by Jack Silliman ‘13

Going into the theater I dreaded seeing “The Muppets Movie.” I thought it would be awful, it’s a kid’s movie, and its audience is not teenagers. I even thought I might have to leave early. However, ten minutes into the movie I was laughing with everyone else.

The movie focuses on Walter (Peter Linz) and Gary (Jason Segel), who are brothers. Walter and Gary are the world’s biggest Muppets fans and Walter just happens to be a Muppet himself. Gary, Walter and Gary’s girlfriend, Mary (Amy Adams), travel together to Los Angeles to visit the Muppet Studios. While on a tour Walter finds out about Tex Richman’s (Chris Cooper) plan to demolish Muppet studios and drill for oil. However, there is a catch: if they can raise $10 million by the time The Muppets contract is up they can buy back the studio.

In hopes of raising the money, Mary, Gary and Walter take to the streets of Bel Air to find Kermit the Frog (Steve Whitmire). They convince Kermit to help them and in a 1980s montage, they get the old gang back together. The group then “travels by map” to Paris in order to find Miss Piggy (Eric Jacobson). After running through their re-creation of “The Devil Wears Prada,” the group fails to get Miss Piggy on board due to her breakup with Kermit, which drives a wedge between Miss Piggy and the group. The group returns to Los Angeles to pitch the idea for a Muppets Telethon Special to raise the $10 million needed to save The Muppets Studios. In the end, as we all could predict, The Muppets get their studio back.

At each turn there is a new joke and a new character to present it. Even though I thought it would be tough to watch as a teenager, it was fantastic. It had enough jokes that were funny to adults to keep me entertained as well as cameo by celebrities like John Krasinski, Selena Gomez and Sarah Silverman.

The only problem is Segel who is normally tolerable in shows like “How I Met Your Mother” and “Freaks and Geeks,” but in “The Muppets” he sings. I cringed at every sound that came out of his mouth. It was so unbelievably terrible and on top of it all during the dance numbers you realize that he has two left feet. The audience can probably get over the horror of his character because he is not relevant after first couple of scenes.

This shouldn’t ruin the movie since they all have smaller parts. Plus if you go to this movie, you’re not going for Gary, Mary and Walter but to see Kermit, Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy and all the rest of the original Muppets. If you want to hear some bad jokes that end in “waka waka” and a screen full of felt then the movie is well worth it.