Trailer
Plot summary
Walter, born a Muppet in Smalltown, has been a fan of The Muppet Show all his life. His human brother Gary is taking his girlfriend Mary to Los Angeles, and Mary hopes for a proposal, though Gary's devotion to Walter worries her. Touring the rundown Muppet Studios, Walter slips into Kermit the Frog's office and overhears the oil magnate Tex Richman and his henchmen discuss buying the Muppet Theater; Statler and Waldorf note that the Muppets could repurchase it by raising ten million dollars before their contract expires. Walter brings the news to Gary and Mary, and the three visit Kermit in his Hollywood mansion, where he sees that the old gang must reunite and stage a telethon.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Muppets (2011)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bret McKenzie won an Academy Award for the song "Man or Muppet", beating out "Real in Rio" from Rio. Although it was the fourth Muppet film to receive an Oscar nomination, this was the first time a Muppet film had won an Academy Award.
- Jerry Nelson makes an uncredited cameo as the telethon's announcer, reprising his role from The Muppet Show. This would be the final time Nelson and his likeness would be used in a Muppets production before his death the following year.
- A cameo by the Sesame Street Muppet Elmo was written for a scene in which the Muppets tried to get him to host their show, but the idea was rejected by Disney's attorneys and representatives from Sesame Workshop.
- At the Muppets performers' behest, Bret McKenzie rewrote lyrics to remove moments where the characters directly referred to themselves as puppets. He was also told during recording sessions that certain Muppets, such as chickens and penguins, do not speak and instead vocalize in onomatopoeic sounds.
- In the scene where Walter is running atop a dresser, the puppeteers performed Walter's choreography while wearing blue costumes against a blue screen, and the result had the puppeteers completely gone from the final shot.
- When Kermit sings his signature song "Rainbow Connection" in the film, he plays it on the same banjo that he used when he performed the song in The Muppet Movie (1979).
