Like the characters that star in them, the Muppet movies are timeless and fun to watch at all ages.

For those living under a rock, the Muppets were a group of puppet characters created by the late Jim Henson that starred in The Muppet Show (1976-1981), as well as Sesame Street.

The show’s plot revolved around the Muppets trying to interview a real life celebrity and do skits while everything is going wrong.

While the number of Muppet characters was gigantic, the main cast consisted of Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, and The Great Gonzo.

What made the show such a big success was that the writing appealed to both adults and children.

The Muppets got so popular that a film was eventually made. It was simply titled The Muppet Movie (1979), directed by James Frawley.

The film’s plot serves as an origin story for how The Muppets originally formed. Kermit the Frog, (voiced and puppeteered by Jim Henson) receives news that Hollywood is looking for frog entertainers. Deciding to give it a shot, he tries to make his way across the country. While doing so, he meets his soon-to-be family in a strange collection of characters. 

As if trying to make one’s way across the country in a Studebaker wasn’t hard enough, a frog leg salesman, Doc Hopper (Charles Durning), wishes to make Kermit the face of his company, and Hopper won’t take no for an answer.

The film is remembered as a classic for a good reason. The movie has aged pretty well. It helps that these characters are timeless. Even if someone hasn’t seen the original show these characters are based on, they can still follow the plot due to the movie being a prequel to the show.

It is nice seeing how these wild personalities first met, and helps lend credence to their camaraderie and familial bond in the show and in later films.

The comedy in the film is the same as the show. The characters have a simple job to do (in the show it’s interviewing a celebrity, in this it’s just getting to Hollywood), but due to either insane personalities or events entirely out of their control, things don’t go as smoothly as hoped. And just like the original program it’s based on, the comedy still works because everyone can relate to something that seems simple getting so quickly out of control.

Like the rest of the film the music is well remembered. Whether it’s Kermit ruminating on the nature of rainbows, or him and Fozzie singing about how the car ride is going, these are well-crafted earworms that are fun to hum to all these years later.

If there’s one thing that hasn’t aged so well it is the celebrity cameos. While big names back then, younger audiences might have a harder time catching them and get the joke of their inclusion. Even then, it’s not a huge flaw and they are still given funny dialogue, so that not knowing them doesn’t kill the moment.

The last (real) film the Muppets made before getting bought by Disney and going on a short hiatus,  was Muppets from Space (1999), directed by Tim Hill.

Gonzo (Dave Goelz), who’s species up until then had always been a secret or simply stated as a whatever, starts getting hints that his origins may be out of this world when his cereal asks if he’s there. However similar messages are being left all over the world. C.O.V.N.E.T, a secret government organization in charge of investigating possible alien sightings, led by the unstable K. Edgar Singer (Jeffrey Tambor), starts taking an interest in Gonzo.

If the plot synopsis didn’t make it abundantly clear, the film’s plot is all over the place, from cosmic fish, a rat prison breakout, to sneaking into a government facility, a talking sandwich, and aliens blaring Earth, Wind, and Fire disco tracks while coming down to earth, depending if one can go along with its insanity, it can be a fun time.

This movie, unlike most Muppet movies, isn’t a musical, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have great music. The soundtrack in this movie is down to get funky with many disco and funk music tracks played throughout the running time. 

A highlight for me is Bobo the Bear (Bill Barretta). I can’t explain why, but whether it has something to do with the way he looks, or the actor’s delivery, but every time he’s on screen he gets a chuckle out of me. 

The film still has flaws. It has cameos that younger audiences might not get. And as mentioned before, the plot is extremely silly, sometimes downright stupid.

Jeffery Tambor’s performance is fine and he has good comedic timing, but there are times where he goes a little too over the top, sometimes making scenes more unintentionally funny. 

After going on hiatus, and getting bought by the mouse, the Muppets released a new film simply titled The Muppets (2011), directed by James Bobin.

