Not as well remembered or watched as The Muppet Movie or Muppet Christmas Carol, The Muppets Take Manhattan starts off strong and funny with a lot of classic Muppet humour. There's the family- friendly, nice musical numbers, followed by touches of adult comedy. We have Animal chasing a woman at college, with Kermit capping it with a hilarious therapy punchline. The wonderful Rizzo the Rat, overlooked in The Muppet Movie and with a smaller role in The Muppet Caper, bursts forth in full force here- the rats in the restaurant is a perfect concept, and Rizzo passing on the Muppets' table when they mention being cash-strapped is quick, smart humour. ("What a rat"). Rizzo is the creation not of Jim Henderson but of Steve Whitmire, who was sadly shipped off from the Muppet Studio and Disney earlier this month. He will be missed.Unfortunately, as with Caper, and unlike The Muppet Movie, The Muppets Take Manhattan also suffers from running out of steam in the second half. You know things are going to slow down when our heroes sing a sad song about parting ways; the rats have a marvellous, energetic scene in the kitchen, but the others have less success, with even Gonzo's latest chaotic stunt (this one involving a boat) being a bust. When Kermit loses his memory (an old cliché), we have some nice touches- the joke about him probably being a missing resident with an Italian name from a nudist colony is edgy ("I don't feel Italian," he says). The frogs he joins up are amusing in a weirdly anemic way, suiting the amnesiac Kermit's new demeanour. You know, from the cliché, that what will get Kermit's memory back is a good hit to the noggin, and you know, given Piggy's propensity for violence, that she will deliver it. But what's great is how insulting Kermit gets to provoke it. ("Will be bringing home the bacon! Sue-ee!") Hiiii-yaaah. RIP, the great Jim Henson- and so long, the talented Steve Whitmire.

The Muppets gang graduate from college, and try to make it on Broadway. Only they can't find any takers. The gang decide to go on their own, and not depend on Kermit so much. Meanwhile Kermit works in a diner, and try to get his play off the ground.This starts off great with a lot of comedy from the whole gang. Dabney Coleman is great for some gut busting laughs. It's too bad that the gang is scattered after the start. Miss Piggy has some hilarious fun, but I prefer to have the whole gang together. They're funnier together.The main live action lead is Juliana Donald who's trying to help Kermit get the play off the ground. She doesn't have any sparks, and looks awkward like she's acting with a bunch of puppets. There are a lot of famous cameos. I'd prefer to have Brooke Shields as the lead. Beside that, there is a lot to love, and a lot of laughs in this Muppets movie.

If you're keeping up with all my reviews, you should know how I feel about the previous Muppet movies. "The Muppet Movie" was great, and "The Great Muppet Caper" was amazingly hilarious! So how do I feel about this one? I think this one is good. It's not bad, it's not great...I think it's good.Synopsis: Kermit and the gang are graduating from college, They figure they'll take Kermit's musical, "Manhattan Melodies," and put it on Broadway. However, they find out that becoming successful on Broadway is harder than they thought - I guess becoming rich and famous in Hollywood is much easier than making it on Broadway. After having no luck and a little blow up from Kermit, the gang decides to split ways for a little while until the musical is sold on Broadway. Kermit stays in NYC and tries everything he can to get "Manhattan Melodies" picked up by a Broadway producer. After a while, it's finally sold, and letters are written to everyone so they can come back and prepare for this show. However, there are 2 catches: the show will be put in 2 weeks, and Kermit is nowhere to be found. After he sells the musical, he gets hit by a car, receives amnesia, and puts on a new identity, Phillip Phil.This movie has most things that all the other Muppet movies traditionally have, but there are two things that make it seem different. The first is the tone. Something about this New York City, on-location atmosphere gives a very different tone to the Muppets. Or maybe it's the script itself. I don't know, but something about the tone of the movie seems different compared to other Muppet movies. Secondly, there's no breaking the fourth wall in this movie. At first, I thought that was kind of nit-picky. But when you think about it, the Muppets always broke the fourth wall in their productions; they include themselves in our reality. We're watching a movie, and they always let us know that. Here, we're on the outside looking in, just like in most productions. The screen separates us from these characters this time. That's kind of weird.But like I said, there are still a lot of the same things here that are in other Muppet movies. The songs are really nice, the cameo appearances are great, and we get more of those awesome, complicated Muppet scenes! The rat scat scene in the kitchen works really well, and everybody really loves the Muppet babies scene! Remember the TV series "Muppet Babies?" Yeah, it's based on a scene from this movie, and it's quite charming! Again, it doesn't really have a purpose for the movie, but it's fun and it gave us a great TV show.I have to say something else I love about this movie: it's the end when we see a bunch of Jim Henson's Muppets. We see everyone from "The Muppet Show," "Sesame Street," and one of the characters from "Fraggle Rock." It's scenes like this that make me both happy and sad at the same time. I get the sense that Jim Henson wanted his Muppets to always be together. Now that they're all owned by different companies, we'll never see that again. That is, not unless the companies wise up and choose to continue Jim Henson's legacy...But I digress.This isn't the best Muppet movie, but it's still a very good one. I enjoy it a lot, and I think you'll love it as well. You'll laugh, you might even cry (apparently, the "saying Goodbye" song has the power to make people cry). You'll enjoy this movie just fine! BOOYIKA!

I'm not really into The Muppets, but those who are will likely enjoy this. It's extremely family-friendly (as you would expect) and includes a lot of fun songs along with an appropriately silly story about Kermit the Frog trying to sell a script to a Broadway producer. All the regular Muppets are featured, and by the time you get to the end of the movie you also come across a whole galaxy of Sesame Street characters including Big Bird and Bert and Ernie. There's also a galaxy of relatively well known actors who play cameos in this, including folks like Dabney Coleman, Joan Rivers, Gregory Hines and Brooke Shields, to name but a few.By the time this ends, the movie's getting close to two hours long, which is probably a bit too long for a Muppet movie, and there's no real surprise or drama involved in it - the most dramatic element probably being Kermit being hit by a car and developing amnesia as a result. Kids will certainly enjoy this - although most of the cameos are from actors better known say 20 years ago. (5/10)