The Muppets/Tear Jerker

2011 film:

• "Pictures In My Head." Kermit's sense of nostalgia and loss is conveyed extremely well.

Kermit: I mean the only way we can raise that kind of money is to....... to put on a show. ...and I haven't seen the old gang... in a long, long time. ... I guess... the world sort of forgot about us."

• The moment when Walter, Gary, and Mary are trying to talk Kermit into doing the telethon. They each quote a line of the Muppet Show theme song . . . and then Kermit plays the final 7 notes very slowly and regretfully on the piano.
• Kermit singing "The Rainbow Connection" and being joined by Piggy and then the rest of the cast. (And the in-movie audience. And probably more than a few of the real audience.)
  • When Animal starts drumming again, you will cry.
• The scene where Kermit makes his uplifting speech about so what if the telethon didn't raise enough to buy back their studio and their name. They have each other and that's what makes them who they are, so they'll walk out with heads held high, and they'll start over from the beginning if they have to. As soon as Kermit opens the stage door, he's greeted by camera flashes and cheers. The shot pulls back to reveal Hollywood Boulevard is absolutely packed with screaming fans waving signs and cheering the Muppets.
• When Walter first enters Kermit's old office, he sees on one wall an assortment of photos of Kermit with old celebrities, the center of which is... Kermit with Jim Henson.
• Just seeing what's happened to Fozzie without Kermit and the others is absolutely heartbreaking.
• At the very beginning of the movie, this troper lost it when Gary's friends made fun of Walter's Kermit Halloween costume. That scene describes just about every teenaged Muppet fan since 1990's teen years absolutely perfectly... a bit too perfectly.
• Real Life example: Jason Segel visibly tearing up when Bret McKenzie thanked Jim Henson after winning an Oscar for best original song.
• Seeing the pictures of Jim Henson and knowing that he would like this movie if he was still alive.
• The "Man or Muppet" number has a bittersweet ending in which Gary takes a bus all the way back to Mary's house and apologizes to her, then the two of them embrace.

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