New songs by the musical director, Bret McKenzie, include a ballad that asks, “Am I a man or am I a Muppet?” The answer to that rhetorical question, whether you are human or a Muppet, is, of course, both. So we owe a great debt to superfan Jason Segel, who has come as close as anyone to reviving the legacy of Jim Henson’s “Muppet Show.” 
 
 Segel and Nicholas Stoller, who made “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” together, wrote the screenplay for “The Muppets” with obvious intent: to return these icons to their former glory. The movie stars Jason Segel Chris Cooper and pretty much every Muppet that has ever graced a screen, small or large, since the late Jim Henson first brought them to life many decades ago.This newest Muppet fable begins in an idyllic slice of '50s-era Americana, Smalltown, USA, with old home movies of best friends and brothers, Gary (Segel) and Walter (Walter, in an impressive acting debut). To save the place, Gary and Walter decide to round up the dispersed Muppets and do the old Mickey-and-Judy thing of putting on a show to raise the $10 million needed to buy the studio and save it.  You know times are tough when even the Muppets are facing bankruptcy, or worse, playing in a Muppet tribute band. But they still have to convince a skeptical executive (Rashida Jones) to air their telethon, an extended episode of “The Muppet Show.” And where will they find a guest host in time? The most reluctant recruit, Miss Piggy, now the editor of French Vogue, is still miffed at Kermit’s shyness toward her. Mary (Adams) and Gary are sweethearts, getting ready to celebrate their 10th anniversary together and heading to Hollywood to do it. Its Technicolor gloss (director of photography Don Burgess, Oscar nominated for another fable, "Forrest Gump" ) and "Leave It to Beaver" fashion sense (Rahel Afiley on costumes, Steve Saklad on production design, both outstanding) do much to create the feel of a more innocent time.Still, the filmmakers are definitely playing around with the form, breaking the fourth wall and messing with movie conventions when it suits them.
– Resurrecting a legendary franchise is a daunting task—but Jason Segel, Amy Adams, and the guys behind Flight of the Conchords have done it with roaring success. In the new Muppets film, the stars track down the Muppets in puppet retirement for a whole new show. (It's got a 98% positive rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.) “The Muppets won me over, over and over and over again,” writes Christopher Orr in the Atlantic. “Equal parts tender and hilarious, heartfelt and sly,” the movie “is an utter delight, a tidal surge of joyful nostalgia cunningly repackaged and updated.” Sure, “there are a few stumbles, but not too many,” notes Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times. Once we arrive at “a showstopping number that asks the burning question—'Am I a man, or a Muppet?'— you are completely hooked.” “It should be universally acknowledged that a world with Muppets is a better place in which to live,” writes Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News. If the film can’t bring back the early days of the Muppets, it achieves “an equally worthy aim: reminding us what we’ve been missing.” In short, “the rainbow connection is a smooth, unbroken arch,” writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times.