By Susan Phillips Delia, Guest Writer
I grew up watching “The Muppet Show” on television every week and the new movie The Muppets has all the same characters as the program. The show hasn’t been around for a very long time so it was great to see the old gang getting back together. If your children like a lot of silliness and some lessons to be learned in a fun way, then I recommend taking them to see The Muppets.
The movie is about the Muppets reopening their studio after a long hiatus, but they find they owe a lot of money on the building. A bad man Tex finds out that there is oil under the property and wants to get the studio. In order to save the studio, Kermit sets out to get the whole gang back together and start a new show to raise the money. In the meantime two men who grew up watching The Muppet Show set out to help them win over Tex.
The flow of the storyline is right on the mark starting with the two boys growing up and wanting to save the Muppet studio. It shows the passion they have for the Muppets and their wanting them to get back together to save their studio.
I loved the film it was a lot of fun there was both singing and dancing, but not too much and the songs are really funny. They have guest celebrity appearances on the show so for example in order to get Jack Black they had to kidnap him. It was a hysterical skit. Other cameo appearances include Alan Arkin, Ken Jeong, Sarah Silverman and many others.
My two girls liked the film very much. The five year old has got one of the songs stuck in her head and sings it a lot and the fourteen year old found The Muppets a lot of fun as well. I found I didn’t have to worry about my youngest wanting a potty break as she focused on all the crazy things going on in the movie.
Kermit is always the group leader so he always treats his friends in a loving way. There is the normal love-hate relationship between he and Miss Piggy and it was like old times for me. As far as whether The Muppets will stick around for future films, I feel they can make a comeback but first on TV so children can have that kind of programming. If they do start there than a sequel can be made; other than that this is a one-hit wonder.
The Muppets is rated PG for some rude humor. For the most part the film is very wholesome, but there were a couple of scenes that weren’t very nice. It wasn’t scary mind you, but there was this one show called the teacher and they showed people punching teachers that I found to be questionable.
I will give this a B+ for children, especially younger ones who are aware enough to identify the lesson here of working together as a team.
If you would like to be a guest writer please contact me at jdelia.pr@gmail.com
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
