The Muppets

I was never a huge Muppets fan as a child (or indeed as an adult) so I approached this film (good reviews not withstanding) with no real expectations. I left the cinema having laughed more than i had at any film for quite a while.

The plot, such as it is, is rather inconsequential. Gary (Jason Segal), his girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) and brother Walter (who happens to be a puppet, for reasons that are never explored, thankfully) go on a trip to LA. Whilst there they uncover a plot by dastardly oil baron Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to tear down the Muppet studio, so get the Muppets back together to put on a telethon to save the studio.

As a story, its both predictable and full of inexplicable holes, but that's the Muppets. The joy here is that after a slightly slow start, it keeps hitting the right notes comically. The laughs keep on coming - from the 80s robot, the sight of Oscar winner Copper rapping, travelling by map, gathering the gang by montage to save time, Animal's anger therapy, Emily Blunt reprising her Devil Wears Prada  role as Miss Piggy's assistant, a nice final gag with the telethon scoreboard and so on. The laughs keep coming.

The human cast are also good - Segal and Adams go a long way to confirming their position as the nicest people in Hollywood (even as their love story plays second fiddle to that of Kermit and Piggy), Cooper is a delightful bad guy, Jack Black and Zach Galifianakis haven't been in anything this funny for a long time. The decidedly quirky edge of Flight of the Conchords Brett Mckenzie also proves to be a great fit for the songs.

The bonus is a delightful Toy Story short film from Pixar at the start, which would almost be worth the admission price by itself.

Overall - 8/10  Consistently funny in a wonderfully good-hearted way. The Muppets are back!