Muppets speak to viewers with sincerity

What do you get when you take America’s most beloved clan of puppets, add a dash of modern musicality, a sprinkle of 21st century stars and a twist of villainy?

Childhood nostalgia · The Muppets, Jason Segel’s long-awaited cinematic dream, captures the hearts of audience members of all ages. The film reinvents a timeless story and uses mature humor that appeals to children and adults, successfully revitalizing the iconic Muppets. - Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Motion Pictures

The Muppets, which has been marinating in the comedy star and self-professed “Muppets geek” mind of Jason Segel for years.

After co-writing the Dracula puppet musical from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Segel decided it was finally time he made his Muppet dream a reality.

Looking for help, he sent a short and sweet email to British film director James Bobin simply asking, “Do you like the Muppets?”

Nearly two years later, Segel’s dream film has hit theaters, his long-time goal finally achieved.

“I realized there was this 12-year generation gap since anything ‘Muppets’ had been released, so kids age zero to 12 had grown up with no Muppets — that was really sad to me,” Segel said. “The Muppets style of comedy is so pure and so kind, and I think it’s important that kids have that influence in their lives, like I did.”

Segel and Bobin enlisted the help of producers David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman, screenwriter Nicholas Stoller and the whole Muppets gang to create a modern movie-musical extravaganza that stayed true to the feel and tone of Jim Henson’s original creation.

The production team did, however, take a risk by introducing a new Muppet to the gang: Walter, whose story serves as the heart and soul of the film.

“Creating Walter was the greatest challenge we faced,” Lieberman said. “There is a lot of pressure in introducing a new character to such a well-established franchise.”

The production team was careful to maintain the core qualities that define the Muppets with Walter, resulting in an undeniably endearing character with innocence, determination, humility and a heart of gold.

“This is Walter’s story,” Hoberman said. “If the audience is not invested in him, the movie has failed.”

The movie opens by introducing the audience to Walter, the world’s biggest Muppet fan, who lives in Smalltown with his brother Gary (Segel) and Gary’s charming schoolteacher girlfriend Mary, played by the talented Amy Adams.

Walter, Gary and Mary take a vacation to Los Angeles where they discover, much to their chagrin,  Muppet Studios is abandoned and will soon be destroyed by the nefarious oil tycoon Tex Richman (Chris Cooper), who plans to drill for oil beneath the Muppets’ former stomping grounds.

What follows is a visit to the home of Kermit the Frog, a trip to Paris to see Miss Piggy and a reunion of the good old Muppet gang, putting on the comeback show of a lifetime to raise the money needed to stop the evil and greedy Tex Richman.

One might expect a fun and childish film unquestionably geared toward a younger crowd, but the film delivers anything but.

The essence of the film is its unique humor. It’s playful and wholesome for young Muppet fans while also retaining witty, clever appeal for mature audiences.

“Jim Henson always used to say that he never wrote ‘down’ to appeal to children,” Bobin said. “He always wrote to what he and his friends thought was funny, which makes it so much more genuine.”

With this sincere, timeless humor as a foundation, the production team was able to take chances with modern musical numbers including Cee Lo Green’s “Forget You” and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” as well as with celebrity cameos including Selena Gomez, Sarah Silverman and Neil Patrick Harris.

“We didn’t have any trouble finding people who wanted to work with us,” Segel said. “A lot of people actually came to us. There’s something about the Muppets that people are just drawn to. They’re so iconic.”

The tunes are hilarious, heart-wrenching, modern and eternal. Not to mention, the fast-paced and intelligent humor keeps the audience hanging onto every word, especially with the occasional and intentional breaches of the “fourth wall,” or making eye contact and connecting with the audience, something characteristic of the Muppets.

Even with the modern twists, the film’s core holds resolutely true to the Muppet philosophy that has captivated audiences for generations.

“This film is about everything the Muppets stand for — innocence, hope, kindness and the belief that if you work together, you can achieve amazing things,” Bobin said. “Tex Richman represents the modern, wealth-obsessed, narcissistic world, and I hope that people take away from the movie the notion that the pure ideals of the Muppets transcend those things.”

In the words of Kermit the Frog: “The Muppets have always tried to inspire the world with silliness and to show folks that no matter who you are or how weird you seem to others, there’s a place for you and people who care about you. And when you find that place and meet those people, wonderful things happen.”

And with Segel’s dream and passion coupled with the brainpower of many talented individuals, a wonderful thing did happen: The Muppets has been reborn in an everlasting film that will delight audiences of all ages for years to come.