The Muppets (G)
Disney
It’s time to make the sequel! It’s time to get it right! It’s time to do some justice to the most sensational, inspirational critters ever to grace TV, let alone anthropomorphology.
And what? It’s been 32 years since The Muppet Movie and all Kermit, Miss Piggy and friends get is this tepid tale about Muppets reuniting to defeat a big, bad, nuance-free property developer who wants to pull down the theatre they haven’t touched in decades?
Meanwhile, Amy Adams frumps around LA in inexplicable 1950s garb instead of pitching in with the reno. Just to recap, children, Kermit was a Sesame Street star who spun off into The Muppet Show and became a froggy folk hero to young and old. Not that you’ll learn any of this in the movie, nor in the ‘‘bonus features’’ squandered on a stupid blooper reel. Yes, there’s an Oscar-winning song, a sappy (OK) ending, and Steve Whitmire voicing Kermit sounds amazingly like the Muppets’ creator, Jim Henson. But in the post-Toy Story era we expect more sophistication in our G-rated fare.
– Alison Barclay
