And so it is written, they were smitten with his mittens.
Sorry this is later than normal, but we went to see The Muppets tonight.
I am surely not the world’s biggest Muppet fan, but I am a fan in a big way. And I’m a bit of a purist on all things Muppet and Sesame Street, having grown up with them in the 70’s and onward. So I can admit, freely, that there will probably never be another movie as purely wonderful as the very first Muppet Movie. And I’ll grant you, maybe my esteem for it is a bit unrealistic, colored by seeing it so young, and loving it for so long (Erin’s and my song is “The Rainbow Connection,” so, yeah, label me biased all you want).
But all I really wanted out of the new movie was to feel like they were being honored for where they came from, and to stick to their roots a bit, and to not get dirtied up or dumbed down. I wanted it to be something kids could love, and adults could enjoy too, just like it was from the beginning.
Well, it was all that and more. Jason Segal may, in fact, be the biggest Muppet fan. If not, he sure made this movie like he is. And he wasn’t alone. The songs by Bret McKenzie felt perfectly placed side-by-side with the songs Paul Williams and others did for the original. I was singing along with “Life’s A Happy Song” as it played at the beginning, and I don’t think I’ll be able to get it out of my head any time soon (nor would I want it to).
The movie showed exactly why people have always loved The Muppets. It honored them, it honored the fans, and, most of all, it honored Jim Henson and all the people he worked with to create that world and those creatures in the first place. And as I watched it, even at the moments I felt like I was on the verge of tears, I was smiling the entire time, ear-to-ear.
I will say, though, that I didn’t come into this without having re-sparked a lot of Muppet love recently. The last couple years, Roger Langridge did a Muppet comic for Boom! Studios (they were later reprinted by Marvel, but Boom! should get the credit the deserve). It may be hard to imagine how a television show with puppets performing what was essentially vaudeville acts can somehow translate into a comic book. But Langridge’s imagination is greater than almost anyone else’s I know, because he nailed it, issue after issue (and continues to blow me away with his new Snarked! comic). I think I may dig through my long boxes tomorrow and spoil myself a little bit longer.
Now, all I need is a Super Grover comic, and I’m all set.
