Walter (a Muppet and brother to a human named Gary (Jason Segel)) grew up wanting to be part of The Muppets as he watched their show and proudly has all of their merchandise.   While on vacation with Gary and Mary (Gary's girlfriend played by Amy Adams), Walter overhears a diabolical plot by evil oil tycoon Tex Richman (Gary Cooper) during a  visit to the rundown Muppets Studio.   Walter, Gary, and Mary search for Kermit who is living a secluded life in his mansion.  Walter convinces Kermit to find and reunite the Muppets for one more performance at the Muppets Theater to raise $10 million to save the studio and theaters from Richman's plans to tear it all down and drill for oil.   Also the Muppets have rivals in the form of the hard and cynical Moopets.

 

THE MUPPETS is a funny film- very tongue-in-cheek with loads of satire and references to previous material from THE MUPPETS. I loved the travel by map bit.   A great reintroduction to the Muppets and respecting what came before this movie.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio commentary with actor/ co-writer Jason Segel, Director James Bobin, and co-writer Nicholas Stoller.

 

SCRATCHING THE SURFACE: A HASTY EXAMINATION OF THE MAKING OF THE MUPPETS-

A LITTLE SCREEN TEST ON THE WAY TO THE READ-THROUGH- a little comedic bit as the Muppets are looking for the location of the script read-through

EXPLAING EVIL: THE FULL TEX RICHMAN Song says it all  (wondering why they didn't include this on the full soundtrack album).

Seven theatrical spoof trailers which are better than anything they could have ever done with a straight theatrical trailer- includes two unreleased spoofs (including one spoofing RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES) and a spoof of a spoof trailer (lol).

 

The eight deleted scenes include more celebrity cameos from Billy Crystal, Kathy Griffin, and Danny Tejo, a cut jail scene, and a scene that gives away Walter's talent.

 

One of my favorite extras has to be the Disney Intermission mode  which activates whenever you pause the movie (but you can turn it off by going to Audio/ Subtitles menu if it annoys you).

 

Also included on the set are the DVD of the movie, a digital copy of the feature film, and a code to download a digital copy of the Original Soundtrack.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:   The Muppets are still as enjoyable as ever.  TEH MUPPETS movie is a great reintroduction to the characters while respecting what came before.  It is a charming and funny film with plenty of gags and a gang of Muppets.   The extras are enjoyable with the best being the spoof trailers and the Intermission mode.

 

this review is (c)3-20-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  No Muppets were harmed during the course of writing this review.  send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com