Leading the way in the movie is Jason Segel as Gary and Peter Linz as his brother Walter. They close brothers find their way to see Walter’s favorite show ‘The Muppets’ through Gary’s anniversary trip to California with his girlfriend Mary (played by Amy Adams). While on the tour of the broken down studio lot where the show was taped, Walter stumbles into a secret meeting with the two critics, Statler and Waldorf and a rich man named Tex Richman (played by Chris Cooper). Richman wants to demolish the studio and drill for oil underneath. Disturbed by this notion, Walter tells Gary, and they both make it their quest to get Kermit and gang involved to stop the drilling. The rub? Kermit and the Muppets haven’t seen each other in years. So, the rest of the film pretty much is an adventure to collect all the Muppets and basically, as Jake says in the Blues Brothers, put the band back together.
The great thing about The Muppets is that it was a reboot of the concept. It was a historical journey through what had been, what might have been and what is to be with the series. Cleverly put together and wrapped up in multiple love stories, the movie did a great job of catering to those who have adored the show and movies, and it brought in new viewers that weren’t quite familiar with what The Muppets use to be.
This was just a fun, great film that was put together well.
With that said, I realize that there has been some backlash from some of the original voice actors of the Muppets. I’m not sure what they had a problem with, but the film really does do the memory of previous Muppet films plenty of justice. They have every right in the world to complain, as they’ve more than earned their stripes, but honestly I just didn’t see where the problems lied.
Again, it’s a fun film that really revives the Muppets in my view.
The Blu-ray looked superb. The colors were evenly balanced, with particular focus on the blacks, reds, yellows, blues and whites. The picture was pretty clean and crisp, with no color banding whatsoever. I was really impressed with the amount of detail the movie was showing off in HD, and almost little to no graininess or artifacts showing. Overall, it’s a solid HD picture that deserves some praise and love.
Of course, the visuals are one thing and the audio is another; good stuff here. One of the brightest spots of all Muppet films is the singing and music. The Muppets actually was one of the better Muppet film soundtracks. Solid stuff for a simple film.
Anyway, on the special features side of things here’s what to expect:
– The Longest Blooper Reel Ever Made (In Muppet History––We Think)
– Disney Intermission
– Scratching The Surface: A Hasty Examination of the Making of Disney’s “The Muppets.”
– Explaining Evil: The Full Tex Richman Song
– A Little Screen Test on the way to the Read Through
– Eight Deleted Scenes
– Audio Commentary with Jason Segel, James Bobin and Nicholas Stoller
– The Combo Pack also comes with the popular theatrical spoof trailers
– The Complete Soundtrack
This release is absolutely packed full of Muppet goodness. This is one of the bigger special features sections I’ve seen on a Blu-ray in a while, one that is worthwhile at least. You get an enormous blooper reel mixed with multiple featurettes. There’s so much to enjoy here, and they really do compliment that main feature. I think the soundtrack was probably one of my favorite extras (good singing).
