The Muppets are back!

My theater buddy just posted this on Facebook a bit ago and thought I'd share it - the new Muppets movie is starting production with an expected release date of Christmas 2011!

This is the Muppets movie that actor Jason Segel is well involved in. For those not familiar with the actor, he starred as Nick (one of the "freaks") in Freaks and Geeks and has had a smaller role in Judd Apatow's film "Knocked Up" (starring his Freaks and Geeks co-star Seth Rogen) and had lead roles in both "I Love You, Man" (co-starring with Paul Rudd) and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" which he wrote. In television, he is mostly known now for his role as Marshall on CBS's "How I Met Your Mother."

In "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," one storyline focuses on Segel's character writing a Dracula musical which is to be performed with puppets. At the end of the film he makes this happen, and turns out, Henson puppeteers custom-made the cloth puppets that were used. Segel, being a long-time Muppet fan, decided to pitch a concept for a Muppet movie and it was accepted and this is it.

From ComingSoon.net:

"Entertainment Weekly is featuring a two-page first look article at Disney's The Muppets, to be directed by James Bobin from a script by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller. The December 25, 2011 release will stars Jason Segel, Amy Adams and Chris Cooper.

The article mentions that the new Muppet in the film will be Walter, who you can see holding the smartphone below. He's described as "a sweet, slightly naive twenty-something Everypuppet who, in the movie, is the best friend and roommate of Segel's character, Gary. Both Gary and Walter are die-hard Muppet fans."

"Walter is the kind of guy who faints when he sees Kermit," Bobin told the magazine. "Walter has a little bit of a self-confidence issue because he's the only person like him that he's seen aside from the Muppets," Segel explained. "His dream is to meet the Muppets and be around people who are like him."

EW says that when Gary and Walter learn that the Muppet Theater is in danger of being torn down, they set out to save it by reuniting Kermit, Piggy, and the entire troupe to stage an old-fashioned extravaganza."

It sounds really cute and while there's been plenty of Seasme Street movies over the years, there really hasn't been a Muppet movie since the late 80s/early 90s. I remember as toddler, I used to watch "Follow that Bird" over and over again and enjoyed "The Muppet Movie," "The Great Muppet Caper," and "Muppets Take Manhattan." I'm really excited for this one as it sounds like a Muppet movie that little kids will enjoy as well as adults (unlike some of the more recent movies).

Jay will be almost 1 by the time this comes out - and pending how he behaves, I'm thinking we might try and take him to this one. While I'm not sure if our local theater still does this now that AMC bought them out, I know they used to have a late morning showing at least once a week of films that parents could take their young kids to and not have to worry about disrupting anyone as the showing was specifically for parents with little kids. I know, 1 might seem a little young, but surprisingly, we forget that by the time they're one, they're nearly toddlers and most can already walk and talk/babble a bit.