The Muppets (10/10 for children 7/10 for adults)

by Tony Medley

Run time 108 minutes.

OK for Children

I freely admit that I would have had to have been dragged yelling and screaming against my will to see this had I not been invited to an 11 a.m. screening at Disney which allowed me to eat lunch at their excellent commissary. So it was a complete surprise to find that the film is not only not a complete drag, it's colorful, musical, and fun, with the Lucky Strike extra advantage of the presence of the redoubtable Amy Adams.

While children won't notice it, the plot is sparse to give it the best of it. There is absolutely no reason why a doll like Amy Adams would date a fey dope like Jason Segel for ten years waiting for marriage. There's nothing to indicate why she would love him, and put up with him spending all the time available to him with his Muppet brother. Further, the movie doesn't explain how Jason could have a Muppet for a brother. How did that work? We never see Jason's parents to see if one of them is a Muppet. For adults, this is too much to suspend credulity.

Even so, there are some charming cameos by people like Alan Arkin, Mickey Rooney, Whoopi Goldberg, and many others, along with a good performance by Chris Cooper as the bad guy.

The movie is too long for an adult and doesn't have enough singing and dancing. What singing and dancing we get are very good. The last half hour drags and the ending is preachy, although I guess that's a staple of The Muppets; they've gotta get their message in (not that there's anything wrong with that).