The movie starts out with Gary and his muppet "brother" Walter growing up. While Walter stays the same height, Gary grows taller, though they are still close as, well, brothers. Now, this sadly bothers me a bit. Gary still is attached to his muppet, even when he is about thirty or forty, and this relationship kind of continues through out the movie.
After the growing up preview, we are then brought to modern day California, with Gary, now a teacher of an overly studious group of kids, and his girlfriend, Mary, also a teacher, are planning on going to Los Angeles for their anniversary. Gary invites his brother without his girl friends approval first, because Gary thinks that they could go see the Muppet's set, because like me and a lot of other kids, he grew up on the Muppets. After a musical number, ending hilariously in "They're finally gone" from the other people involved in the number, they board the bus to Los Angeles.
When they get there, they go directly to the Muppet studio, much to Mary's disdain. But instead of it being glamorous and shiny like it was on the tapes Walter had watched, it was abandoned and run down. On the tour, Walter strays from the group and goes into Kermit's office, where a guy named Richman and his goonies are talking with the two old men about selling the set because they claim they want to make a musem, and that if the Muppets wanted to stop them, then they would have to raise 10 million dollars. Now, the two old men plow straight through the fourth wall, or they reference the audience directly, by implying they not only ruined plot for the audience, but also implying that half the audience is dead.
When the two old men walk away, Richman reveals that there is oil under the set, and that he wants to demolish it, and the only way the Muppets can stop him is if they buy the property back. luckily, Walter was there to overhear the plan to demolish the building. He then goes to his brother, who is currently more hung up on this astonishing plot point than the subplot of his girlfriend. yes, this is a "kids" movie, so of course the girlfriend takes back seat. While they go to find Kermit, who is hiding in plain sight, with the gates even having pictures of him and Mrs. Piggy, Kermit actually comes up behind them when they are at his house. They actually make him look like a God to Walter, which prompts typical fan-boy like reaction, and he faints, just to wake up in Kermit's house.
After telling Kermit the antagonist's plan, they decide to recruit the crew, starting with Ozzy, the joke-ster Muppet, who is singing at a club with imitations of the Muppets, the Moopets. Originality in naming, perhaps not, but these things scream evil, especially the Pig. next they recruit Gonzo, the hooked nose, pink spandex wearing Muppet, who has successfully started his plumbing company, though he nukes the company and strips out of his formal attire to the Pink spandex super hero uniform. They recruit the gang through a montage, and whats even funnier is that they even say the quickest way to do it is through a montage. After they have gotten everyone except Mrs. piggy, they decide to "travel by map" to Paris. I will admit, the idea is ingenious, due the the fact that when most most movies they usually abridge travel time to, well, a map.
When they find Mrs. Piggy, she refuses to join them, because she is happy with her life in Paris. Though the first attempt fails, she eventually decides to join them. When she does join them, she finds that they had gotten a stand in for her, and Mrs. Piggy then proceeds to fight the fake one.
When they finally get around to raising the money for the set, they have to jump through hoops trying to get a network deal, due the fact they aren't that popular anymore. Actually, I think this sort of reflects on real life, due the fact that if I went up to a kid, and said who is your favorite Muppet, they would probably give me a strange look and ask me who are the Muppets. This point is further exaggerated by the chart of the in group, and that the Muppets are way out there in never ever land, where no one knows them. They do manage to score a deal, and then the insanity ensues. What type of insanity, you're going to have to go see this movie, because it is worth every penny of a movie ticket
This movie I will praise for the comedic genius and musical numbers. The music was very Mary Poppins like, though I thoroughly enjoyed it because the music touched on everything from going on a vacation, to being all alone on your anniversary. They were catchy, and one of them had a hilarious end. The comedy had me laughing, like for example when they steam rolled through the fourth wall, and also they implied that tying up people for money is alright. (Which it is).
This weekend, or sometime while it's still in theaters, I highly recommend that you take you and your family to see this masterpiece of a movie, because you will not be disappointed, and it will be every penny well spent.
