianakis).

In their struggle to find network backing, the Muppets come against a cynical network executive who claims the Muppets are 'not relevant anymore' in the modern world. And she's damn right! There's no real point being made by these Muppets (unless you go with the anti-capitalist messages, which the movie doesn't encourage you to do), other than us being provided with uncomplicated merriment. 'Bringing laughter' is the Muppets' grand gift, this movie claims on more than one occasion, and since the film completely entertains both kids and adults alike, it's proven to be right. This is fun in its most basic shape and it never pretends to be more than that. Despite the dreaded move of the Muppet franchise to the Disney corporation (parallels to which can also be attributed to the Richman character), the Muppet phenomenon successfully enters the 21^st century by being what it has always been: good spirited entertainment for all. And it's not even in 3-D, because 'the Muppets are as one-dimensional as they've always been' (Waldorf's words, not mine). Thankfully!