Saturday, November 26, 2011

life's a happy song

the marketing campaign for the new muppet movie was pretty clever.  the first trailer i saw made it look like a lame romantic comedy with amy adams and jason segel then the muppets suddenly showed up.  brilliant.  then they did a trailer called "the pig with the froggy tattoo" that was awesome just because.
but my interest and hope that it would actually be good slowly faded until i didn't even know it came out last weekend.

it's currently at 98% on rottentomatoes and i want to list a few reasons why i thoroughly loved it.

  • while the script at times stumbles to one side or the other, the story itself is brilliantly self-aware and is fully aware that the muppet show went off the air thirty years ago.
  • i really can't pick my favorite celebrity cameo, although i think it might be jim parsons.  that was awesome. although zach galifianakis as hobo joe...
  • my other dilemma of which i liked more: the barbershop quartet singing "smells like teen spirit" or the camilla and the chickens performing "cluck you."
  • the three greatest gifts in the world: 1. children.  2. ice cream.  3. laughter.
  • "rainbow connection."
  • all of the jokes about the generational disconnect: "whoopi goldberg! selina gomez! and, i'm sorry, i don't recognize you."
  • the power to travel by map.
  • my realization that i'm a muppety man.
  • the mahna mahna credits.
  • lastly, i'm pretty sure i had a huge grin on my face when they perfectly re-staged the opening song of the muppet show.
i'm not sure how well it will hold up over time it was the best time i've had in a theater in quite a while.
my dad, who is a muppet purist, and my mom also enjoyed the show.

3 comments:

Em said...

I love that there is such a thing as a "muppet purist"

The Former 786 said...

Phew! I trust your opinion, so I'm happy to know you liked it. With all the crap remakes and reboots of shows from our childhood, it would have been easy to disregard this one, however I have held onto hope that I will enjoy it.

Muppets forever!

Hannah said...

I loved "Cluck You" and I might have cried a little when they sang Rainbow Connection....as I sat by myself in the theater. haha I think I am a Muppet Purist as well.