I just this weekend watched Muppets Most Wanted, and I enjoyed it much more the self-congratulatory, self-insert fanficwank that was 2011's The Muppets. I give it a B+. Still, I was left wondering: just what are the Muppets? What is their deal? And what do they want, anyway? Anything apart from being rich and famous and making people happy? Not that there's anything wrong with that...
So, skimming over their Wikipedia article, it seems that The Muppets as a group of puppet characters pretty much originated as entertainers whose variety show hearkened back to vaudeville and sketch programs that were already creaky and going out of style when they started getting big. So they were essentially conceived as a throwback act, making their new Disney-produced material throwbacks to throwbacks. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it does raise the question of to what extent contemporary kids will embrace the gang, especially now that at least one generation has grown up on such newer pop-culture riffing franchises as The Simpsons, South Park, Shrek, etc. Sure, none of those are about self-aware entertainers, but the question remains.
It also seems to me that the Muppet-verse, if you will, revolves around The Muppet Show, a TV series that's been off the air since 1981. 1979's The Muppet Movie was essentially a prequel to the show, 2011's The Muppets was about putting on a one-show reunion, and now 2014's Muppets Most Wanted put the revival show on tour, with a story in which most attendees were only there because of bribes - and then the movie itself fizzled at the box office, crushed by a Hunger Games rip-off. (And it didn't even get a thread here on the BBS - ouch.
)So, again, one has to ask: what's the deal with these felt figures? Where are they going as a troupe? I don't see Disney producing a prime-time Muppet Show revival series, nor do I see one-off specials being of much use in keeping the brand going. And, given the tepid performance of Muppets Most Wanted, I'm not sure there's any juice left in the storyline of the fictional show revival that connects both of these reboot movies.
Maybe the best way forward would be to return to the non-Muppet Show story movie template of Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island. That said, I'm not sure what story they should do next. Maybe something classical - Jason and the Argonauts, the labors of Hercules, that sort of thing? Something Robin Hood or King Arthur-like? A Temple of Doom prequel, starring the great adventurer Gonzo Jones? I admit that while I grew up with an awareness of the Muppets, their only product I ever really connected to was Treasure Island, and while the Muppets are great in that movie, the classic story and incredible Tim Curry performance are just as important.
Another thing that's been nagging at me: I do not care about the Kermit-Piggy relationship. At all. Not one bit. Kermit is great, and Piggy is all well and good in her own way, but in no scene from The Muppet Movie, The Muppets, or Muppets Most Wanted have I ever sensed that he was in any way into her as a romantic partner, and her dogged (pigged?) pursuit of him has therefore never struck me as in any way interesting, let alone funny. Not to be too sensitive about this, but if the genders were reversed there's no way this borderline harassment would persist as a Muppet trope/plot point.
What say you all?
