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There are very few of us twenty-somethings who grew up without the Muppets. Between Sesame Street, Muppet Show reruns, and videocassettes of the various Muppet movies, we saw these guys all the time. We even had one or two theatrical releases of our own during the '90s. (My personal favorite of those is The Muppet Christmas Carol, which is still annual holiday viewing.) In recent years, since the very underwhelming Muppets from Space, we've seen them pop up now and again, mostly in similarly underwhelming TV projects and in short (yet hilarious!) YouTube videos. I am quite happy to say that, in this newest movie, the Muppets are back in a big way!

The movie starts by introducing us to a new Muppet, Walter, and his strangely human brother Gary. Gary has planned a trip with his girlfriend, Mary, to Los Angeles, and he is taking Walter along to visit the home of his heroes, Muppet Studios. They find the studio to be in disrepair, and hear of an evil plot to destroy it. Can the Muppets, and everything we hold dear about them, be saved? To get my one complaint out of the way, I do feel that this movie was a bit rushed in places. I wanted more time with these awesome characters, and it did feel as if they were trying to get from one place to the next a bit too quickly.

That said, I spent nearly the entire movie with a smile on my face. These are the Muppets that I grew up with, doing what they are best at doing, with that gently edgy humor at which they have always excelled. While there are some moments that are very touching, it is mostly very funny, with lots of nods to The Muppet Show and The Muppet Movie. While new little Muppet fans should enjoy this, it will be much more meaningful to those who have a history with Kermit and Co.

Clearly made with love for Jim Henson and his creations of fur and felt, The Muppets is the most delightful movie I've seen in theaters this year.

In the beginning, Dreamworks Animation had excellent 2-D films such as The Prince of Egypt and Road to El Dorado. I thoroughly enjoyed these films, and they were just as good as what Disney was putting out at the time. These films, while they had good comedic scenes, seemed to have a more serious overall tone to them, and they packed a good emotional punch. Then came 2001, with the release of Shrek. Everything changed for Dreamworks at this point: mostly CG animation, broader comedy, a greater focus on celebrity voices and topical humor. Shrek itself, and its first sequel, were very funny and enjoyable uses of this formula. However, Dreamworks soon pigeonholed itself into that sort of movie, becoming known as second-rate to Pixar in the process.

Then came How to Train Your Dragon. This movie is about Hiccup, the son of a Viking leader whose village slays the dragons that steal their food. Hiccup longs to be seen as a man, but he has not shown the skills or strength that a dragon-slayer normally would. One day, he does manage to catch a dragon, whom he eventually names Toothless. Toothless proceeds to change his life, and the life of Hiccup's village, in the process.

How to Train Your Dragon felt like a return to the Dreamworks movies from the '90s/early '00s. There were certainly comedic scenes, but the story was focused on the relationships between the characters in a very meaningful way. Through the course of the movie, we see how Hiccup's relationships with Toothless, with his father, and with the other youths in his village grow and develop. Seeing how these characters relate to each other gives this film a certain power that has been missing from many of the more recent Dreamworks films, and it was so much the better for that.

In addition to the story, the visuals in this film were remarkable. A good deal of attention was paid to the details in each character, especially in the different types of dragons that were created for the film. And the scenes in which the characters flew were absolutely breathtaking. It helps that I saw this film on a big screen outdoors; the visual and aural spectacle is certainly compounded in that format.

If you, too, have felt burned by Dreamworks Animation in recent years, don't hesitate to come see How to Train Your Dragon. It is absolutely a pleasant surprise.