You have no idea how my boys waited for this day!
I was a bit worried though. The Muppets were pretty much alien to my boys. They knew Kermit the Frog from a couple of old Sesame Street TV reruns, and they've seen the frog with Gonzo in some homemade Cute Mario Brothers excerpts on YouTube. But other than that, they never knew the glory of hand puppets. In fact, they were excited for the movie for the sheer novelty of hand puppetry. Imagine, a kiddie movie that wasn't CG! That is sooo freakishly radical!
So how did the movie fare? From my boys' point of view, it was cool! Miro was cynical at first, going, "I can tell there's a hand moving that frog." LOL! But as the story progressed, I can see that The Muppets have not lost their tongue-in-cheek humor and their sarcastic quips are still as funny as ever. My boys ate that all up! It wasn't as action-packed as the movies my boys were used to (it was a love story more than anything), but there was an explosion, a series of punches and falls, and the songs were nice. Although my boys did get weirded out when I sang along to The Muppet Show theme song when it came on and actually shed a tiny nostalgic tear. Kenji was like, "Mimi, the song wasn't sad." Double LOL!
It's a great show for kids, even those who've never heard of Rowlf, Beaker, and Fozzie. It opens them up to that incredible age of hands-on, imaginative play... way before the time of wii and PSP. For movie viewers in my age group, it's beyond awesome. The movie fills you with constant flashbacks to wonderful memories of youth. It's not just a fun family movie, it brings you back to a simpler time when all you worried about was keeping your pig tails neat even after play time.
Downside (for me anyway), I thought Animal was given very little 'animal time'. Animal has always been bad ass on the drums and he only got a few seconds to show us his mad skills... and during the Rainbow Connection' number at that!
Gonzo was not fired from a canon. Huwaaat?!! Gonzo always --ALWAYS-- has to fly off from a canon into a death-defying fall. That's a signature!
And, there were no Muppets toys available at the cinema store, the mall, and even as freebies in any nearby fast food joint. Marketing downer there. My boys were ultimately pumped to try out puppetry right after the movie, and we couldn't find a single Muppets merchandise! This could be an isolated case. I don't want to believe that the city has become devoid of old Muppets play things. We shall continue the hunt this weekend.
To close, do watch the Muppets with the whole brood. If your child has only been exposed to CG animation and tech toys all his young life, THIS will be an exhilarating eye opener.
And if you're as ancient as I am, THIS will definitely, lovingly bring you back home.
"It's time to get things started..."
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