The Muppets Return to TV: A Premiere Episode Review

The Muppets have returned to TV and they feel right at home. 
TV is the best place for the Muppets to showcase their humor without it getting lost in the longer form of films. I’ve been underwhelmed by the 2 recent Muppet movies but now they are back on TV.

TV is where the Muppets got their start with The Muppet Show back in the 1970’s (which sprung off from Seasame Street).   The new Muppet Show is a blend of The Office and Larry Sanders  with the Muppets as stars.   It centers on Miss Piggy hosting a late night talk show and follows the behind the scenes lives of the Muppets.

 It is the perfect setting –because it lends itself to celebrity guest stars and allows the Muppets to do short form bits and sketches like the old Muppet Show.  The first episode featured  Fozzie the Bear dating a human girl and Kermit and Miss Piggy trying to work together despite recently breaking up.  I've seen numerous reviews that this Muppet show is a little too adult and some reviews have bashed it for this and basically said that Jim Henson would be rolling over in his grave at some of the humor. I personally found this to be one of the bettwe versions of the Muppets since the first movie hit the big screen.

 I really enjoyed the premiere episode which got good ratings and I hope that this will be a long and entertaining run.

It will be interesting to see if they can bring the Muppets back to prime time success and recapture some of what it once was.  I hope it does because I feel like maybe they have captured something great again with this new show and I think it will be interesting to see Kermit and Miss Piggy eventually get back together after some typical sitcom tension.

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The Muppets 2012 7 out of 10 (Disney Family Film #2)

I wanted to see The Muppets in the theaters. I was glad that they had made their way back to the big screen after quite a break and the parody trailers were really well done.
(Marketing done right--unlike John Carter). I missed them in the theaters and had heard nothing only great things about the movie so when it finally came out on DVD I knew this was one that we had to get for the family. The movie was good ---but it didn't live up to all the applause that had followed its release for me. I mean the plot is basically exactly the same as The Country Bears movie with a bit of UHF thrown in as well. The Country Bears was considered a bomb (I actually thought it was okay) so I find it strange that The Muppet movie got such acclaim (since it is practically the same film). As for music.....I was expecting more as well....after all I'm a huge Flight of the Conchords fan so I was excited for the music in the movie. "Am I a Muppet or Man" was excellent but some of the other music just left me shaking my head (especially the lame rap song by the villain).

I get that for many it had an emotional connection in the nostalgia of getting the gang back together and stirring up memories of the old Muppet Show that we grew up watching on TV, but the sappy stuff only grabbed my interest to a certain degree. I felt the 2 human characters played be Jason Segal (who also co-wrote the movie) and Amy Adams were a waste. Their love story really didn't add much to the movie at all. The movie had its moments, but somehow I was hoping for a little bit more. The original Muppet movie is still by far the best of the Muppet films in my opinion.

The Muppets are the Muppets and their is a certain charm that comes with their mere presence on screen. The DVD had some good extras. The blooper reel was good. The Test footage and behind the scenes had that classic Muppet charm. I was looking forward to the 6 Sampler episodes of the actual Muppet Show (that came with the movie at Target) which the nostalgic elements of the movie made we want to see. Unfortunately that disc had no audio for some reason which disappointed me even more.

If the only thing you get out of this Muppet Movie is wanting to see the original TV show or the first Muppet Movie than it is definitely worth it and the kids will probably love it anyway.

The Muppets Most Wanted 2014 7+ out of 10 (Disney Family Film #1)

The Muppets Most Wanted 2014  7+ out of 10

The Muppets are back in action again.  I love the Muppets and will watch any new Muppet movie that comes out.  I grew up with the Muppet Show on TV,  so the nostalgia is very strong for these characters.  The original Muppet movie was a classic and I love visiting the Muppets 3-D film at Disney’s California Adventure.  So  I didn’t complain when I got the duty of taking the kids to the movies.    

The Plot

I was a little disappointed in the previous Muppet movie for basically having the same plot as The Country Bears movie and for spending too much time on the new character of Walter.  This Muppet movie gets all of the classic Muppets much more involved in a story where Domenic Badguy (played by the always entertaining Ricky Gervais)  convinces the Muppets to go on a world tour.   Kermit is kidnapped by the World’s Most Dangerous Frog  Constantine and thrown into a Serbian jail.  Contstantine replaces Kermit unconvincingly to everyone except the clueless Muppets and then proceeds to rob museums with Domenic Badguy.   It is a good plot that only suffers slightly from the fact that Kermit is separated from the main group of Muppets  for most of the film.

The Music

One great thing about this latest Muppet movie is that once again the songs are written by Brett Mackenzie of Flight of the Chonchords –so all of the songs have that fun and clever feel of a Flight of the Chonchords song.  The song  “You can you what you want “ as sung by the World’s Most Dangerous Frog Constantine was especially entertaining .  The tone of these songs is perfect for the Muppets and their style of humor.

What is missing?

 I ended up seeing the Muppets in the theaters twice, only because the kids had different events on different days so I got movie duty.  It didn’t hold up as well the second time around.  I’m not sure exactly what was missing that made me disconnect  while viewing the film a second time.  Many of their adventures seem to fall into the same  general range of being good and yet not great and I think that is where this Muppet film will fall.  Maybe it is just the nature of there being puppets in the first place that keeps them from achieving  true greatness, I’m not quite sure and I can’t quite figure it out.   Maybe they just work better in small doses or in a TV show format with short sketches instead of getting lost within a Hollywood plot that always seems to water down the Muppets from their best.

Anyway….If you like the Muppets –you will probably like this Muppet adventure as well.   It is good –just not great.

Here are my thoughts on the previous Muppet film from 2012

http://braddisneylandblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-muppets-2012-7-out-of-10-disney.html

Coming up soon I'll do a blog ranking all of the Muppet Movies.

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