The Muppets (PG) ★★★★

Now here is a reboot to cheer for. The Muppets heralds the return of Jim Henson's beloved furry creations, resurrected from pop-culture irrelevance and lovingly restored to their former greatness in a vibrant comedy-musical.

Jason Segel, in addition to co-writing and starring in the film, served as executive producer and the project's resident evangelist. His choice of collaborators is inspired. Directing is James Bobin, best known as the co-creator, along with Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, of HBO's Flight of the Conchords, a show whose good-natured and yet slyly irreverent tone often recalled that of old Muppet Show episodes. (I've never quite recovered from its premature departure.) McKenzie served as music supervisor, contributing several original songs to the soundtrack. Segel's co-star, Amy Adams, is the rare breed of actress who can transition from playing a pugilistic, potty-mouthed waitress (in The Fighter) to the role of an angelic schoolteacher with ease. And few actors portray cartoonish villainy with more verve than Oscar winner Chris Cooper.

The film opens with a montage introducing the character of Walter, a Muppet raised in Smalltown, USA, who figures himself the first and only of his kind until he happens upon an old Muppet Show rerun, after which he is inexorably transfixed. Together with his "brother," Gary (Segel), and Gary's fiancé, Mary (Adams), he travels out to Los Angeles to meet his idols, only to find their studio vacated and on the verge of being demolished by Tex Richman (Cooper), a sinister tycoon who covets the oil reserves beneath it.

The only way to save the studio, naturally, is a kick-ass variety show reuniting the Muppets, long estranged after the demise of their television series. Kermit the Frog is now holed up in a sprawling Bel Air mansion, which he once dreamed of sharing with his former flame, Miss Piggy, who has gone on to become Vogue's "plus-size" editor in Paris. Consummate entertainer Fozzy Bear is slumming it in Reno with a tribute band dubbed the Moopets; Gonzo is consumed by his work as CEO of the plumbing company Gonzo's Royal Flush; and Animal is seeking treatment at the Fresh Pathways anger management clinic.

Segel and company's affection for the original Muppets property is clear, so much so that some viewers may dismiss the film as a tedious exercise in nostalgia. Pay them no heed. Kermit and the crew are as fresh and funny as they were three decades ago, and their anarchic brand of humor with young and old alike. The film suffers from an over-emphasis on its human characters (Gonzo's miniscule screen time is particularly baffling), and McKenzie's songwriting, while more than adequate, yields no memorable standouts in the vein of "Rainbow Connection" or "Mah Na Mah Na," but these are minor quibbles. Only cynical curmudgeons like Statler and Waldorf would waste time finding fault with an experience this joyous.

Hollywood.com rated this film 4 stars.