#140RVW
One of world’s most beloved franchises is revived by the creative teams behind Forgetting Sarah Marshall & Flight of the Conchords. #whoknew
What’s more:
I think many of us were cautiously optimistic about this. I was really pulling for it. The Muppets were a HUGE part of my childhood and I never stopped loving them.
Hoped that the impressive talents involved would do justice and not try to be hip. My expectations were comically leapfrogged…
What comes through clearly is the obvious love that everyone involved has for the Muppets. Writers Jason Segel & Nicholas Stoller, along with director James Bobin take the absolute perfect approach: love but not reverence. They are fulfilling a geek dream of restoring a franchise, but are simultaneously updating it for today. That sort of phrase usually scares me, but in this instance updating is not a dirty word. They’ve brought these characters back and made room in our world for them. The characters are unchanged but not entrenched.
One of the best film-making tools for trying to find out if something old can be renewed? Approach the question directly. By having the characters themselves search for and ponder their relevance, the audience just gets to come along for the ride. I love when Chris Carter even sneers about the old-fashioned, Dom DeLuise era of variety shows.
The music numbers by Bret McKenzie are show-stopping, and though he won an Oscar for “Man or Muppet”, I still feel he was robbed as he wasn’t allowed to perform it on the show.
The movie is something less than perfect, of course, but it is so much fun that you will never notice…
Poster:
Trailer:
wait a minute…no, here’s the poster & trailer:
Poster:
Trailer:
http://youtu.be/Mq5LfuvRBVM
Bechdel Test:
FAIL