The Muppets Are Back!

Christopher Orr insists you see their latest adventure:

Muppet Studios turns out to be less fabled than crumbled. Worse, Walter overhears the plottings of an evil tycoon (played with diabolical glee by Chris Cooper), who intends to tear the place down unless the Muppets, who have long since gone their separate ways, can come up with $10 million to buy it back. So Walter, Gary, and Mary set out in search of Kermit the Frog and, once they find him, in search of everyone else: Fozzie and Miss Piggy, Animal the drummer and Rowlf the Dog and Gonzo the Great, Scooter and Beaker and all the rest. Cue up reels of Getting the Band Back Together, of Putting on One Last Show, and of Learning Valuable Lessons About Love and Self-Worth.

In other hands, this arc might have proven just as saggy as it sounds. But Bobin, Segal, and Stoller propel the proceedings with wit and verve, genre winks tumbling out over timely demolitions of the fourth wall.

That said, this is no Shrekish exercise in exhausting inside-jokery: The Muppets is equal parts tender and hilarious, heartfelt and sly. It's hard to miss that a primary thread is essentially the story of Walter's uncloseting: his discovery, as a puppet/boy, of "The Muppet Show" and the way it made him feel less different and alone; his gradual, grownup realization that he, too, is one of them. The filmmakers wisely decline to make the analogy explicit, instead allowing it to serve as a quiet emotional tether.