The Muppets

Directed by James Bobin

(PG)

This “funny, wickedly self-aware musical” successfully revitalizes the Muppet franchise, said Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times. More than a quarter century after their peak as pop-culture icons, the “distinctive personalities” of Jim Henson’s puppets prove to be still endearing. Actor Jason Segel, who co-wrote the film, plays a human fan who reunites Kermit, Miss Piggy, and the rest of the Muppet gang in an effort to save their old theater, which is in danger of being demolished at the hands of a rich businessman. The energy level drops significantly “whenever the action turns to the humans,” said Alison Willmore in Movieline.com. Fortunately, Segel and director James Bobin “put the Muppets front and center as much as possible,” and when they do, the film’s “a marvel.” It may not “reach the heights of the original show” or the 1979 movie, but doing so would be impossible, said Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News. True visionaries “can never be replaced,” and Henson was one of them. It’ll have to be enough that this “consistently funny and warm” update honors his legacy.

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