The Muppets Reviews
Top Critic
A film bursting at the seams with sheer, unadulterated joy: watch it, and the world seems just that little bit brighter...
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
It may not entirely work as a movie, but The Muppets shines as a piece of touching pop nostalgia.
The purity of the nostalgia turns this franchise film into a love letter to childhood.
You can rest easy - if you have previously loved the Muppets, you will likely currently love The Muppets.
Full Review
| Original Score: A-
The chorus of one of the songs declares, 'I've got everything that I need, right in front of me.' For 120 minutes, that's precisely how I felt.
[Filmmakers] hew close to the essential innocence informing the Muppets' silliness.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
The Muppets is a triumph of simplicity, innocence and goofy jokes. It's a triumph of felt.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
A mixed bag then: The Muppets isn't the best or the worst of Kermit's big-screen capers. At least it's a reminder that here's one frog who isn't about to croak.
It's nice to see the band back together. And when Kermit busts out the banjo for "Rainbow Connection," you might even go for your lighter.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Like Statler and Waldorf, older viewers may kvetch and cavil about the details, but when that red velvet curtain goes up, we wouldn't give up our balcony seats for the world.
No fourth wall is safe in The Muppets, and that's a great piece of news.
Full Review
| Original Score: A-
The Muppet charm, always more at home within the intimate frame of a TV set, is gone here.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Segel and his team are not Jim Henson -- but they've done justice to the lovers and the dreamers.
Is it perfect? No. Is it a lot of fun and does it successfully revive this inspired franchise? Absolutely and let's seriously hope so. A world without Kermit is just too hard to face.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
Except for a few good zingers from balcony dwellers Statler and Waldorf, there isn't much here for mom and dad.
During the movie's best moments, I recalled exactly what my long-gone father's roars of laughter sounded like.
"The Muppets" is both a delightful family film about the Muppets and a winking, self-referential satire about how lame the Muppets are.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
The Muppets treats its titular heroes with affection and respect, even as Fozzie Bear shows off his "fart shoes" and toilet humor abounds.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
The Muppet relaunch is as it should be: the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational treat you could wish for on a holiday weekend.
The Muppet franchise is revitalized with "The Muppets," a funny, wickedly self-aware musical that opens by acknowledging they've outlived their shelf life.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Kids today will have the same kind of fun at The Muppets they have at all films of this kind. Adults, however, will connect in a deeper way.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
The Muppet legacy is in no way sullied, but the over-the-moon magic is missing. They should try Hare Krishna.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Desperately trying to appeal to not just the Gen Xers who grew up with Kermit, Miss Piggy, and Dr. Teeth, but also the tykes who've never even heard of Jim Henson, The Muppets has none of the easy confidence of the original TV show or the 1979 movie.
The film is loaded with everything Muppets fans love: loopy musical production numbers, very funny montages, some hilarious asides and weird little moments.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
I've never seen a movie so perfectly balanced between unabashed nerdiness and hipness. It's transcendent that way.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
There are a few stumbles, but not too many, and by the time Gary and Walter get to a showstopping number that asks the burning question - "Am I a man, or a Muppet?" - you are completely hooked.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
Blending self-deprecating comic asides with high-spirited showmanship, the movie captures the essence of Jim Henson's classic 1970s TV show and 1979's The Muppet Movie.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
The plot, as you may well imagine, is secondary to the barrage of jokes, songs, fourth-wall violations, and occasional celebrity cameos that are part and parcel of the big-screen Muppet experience.
It's time to see the Muppets, it's time to see this show.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
"The Muppets" is clever and current without being cynical, smart without being condescending, funny without being exclusionary to grown-ups or to kids.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4.5/5
They're still all great fun (even if, with Jim Henson gone and Frank Oz not participating, not everyone sounds quite as they did at the beginning).
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
These are the same old, adorable Muppets, as sweetly innocent and likable as ever. Winking at itself, the movie is casually, amusingly self-reflexive.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
It's fun to spend time with these characters again.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Those who fondly remember "The Muppet Show" will get a kick out of seeing old friends again; those who don't just might realize what they missed.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
A delighted woman behind me almost needed oxygen as she watched Camilla and her singing chicken gals do a cheeky, clucking rendition of Cee Lo Green's "Forget You."
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
No matter who you're taking to the movies, and even if you're going by yourself, you can't go wrong with this one.
For kids, blessedly unironic by nature until wised up by nurture, the movie is just shiny, funny, and filled with songs...
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
The Muppets may have been born out of a desire to revive a dormant franchise that was once a cash cow, but there isn't a single beat in the film that feels crass or opportunistic. This one is from the heart.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
The challenge Disney has with The Muppets is to show a new generation what the fuss was all about. Slam-dunk. The movie slaps a smile on your face you won't want to wipe off.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
If Segel's efforts aren't quite sensational, that's okay. They're still inspirational, celebrational and - most important - Muppetational, a concept that's been in sadly short supply as of late.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
"The Muppets'' marks a very welcome return for Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and the rest of Jim Henson's creations after a 12-year big-screen absence.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Effortlessly blending wised-up, self-reflexive humor with old-fashioned let's-put-on-a-show pizzazz, The Muppets is an unexpected treat
A mostly winning return for childhood favorites from a prior century looks to accomplish its goal of pleasing old fans and winning new ones.
