It's time to play the music

I will respect fart shoes - if Fozzie Bear wears them.

Backlash against “The Muppets” from Frank Oz and others before it hit theaters had me worried. Jim Henson’s lovable characters would never stoop to such vulgar jokes, they said. And with a screenwriter (Jason Segel) who’s known for “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” I might have bought into the criticism.

Segel and co-writer Nicholas Stoller did everything right. From Fozzie’s “Wocka Wocka” catch phrase to Kermit and Piggy’s “Rainbow Connection” duet, the film played into every Muppets lover’s nostalgia.

But as the movie itself says, the Muppets' usual charm can’t fly in today’s cynical culture. Following the easy plot line of an oil tycoon trying to overtake the Muppets’ studio property, the film brings the Muppets up to society’s speed through it’s own self-aware nature. It knows people might not like a reboot of the Muppets franchise, and it embraces it.

Kermit and the gang know there’s a possibility no one will show up to their telethon to help save the theater, but that doesn’t matter, because they’re back together. And isn’t that all we, the viewers, really care about?