On the surface, Jason Segel's involvement as the co-writer alongside Nicholas Stoller of "The Greatest Muppet Movie Of All Time" is kind of bizarre. Sure, Segel knocked it out of the park with the Dracula musical in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," but was it enough of a solid showing to prove his weight when it comes to the Muppets?
Apparently not, according to one insider who has read Segel and Stoller's script. Writing into The Playlist, the script reviewer described the plot of "The Greatest Muppet Movie" and said that while it's a fun premise, it fails to live up to the quality seen in previous Muppet films such as "The Great Muppet Caper."
According to the insider, "The Greatest Muppet Movie Of All Time" is about "Gary, Mary, and Walter (a man, his girlfriend, and the man's life-long nondescript, brown puppet best friend) getting the old Muppet gang — now retired entertainers known for the same Muppet show we know them from — together to save the TV studio that the original show was shot in. A villain, Tex Richman ... bent on drilling for oil underneath the studio, is due to take over the studio in weeks and the only way to stop him? Putting on a show that draws ten million viewers."
Personally, I think it's a great idea. But the insider cites more than a few flaws, the most flagrant of which is the apparent abandonment of the real world.
"Some of the greatest moments from the first two films happened when the Muppets were out in the real world," writes the insider. "This may be what makes 'The Great Muppet Caper' especially good, it leaves the show business storyline behind and lets the Muppets pretend to be normal everyday characters."
But it's not all doom and gloom, as the insider praises Stoller and Segel for having fun with the characters and being "aware of what made the Muppet early years so great." Unfortunately, that awareness only hits the mark "65% of the time."
Tell us what you're hoping from Segel and Stoller's take on "The Greatest Muppet Movie Of All Time" in the comments section and on Twitter!
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