Muppets are back in the Biz

Film review: The Muppets (U)
I think nearly everyone has a soft spot for the Muppets. From their musty beginnings in Jim Henson’s student days, through a veritable smörgåsbord of films and TV shows, they are among the most durable characters in entertainment.
Nonetheless, they’ve had a rather chequered recent history, with some sub-par movie adaptations leaving viewers nostalgic for the show’s golden age on television in the late 1970s.
This new feature film (the first since The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz in 2005) is an attempt to reboot the franchise, and return to the glory days when the show’s popularity was at its height.
And, with all credit to director James Bobin, the attempt is largely successful. The puppet characters (by far the most director-proof aspect of the production) are charming and lovable, and the songs, although hardly show-stoppers, are suitably catchy and energetic.
Meanwhile the script, although lacking the bite of Jim Henson’s early efforts, is still fairly strong. The film has a particularly nice line in sending up its own genre clichés, with the characters prone to telegraphing major plot-points, and echoes of previous Muppet movies, in an enjoyably self-conscious style.
Less strong are some aspects of the overall story. The narrative, which follows the Muppets’ last-ditch attempts to save their theatre from a sinister oil-baron, is a prime example of “off-the-shelf” Disney plotting, and the villain (with the predictably Dickensian moniker ‘Tex Richman’) never really feels threatening. Furthermore, the final act features a lamentable instane of the sort of product- placement all too common in American children’s films, and makes the production feel slightly cheap and commercial at the precise moment it should be onvincing us of its sincerity.
Nonetheless, The Muppets is still a partial return to form for this much-loved franchise. Although nowhere near as enjoyable as the original TV series (an era which, one fears, is long since past), James Bobin’s film is a spirited and good-natured effort with many more comedic hits than misses. Rating:***