THE MUPPETS (2011)

On vacation in Los Angeles, Walter, the world's biggest Muppet fan, and his friends Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) from Smalltown, US, discover the nefarious plan of oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to raze the Muppet Theater and drill for the oil recently discovered beneath the Muppets' former stomping grounds.

I confess that it was a good long while after reading this and wondering why the role of "Walter" was not credited before I realized ... Walter is the muppet that Jason Segel created.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Fn9Q8q6yNmk/TSkX9dABqdI/AAAAAAAAABM/3-2p4ffOfgg/s400/The-Muppets-Jason-Segel-and-Walter.jpg

What was the original title?

The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made!!!

I totally want to get stoned with this guy and Walter and talk about the muppets.

Have you all seen that rad muppets plumbing at the Letterman studio?

What happened to Skeeter from Muppet Babies? :((

are Rooney and Alan Arkin playing Statler & Waldorf?

I'd never heard of her, but she was in a four-issue non-Langridge drawn storyline in the Roger Langridge Muppets comic last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CloKbXtD28&

The Muppets look awesome in high-def.

wow this looks great

I will go see all these Muppets.

For those of a certain (OK, my) age, getting used to the subs for Henson's voices is as difficult as getting used to the Looney Tunes subs. It's remarkable how attuned our ears are to the subtleties of Muppet speech. Just as imagine there are some who cannot hear Ms. Piggy without hearing Yoda.

Please not the fucking New Radicals

not to be a total cornster but i must have seen Muppets Take Manhattan a million times on VHS as a kid over and over and over again until I knew every line by heart - it came out the year i was born. so i'm kinda secretly hoping baby's favorite movie as a kid is gonna be this assuming it's excellent.

I am always wary when the muppets are re-mastered. Saying this, muppets from space was awsome. I will hold judgement until I have seen it, I think the muppets are insanely good. Love them to bits.

I will be VERY surprised if this is decent. Yeh, the subs for the voices annoy me - it doesn't sound like Kermit, it sounds like someone doing a Kermit impression! - and with teh odd exception and the new muppets suck ass, and not in a good way.

And that poster freaks me out too. Whenever they give muppets legs they look waaaaay creepy.

If the film manages to capture that goofy, chaotic sense of humour the Muppets have then it shouldn't be too bad.
If Disney have taken this franchise and squeezed out the last drop of goodness by making a dreadful cheesy cacophony of shite then as Fozzie Bear would say "shame on youuuuu"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jbya4kxC6E

Just to show that sub voices aren't always bad.

So stoked for this. btw has anyone mentioned Muppet Treasure Island? That one is AWESOME.

Not my favourite, but still good. Best muppet movie ever?

For me it would have to the original The Muppet Movhe ie. I am all over Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgc-_pzzz00&feature=related

Movhe ie? = Movie

I will be VERY surprised if this is decent.

Segel is great, his previous movie was great, he loves the Muppets, he pitched hard for this and won the Hensons over, he has proven enthusiasm for puppetry, director is a great match for the material with his experience on slightly off-kilter musical comedy in realistic settings. Why don't you think it will work?

The Conchords connection gives me hope, but I'm not sure if the ironic distance that works on that TV show will translate to Muppety fun. I think we'll have to agree to disagree on Segal, I've just had a look at his filmography and I find it supremely underwhelming, but ymmv I guess.

Maybe I'm being coloured by that terrible Muppets Tonight show tho, I was so disappointed by that.

That shot in the trailer of Segal walking down the street doing that silly shoulder-shrug Muppet walk was all I needed to convince me he's paid attention to details and this thing is going to be loads of fun.

For those of a certain (OK, my) age, getting used to the subs for Henson's voices is as difficult as getting used to the Looney Tunes subs. It's remarkable how attuned our ears are to the subtleties of Muppet speech. Just as imagine there are some who cannot hear Ms. Piggy without hearing Yoda.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, May 23, 2011 6:23 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Ditto. So far, I haven't heard anything monumentally off-putting in the new Muppet voices, but so much of it is about timing. The post-Mel Blanc Looney Tunes voices are fucking abominable. In Space Jam, you'd hear a voice off-screen and you couldn't tell if it was supposed to be Daffy, Bugs, or Elmer Fudd. They were practically interchangeable.

if you haven't seen "forgetting sarah marshall" and the dracula puppet show, you can't judge segal's abilities around puppets.

The enthusiasm just about leaks off the screen, he loves puppets so damn much.

...Why don't you think it will work?

― the man who forsook his wife for fap fap fap (sic), Tuesday, 24 May 2011 11:35 (3 hours ago)

Disney?

Whenever they give muppets legs they look waaaaay creepy.

they've done this since the beginning...?

I still can't figure out how they got Kermit to ride a bike btw

I've heard he's actually a bicycling enthusiast and brought his own bicycle.

lol

xp yeh, they've done it since the beginning, and it's always looked creepy.

I want these.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b40/bettieleetwo/cupcakes-1.jpg

I've just had a look at his filmography and I find it supremely underwhelming, but ymmv I guess.

are you going by a list of films you've not seen, or by, let's say, his acting in [a bunch of those films and] Freaks & Geeks, his writing on FSM, and the puppetry enthusiasm that saw him Muppeteer a song from his Dracula musical on Craig Ferguson?

I missed this Craig Ferguson thing! Sounds like something I will be looking up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0C6YYLo_Jc

Trying to work out who's going to have the best and worst cameo in this. Worst will be Gervais probably and I'm torn between Donald Glover and Wanda Sykes as to which will be the best.

Actually Jack Black and Gaga could probably rival Gervais for worst.

Cameos in the original Muppet movie are just so great that they set an unrealistic standard

I was going to say.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiGAAHG0O1A

"would you like to smell the cap?" cracks me up every time

Orson Welles
Edgar and Charlie
a bajillion other fast cameos

Gregory Hines was amazing

Mel Brooks Nazi doctor!

"In a few minutes he won't know you from kosher bacon..."

i always and still do love in muppets take manhattan when kermit dons the orange suit and wig.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qbd9j9-gjKk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUUcOmgYEhY

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/muppet/images/e/eb/TheMuppets-S01E04-PepeWithStatler

"Look at me! I'm Bradley Coopers!"

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/muppet/images/e/eb/TheMuppets-S01E04-PepeWithStatler'sTeeth.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/267?cb=20151013211323