The Muppets

James Bobin’s film grew out of an idea Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller pitched to Disney in 2008. Stoller was first named as director; Bobin replaced him in January 2010, in his first feature. The project was once called The Greatest Muppet Movie of All Time and later The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made, the second taken from an unused 1985 Jerry Juhl script. Bret McKenzie, who wrote the songs, reworked his lyrics at the performers’ request to remove the places where characters called themselves puppets. Kermit plays Rainbow Connection on the same banjo he used in The Muppet Movie in 1979. For the shot of Walter running along a dresser, the puppeteers wore blue suits against a blue screen and vanish completely from the finished image. Frank Oz had found the early script disrespectful to the characters; after seeing the film he called it sweet and fun, if too safe. At the 84th Academy Awards only 2 songs competed for Best Original Song; McKenzie’s Man or Muppet won, and neither was performed live that night. A good fit if you want the troupe’s years out of favour turned into the plot rather than hidden. Not for viewers with no appetite for callbacks; this is the first Muppet film to name The Muppet Show and the earlier pictures outright.