Walter, a puppet (performed by Peter Linz), and his brother Gary (Jason Segel), a human, grow up as massive fans of The Muppets. Gary decided that for his 10th anniversary with gf Mary (Amy Adams), they will go to LA, and since Muppet Theatre is also in LA, Gary should come along as well! However, they instead find that the Muppets are long forgotten and that Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) wants to buy the old lot and drill it up because there is oil underneath :O. Horrified, Kermit is informed and it's decided - in order to raise the $10 million required buy the site, they will reunite the old bunch and put on a telethon version to save the theatre!
I don't know, while I enjoyed this movie, I felt as though I should have loved it...and I didn't. First things first - the concept of getting the old team back together is both a strength and a weakness. Since it has been so long since the last movie (Muppets from Space from 1999!), reuniting everyone was a fun way of heading down the nostalgia part. The flipside of course is that there are so many significant Muppets that we enjoy but you don't get to see what they've been up to - as Rowlf the Dog says himself.
Secondly, the role of human humans in the Muppet world. While it's probably a good thing that they never try to explain how it's possible to produce human-puppet siblings, I couldn't help thinking that the Muppets from the original TV series and movies existed in the *real* human world, as opposed to the bizarro world we have here where people burst into song and the town joins in. Also, while celebrity cameos played a big part in the other movies, correct me if I'm wrong, but unless the plot was based on an established story (e.g. Muppet Treasure Island), the stars of the movies were the Muppet characters, not the human ones. While writer/star Segel is clearly a fan of the Muppets, the Gary-Mary doesn't really add anything to the story other than to provide songs and conflict. It would have been better just to concentrate on Walter trying to find his place in the world, imo.
A cyncial part of me says that since the Muppets are owned by Disney, the reason for this movie was purely commercial since they could re-introduce entirely new lines of merchandise that would not only appeal to children, but also to people who grew up with the Muppets. And hey, it worked on me! I know this review reads as being incredibly negative but while I did finish the movie feeling positive, I can't shake this niggling feeling of knowing that I won't be watching it repeatedly the way I could with A Muppet Christmas Carol. Oh well.
Charming, but lacking something?
6/10
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