We Could Harmonize For One More Song: thoughts on The Muppets (2011)

Jim would be proud.

That was my thought that best summarizes, after two days of deliberating how to best say it, the experience I had watching the Muppets.

And..um...if you're reading this at all, you personally know me. If there's one thing that you know about me, it's that I'm really socially awkard. I'm sorry. If there's two things you know about me, it's the aforementioned awkwardness AND my strong admiration of Jim Henson. The latter is why it should be of absolutely NO surprise that I'm writing this post. If you plan on seeing the movie, please enjoy. If you aren't so sure, please let me try to convince you to watch it.

I don't know where to begin, really. Do I start with the brilliant writing? The performances of Jason Segel, Amy Adams, and the rest of the cast and cameos? The very Muppet-esque musical numbers produced by Bret McKenzie (of Flight of the Conchords fame)? The familiar yet updated wit in every scene?

How do I explain how much I and every other fan of the Muppets needed this movie? How do I explain that being a fan of the Muppets isn't about thinking foam puppets are cool but about how they bring the best out of each and every one of us?

We've got everything that we need, we can be whatever we wanna be, nothing we can't do, the skies are blue, when it's me and you (and you and you!)

I won't give too much away (despite the fact that what, 4 people are actually going to read this - all of whom have probably already seen the movie) but it's brilliance truly lied in the formatting. Anyone familiar with the original Muppet Show "remembers" the eclectic hosts and performances; silly parodies of contemporary pop culture, the over-the-top musical numbers filled with wit, and those rare but poignant moments that touched our hearts (Bernadette Peters singing "Just One Person" with Robin is always the first to come to mind). The movie follows this format to a T....between laughing so hard I was falling out of my seat there were those few occasions where I teared up and told myself to hold it together.

I won't spoil those moments for you. You'll know them when you see them.

The plot is formulaic and familiar without being trite. The Muppets themselves almost seem to lament their absence from one another and the public eye - this is the first Muppet venture in 12 years, after all. Fourth walls are broken on a regular basis and with my realization in the previous statement, the plot and the characters takes on a new level of meaning for me. Given the grand finale and, well, with the (so far) success of the movie - the Muppets have in a sense managed to go back there someday (see what I did there?).

Except Dr. Honeydew and Beaker at the Large Hadron Collider. Science needs them!

A lot of love clearly went into this project; it's apparent from every aspect that all the major players involved love the Muppets dearly. Watching the movie, you can feel the excitement of being a part of it; from the performances by the actors, the set design, the writing, the music. The timing and energy is that of people involved in something they loved to be a part of and it comes through perfectly. It is the movie that a group of friends with a sense of humor, a Hollywood budget, and something to make the ideal homage to would create - instead of ending up on Youtube, however, it opens with a 97% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. 

My one complaint (aside from the Cars 2 billboards everywhere) is the lack of Muppet Show regulars that appeared in the old show and movies. However, as I said before, the Muppet Show played on contemporary talent. Perhaps Julie Andrews, Steve Martin, Carol Burnett, Sandy Duncan, Alice Cooper, or John Denver didn't appear (although Alan Arkin of all people DID have a cameo), but Sarah Silverman, Feist, John Krasinski, Neil Patrick Harris, Emily Blunt, Kristen Schaal, Dave Grohl, and Donald Glover did. Well...and Mickey Rooney (maybe he's making a comeback?). My point is that the Muppets are playing by their own rules and I can't really fault them for that simply because I like to be a pop culture hipster (oh, you don't know who Ethel Merman is? What, were you born in the 90's or something?). That being said, I knew the movie was going to be wonderful when the first mention of the original show was the episode with Steve Martin...my favorite episode of all time.

Bret Mckenzie could not have done a more wonderful job with the music (seriously now, go watch Flight of the Conchords and thank me later). The original music is catchy, funny, and sometimes a little bit sad. It's oddly wonderful that for everthing we've come to associate with the Muppets an emotional realism is at the top of the list. "Life's a Happy Song" may just take a place up there with "Rainbow Connection" as a personal anthem for hope - a personal reminder to keep looking up. Kermit and the gang remind us each and every day to be the best people - and Muppets - we can be each and every day. I'm so glad that it never gets old.

I'm sure I'll edit this post heavily down the road when I'm not so stuffed from my Thanksgiving meal (and therefore not in the right frame of mind..so...sleepy...), but long story short: I honestly believe the Muppets succeeded in keeping true to the franchise (although I hate calling it that...it sounds so corporate and everything the Muppets, to me, are not). I believe they suceeded in their comeback although I do not know where they go from here. I just hope they don't wait another decade to give me the third greatest gift (it's laughter, by the way).

The movie touched me (and several of my fellow movie-goers that attended the midnight showing) so much - not just as a fan, or a geek, or an overly emotional person who thinks too much, but as a person leads me back to my original thought.