It’s been several years since the Muppets have put on the show, and have since broken up to go their own ways. But then a Muppet fanatic by the name of Walter (Peter Linz) finds out that an evil oil baron, Tex Richman (Chris Cooper), plans to tear down the old Muppet studio. Walter, along with his brother Gary (Jason Segal), and Gary’s girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) have to bring the old gang back together for one more show so they can raise enough money to keep their old place from being torn down.

The film is the best of Muppet movies. The comedy is on point. There are many places in the plot where it seems to go the usual way, but comedically goes another. The film is also full of fourth-wall-breaking jokes that are expertly spaced so as to be funny and not take away from the seriousness of the situation.

A highlight of the film is Chris Cooper, to have this great, intense actor, act along with puppets adds to the comedy, and is even funnier whenever he does say deliberately funny. 

The new characters are also fun. Walter, while a little annoying at the beginning, grows into his own, and becomes a welcome addition to the Muppet cast moving forward. The human characters, while having a more melodramatic side plot, still have great comedic moments. 

The movie is a love letter to The Muppets franchise, with plenty of call backs and references to previous Muppet adventures.

The music numbers are some of the best in the franchise, whether it’s Tex Richman rapping on how great he is, or whether Walter and Gary decide whether they are a man or a muppet. 

If the film has any faults in its plot it is that at first it seems like they’re going to have this very mature and adult ending, but they back out of it at the last minute.

Due to The Muppets being such a success, a sequel was made in 2014 called Muppets Most Wanted, directed by James Bobin. 

After getting back into the business, The Muppets decide to go on a world tour under the advice of the film’s villain, Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais). Unbeknownst to the Muppets, Dominic is secretly the Lemur, the second best thief in the world, who’s working with the world’s best thief Constantine (Matt Vogel). Constantine looks a lot like Kermit, and manages to send Kermit to the Gulag while secretly taking his place among the Muppets.

Compared to The Muppets, this film is a bit of a disappointment, not that it’s bad, but compared to the previous movie it’s only OK. 

The film is still funny with gags and skits, and good musical moments. 

For the most part, returning characters feel like themselves and don’t act too out of character.

The best part of the plot is whenever Sam Eagle (Eric Jacobson) who’s now a CIA agent, is forced to work with an interpol agent Jean Pierre Napoleon (Ty Purrell) to try to investigate the break-ins that the Lemur and Constantine are committing while on tour. 

To have Sam Eagle, one of the most patriotic and stereotypical American characters in television, being forced to work with a character like Napoleon, a man who’s every French stereotype wrapped into one, is comedy gold. Their budding friendship is not only funny, but weirdly captivating to watch.

The film however still has problems. There’s an on-going subplot where Kermit doesn’t feel appreciated for his efforts by the rest of the Muppets because he constantly has to rein them in and they get annoyed at him. The Muppets had been working together as a group for decades, and not once did these feelings get mentioned or sorted out?

While Gervais does well as a villain, he isn’t as good as previous muppet villains. He tries to be a more subdued villain like Chris Cooper in the previous film, but it doesn’t work here, because Gervais is a well-known comedic actor, whereas Cooper was not.

It’s also weird that the only Muppet who immediately catches on that Constantine is pretending to be Kermit is Animal. They make fun of that fact a bit, but it still doesn’t make sense that a group of people who are basically family can’t see through Constantine’s obvious lies. 

There’s also the fact that at one point in the story, Kermit proves he’s not Constantine while he’s in the gulag, but they don’t let him go. One would think that after realizing the mistake they’d just release him and capture the real Constantine again, but they don’t. And the only excuse they give is that the warden is obsessed with him.

There’s also moments where they use CGI puppets and they look worse than the Muppets from the original ‘70s T.V. show. It’s only in a few scenes but it’s very noticeable.

While some of the Muppet movies are more flawed than others, they remain a fun watch for all ages.

Patrick once auditioned to be a new Muppet, Filmy Bear.