Since I left the theater this afternoon, I have been humming "Life's a Happy Song" nonstop. The theme song of the new Muppets movie, it is catchy, simple, funny, wise, and just plain happy to sing along to. And all those descriptors can be applied to the movie as a whole.
A passion project for co-writer, producer, and star Jason Segel, his sheer love for The Muppets comes bursting through in every scene. The plot is straightforward: Gary (the lovable Muppet-like Segel) and his brother Walter (a new Muppet created for this film) are two close siblings who share a love for The Muppet Show. When Gary decides to take his steady girlfriend of 10 years, Mary (the always delightful Amy Adams) to Los Angeles for their anniversary, he also brings Walter along so that they can take a tour of the hallowed Muppet Studios. However, when they arrive, the place is deserted and falling into disrepair. It turns out that a rich oil tycoon, Tex Richman (played with evident relish by Chris Cooper who does a great "maniacal laugh") is going to buy the studio when the lease expires in two weeks, and though he claims he will turn the studio into a Muppet Museum, Walter overhears him in secret conference with his henchmen hatching a scheme to demolish the studio and drill for oil. Horrified, Walter enlists Gary and Mary's help to find Kermit and the other Muppets so that they can save the studio from this terrible fate.
What follows is a series of introductions to these beloved characters (either in separate plot elements or as one glorious montage), a trip to Paris by map, and the decision to put on a Muppet telethon to raise the $10 million necessary to save the studio from the evil oil tycoon. As these plans go underway, there are plenty of songs, both silly and sweet courtesy of musical supervisor Bret MacKenzie, who you may know as one half of the New Zealand-based Flight of the Conchords comedy music duo. That background served him well in writing some fantastic songs for The Muppets and this wonderful New York Times article details his work as well as featuring a duet between McKenzie and Kermit. Along with the songs, there are multiple celebrity cameos that will shock and surprise you and induce a chuckle all on their own. And there are several joking references that break the fourth wall and remind you that this is a silly, joyful endeavor meant to appeal to the adults who have grown up with the Muppets and the children who have no idea who the Muppets are.
I would put myself in the latter category. I never watched The Muppet Show, never saw the Muppet movies, and aside from a love for the Mahna Mahna song (who doesn't love this song?), I didn't really think I cared much about the Muppets at all. But this movie changed all of that. It is filled with nostalgia, looking back at a time when some pieces of felt operated by genius puppeteers could enthrall audiences and keep millions entertained. At one point in this film, the Muppets are told that the world is now a "hard and cynical place," and their act has no place in it. But as these indomitable Muppets go on to show, there is still plenty of room in this world for chickens that cluck their way through Cee-Lo's "F- You," a barbershop quartet rendition of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and of course, a frog with a banjo singing "Rainbow Connection." This mix of the old with the new proves that the Muppets are just as relevant now as they were so many years ago, and more than that, they are necessary. The world might be more hard and cynical now, but as long as you have the Muppets, you are reminded that, "Life's a happy song when there's someone by your side to sing along."
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