Jim would have been proud. Even though a different company has ownership of the studio and their names *cough*, his spirit still lives on through this movie. His creations, his most sensational, celebrational, muppetational family still make us laugh, cry, and love, and they proved they CAN do it all again. Yes, he would have been proud.

Take whatcha got and fly with it

A week ago today marked the 21st anniversary of the death of Jim Henson. I was flying home from Tampa on that day, and with my traveling adventures I had forgotten about this occasion. I had remembered the night I went to the movie theater with my brother to see Thor, and had seen seen a poster for the new Muppet movie due to come out.

21 years gone, and Henson still has an impact on this world in such positive ways. I think if anyone can make a new, quirky muppet movie work, I'm hoping Jason Segel can do it. I hate how Disney has taken the muppets and wrote Henson out of the picture.

I know these sound like musings of a person with nothing better to do than dote over a dead puppeteer, and maybe the magic of the Muppets isn't seen with everyone. To a lot of people, I realize, they are just foam and googly eyes and relics of decades past, like Spongebob or the Jersey Shore will be someday.

Think of it this way; Henson was just a basically good, kind person with a flair for creating and being silly. He saw imagination in every object and found a lesson in every creation. Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Big Bird, Bert, Gobo, Red, Uncle Matt, and all of the other wonderful creatures weren't just puppets; they grew up in the conciousness of Americans and citizens around the world. To a lot of people, the Muppets were as real as any human being...of course you know they're NOT, but they kinda are. Work with me here. (On a side note, I've found that many people continuously enchanted by Henson find the same with Calvin and Hobbes; Hobbes is real, but he isn't. Nobody questions it, and it's fantastic that way).

In the Muppet special that aired after his death, the Muppets went on a bit of an introspective journey to find out who this "Jim" is that they're throwing a special for. As they get to know him, they are shocked and saddended to find out Kermit's closest friend has passed away.



The best summarization of Jim's legacy is submitted by a fan, read carefully by Scooter.
"perhaps the substance of Jim Henson's genius was the ability to see wonder far-off in crazy directions, and get people to follow him there"

This video also marks the first time Kermit speaks with a new, different voice. It's easy to spend an entire day watching the memorials, the tributes on youtube. I didn't know which one to post; all of them have their own special way of making people see why this man was, and still is, a role-model to all of humanity. The song that truly defines Henson and all he created is "Just One Person", a song that debuted on the Muppet Show with Bernadette Peters encouraging Robin to never give up.

I have very few inspirational heroes, but Jim Henson will always, always be one of the people I look to for finding a way in life. Working at Disney World, I met many people who found the same vein of inspiration from Walt Disney. I do not. I find Disney to be a cold, unapproachable icon, somewhat cutthroat and too business minded for my tastes, and I can't connect with him on a personal level. Henson always seems like an old friend, and the world is truly a better place because he was here, even though he didn't give us theme parks or crank out impersonal movies. He made the world better because of his passion for being silly, and showing us that sometimes being silly is okay, and being silly can have heart. He was always so involved in every aspect of his work, and it showed through to the people who worked with him.

This post is getting to be way longer than I had meant; I kinda just started typing and didn't really think to pull all of these thoughts together. I was barely 3 when Henson died. I do remember, though, being a child and being able to recognize him on tv or in magazines (it was probably the beard). My all time favorite muppet movie is "A Muppet Family Christmas", in which the Muppets, the Sesame Street gang, and the Fraggles all spend Christmas together. At the end Henson, bids farewell as he's drying dishes in the kitchen.

Jim was an all around good guy. Of course he was human, and I'm sure he had plenty of flaws. But he was not just a puppeteer; he was a friend to everyone, a creator, a teacher, a master of sentiment and personality. He was humble yet straight-forward. As Richard Hunt said of Henson, "he did not live for the moment, he lived in the moment...it's important that we all stop giving ourselves such a hard time; we've got to remind and push ourselves to let go." This is the kind of person I want to be.

This is why when I speak of Henson, I speak passionately. I speak of him the way the way others speak of their heroes, and to me he was so much more than "just an entertainer". To hear Richard Hunt, Frank Oz, his children, his co-workers and collaborators, he was so much more than just an entertainer. His world was one filled with color, and song, and perfect dynamics of teaching and learning. Frank Oz was correct in saying Henson was a singularity.



I close on my sappy, naive fan worship of Henson with the hope that I can also someday be a shining beacon of friendship to everyone that surrounds me. I know that's a tall order..I'm not much good at making things or making friends, and like Kermit I feel a bit too green, easily passed over... but maybe, if just one person believes in me...

So Farewell, Jim, wherever you are. Almost a quarter of a century later, and you're not forgotten. You've found that Rainbow Connection, and so will the lovers, the dreamers, and me.



Tom Smith's "A Boy and His Frog"