The Muppets

Data
Title: The Muppets
Year: 2011
Length: 98 minutes
Director: James Bobin
Writers: Jason Segel & Nicholas Stoller, based on characters by Jim Henson
Starring: Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Peter Linz
With: Chris Cooper, Steve Whitmire, Eric Jacobson, Dave Goelz, Bill Barretta, David Rudman, Matt Vogel
Music: Christophe Beck (score); Bret McKenzie and many others (songs)
Cinematography: Don Burgess
Editing: James M. Thomas
I saw it: in the theater, a couple days ago
Synopsis: three fans reunite the Muppets

My reaction
Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 4/4 (Great)
Pacing: 4/4 (Great)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 3/4 (Good)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4 5/4). Charming and hilarious. Not surprisingly, it often feels like a Muppet episode of Flight of the Conchords. But that's okay - that's a good fit for the Muppets. It's loaded with nostalgia and references to The Muppet Show, so much so that much of the movie might go completely over the head of a non-fan. And the character development is more mature than it's been in any of the earlier Muppet movies. The children in the theater where we saw it were clearly bored. But screw them, the Muppets were always meant to be for adults, and now they finally are. I'm impressed that Disney let the film-makers make their own movie; apart from a couple (very brief) out-of-place cameos by child stars, there's not any overt sign of this being a Heavily Marketed Product.
Objective Rating (Average): 3.3/4 3.4/4 (Very good)

[update: re-watched 11/24/2013]