The Muppets have returned, after twelve years on the street or wherever they were hanging out, and boy, do they have a mission.  The have to raise $10 million in two days to save the Muppet Theatre in Los Angeles from being turned into an oil derrick – and just in time for Christmas, too.

Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller are bringing us a new Muppets movie, directed by James Bobin, which has some new elements and some old elements and a whole lot of subtle and not-so-subtle humor from the 'original' cast of characters with pretty much the same character traits intact.

The plot involves what starts out as a nostalgic visit to the old theatre by Gary (Jason Segel) and his sprightly girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams).  They invite Walter, the ultimate Muppet fan who is also a Muppet himself, to go along, only to find the theatre in dire jeopardy from Tex Richman, a greedy oil baron who plans to grab the site and drill for profit.

Now the action takes off in earnest, because these Muppet-lovers have only 48 hours to find all the disbanded Muppets, get them together for rehearsal of a huge fund-raiser and find both a celebrity to host it and a network to air it as a Telethon. 

This is, of course, impossible, you might say.  Not with this bunch, aided by some techno-wizardry in the form of stunts like traveling to Paris via Google Maps, and informing the viewer that the mega-search for far-flung Muppets will be covered by a musical interlude/montage.

For fans of the original Muppet Show and the preceding Muppet movies, there is a great deal to love.  Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Animal, Gonzo and various and sundry other personalities are re-visited and to some extent up-dated, but not too much.  Word has it that Frank Oz berated the writers for not showing enough respect for the characters, but Segel and Stoller seem to get around that nicely by making tongue-in-cheek jokes that older viewers will get a kick out of.<

While some critics have panned the movie as a poor imitation of the original, the new Muppets have all the charm of the originals, plus some new and improved animation and plenty of the screwball humor and antics that made them so beloved in the first place.  They still don't swear or make lewd remarks, and they are basically true to their 'inherited' personalities, regardless of what Mr. Oz might say.

The plot is not original but that's not what drives Muppets anyway.  What keeps them so fresh, and keeps entrancing both returning viewers and the newer generation is the wonderful goofiness they carry off so well.  That and the well-defined and ever-charming personalities of even the grumpiest in the cast.  The new "Muppet Movie" is just plain fun, and if by chance you've missed them in the past, go see the movie.  Listen to the other critics who, on the whole, call it "an unexpected treat" for Christmas.

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