Malk tells you why The Muppets movie is awesome.

Malkavian

There's a point in the film where a TV
executive point blank tells The Muppets 'You guys just aren't popular
any more.” It's a crazy thought to me, especially since The Muppets
have repeatedly shown themselves to be one of the most lasting and
well-aging shows out, there all the while being a part of a dead
genre and the incredible dangerous trap of depending on celebrity
guests. However, it's with that sense of humor about itself and
humility that The Muppets film does exactly what the muppets
themselves are doing: working from the bottom up.

Coming from the mind of Jason Segel
(best known as Marshall from How I Met Your Mother) he eschews
modernizing the Muppets in favor of doing what the muppets are best
at: simple charm and entertaining gags. The simple self-aware, but
aware enough not to care, making the Muppets;something of a
post-post-modern comedy. Segel plays a character who is admittedly
not that different from Marshall in How I Met Your Mother and is the
older brother to Walter the world's biggest Muppets fan. While this
could normally be the chance for an unbearable Author Surrogate, the
newest addition to the muppets manages to be a genuine lovable
everyman, and it really does feel like he belongs with the Muppets,
even though the fact that Walter and his brother are a Muppet and a
human being respectively is never actually brought up.

One of the amazing things about this
film is how many opportunities it has to fail but doesn't. The
celebrity guests are all modern and fresh without being overly
indulgent. It's nice to see these stars are willing to take the piss
out of themselves every now and then and it's nice to see how well
these people are willing to work with a bunch of felt puppets. One of
its best choices is to have everything in subservience to comedy set
pieces. This is a generic get-back-together plot with an oily
businessman villain so evil he is physically incapable of laughter.
The getting together is all joke setups and the second half of the
movie is basically an extended episode of the original television
series, but the strength of the jokes carries the film.

Something also needs to be said about
the brilliant simplicity of the Muppets and their puppeteers. Despite
have googly eyes and wakka mouths (hee hee Fozzie) these puppets are
amazingly expressive. It's not hard to see how a character is
feeling. With just felt and wire, the exploits of a singing frog are
more emotionally than any CGI creature out there.

Oh, and of course there are the
wonderfully shmaltzy songs that get by on catchiness and earnestness.
There's only one song I found unpleasant and that's because it's
based on a joke that I've long found myself tired of. They're evenly
spaced, and the interrupt jokes, while a little predictable and so
perfectly delivered they're still hilarious.

I can't remember the last time I
laughed so hard at a movie. This is one movie that completely
understands what its franchise is. While Transformers and Smurfs have
been trying to shoehorn in relevancy and modernism, The Muppets just
kept doing what they were doing in a new era. It's great to have
these guys back.

Forzare

Agreed with every word.

I just saw it today and it was fucking awesome.

Waltzy

It sounds really good when you guys describe it, and I almost wanna go see it...

...but Muppets scare me. D;

All Nines

D'awwwwww

If it makes you feel better, I can't stand claymation.

Forzare

Malkavian

Muppets scare you?

I thought everyone our age grew up on Sesame Street?

Why do they scare you?

MillerCross

I thought everyone our age grew up on Sesame Street?

I didn't.

I grew up on El Chavo del Ocho. /Latin person

CuteWithoutTheE

Love Wallace and Gromit!

 

And maybe I should see this film. I think I will see this film. I'm going to try and see this film.

Forzare

Definitely see this film. It really is that good.

...

munnuh munnuh

Waltzy

@Malky: I dunno why, some of them just really really creep me out. Especially Zoot. I had bad dreams as a kid. D;

It's not as weird as my fear of the mountain climber game from Price is Right though.

Nyarly

I didn't even know that a new Muppets movie is out. Anyway, that sounds actually pretty good. To be honest, my interest in The Muppets was never really high. But maybe I consider watching this one.

According to Wikipedia, it will come out in UK in February. It's unlikely that it will be released in Germany sooner, so I still have to wait quite a while.

But this reminds me that I really should finally watch the Tintin movie....

ClockworkUniverse

I just saw the ad for it. That was hilarious.

MrW

I seriously want to see this. The Muppets were a huge part of my childhood, and a rise in interest in them in recent years has me stoked. The positive critical and fan response helps.

You know what, to celebrate, I'll change my avatar to one of my own puppets.