Hey everyone! Having a good Thanksgiving break? I am! I just got back from seeing the recent release: The Muppets.
I know what you’re thinking: Seriously? The Muppets? If any franchise needs a reboot, it wouldn’t be the first obvious choice. When I first heard about it, I decided: Eh, whatever, I’ll probably skip that.
DON’T SKIP IT.
I know Chase is a fan of Rotten Tomatoes, so I know he’ll be impressed when I say that for its starting week, it had a score of 100. NOT KIDDING. It has since trickled down to 98, which is still a lot better than many other recent releases. Let me tell you why this is.
The Muppets is really a movie that caters to everyone, which is why it is so massively appealing. They cover the original fans with lots of insider muppets jokes from the original series, and the younger crowd still gets lots of laughs, even if they haven’t seen it. Everyone can relate to someone, especially I think, because of the introduction of a new muppet.
Walter is the schmarmy loveable self-deprecating protagonist that you can’t help but root for. His story leads him to meet his childhood heroes including Kermit and co. Meanwhile there’s a villain to stop who wants to erase the muppets forever.
Also the songs are terrific. The movie does a very good job of incorporating them into the story, even though they’re cheesy. But even though the whole movie is filled with cheese, it’s the good cheese that you just flew in from France or Italy. It just works in a charming way.
The design is just what you need for a Muppets movie, the actors work, and lots of funny cameos appeal to the teenage and young adult crowd (ranging from Modern Family to Big Bang Theory), the comedy is excellently executed, and it becomes a great throwback while also being a throwforward…thing.
But most importantly, I think, in movies, is that “The Muppets” evoked a true emotional response from me, a very poignant one towards the end. All along it made me feel happy, sad, mad, and scared, and it was very involved. It is a very powerful and a very moving film, and I urge you to go see it at the first opportunity.
This has been your weekly update from Junior Varsity AKA Jason. See you next time!
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