A complete guide to The Muppets

♫ It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights...

--> The long-awaited return of the Muppets is finally upon us! Their new big screen film-- the first in six years-- is aptly titled The Muppets and it hits theaters today. Jason Segal, Amy Adams and Walter (the newest addition to the Muppet brood) jump into the fray with Kermit and the gang for a new adventure.

--> From the New York Times review:

And so you have The Muppets, Disney’s endearing, silly, smiley-faced movie directed by James Bobin (Flight of the Conchords, Da Ali G Show) and arriving on a marketing tsunami. The happy news is that it has been done just about right, which means conceptually and technologically left alone.

These are the same old, adorable Muppets, as sweetly innocent and likable as ever. Winking at itself, the movie is casually, amusingly self-reflexive. In one joke Kermit the Frog considers telephoning President Carter. “The Muppets” makes no attempt to match the wisecracking hipness of the Shrek movies. If it doesn’t provoke belly laughs, it elicits many affectionate chuckles.

The rainbow connection is a smooth, unbroken arch.

--> The soundtrack to The Muppets is available here. It is jam-packed with classic Muppet music (including "Rainbow Connection," "Mahna, Mahna," "Muppet Theme Song") and new songs that you will love to experience over and over again. Plus, newly recorded songs written by Bret McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords) like "Man or Muppet" featuring Jason Segel and Peter Linz, "Life's A Happy Song" and "Me Party" performed by Amy Adams and Miss Piggy.

Below are Bret McKenzie and Kermit the Frog singing "Life's a Happy Song":



Also, if you haven't already picked up The Green Album, do so. It's Muppet music done be contemporary artists like Weezer, OK GO, and Rachel Yamagata.

--> Recently, CNN caught up with Kermit and Miss Piggy to answer some questions submitted via iReport about their beloved, late creator Jim Henson, their Hollywood crushes, and Piggy's glamorous new magazine job:



--> Jason Segel and the Muppets also stopped by SNL:



--> NBC orders new sitcom from the Henson Creature Shop

And the Muppet revival seems to be spreading. Deadline reports that NBC has ordered a sitcom script that will star creations from The Jim Henson Company.

The New Nabors will explore the humorous "repercussions" of a human family living next door to a puppet family. The shenanigans that would ensue, we can only imagine.

The Jim Henson Company helped develop The New Nabors. Its Creature Workshop has created puppets for TV shows such as Dinosaurs and Sesame Street, and they’re behind the most famous puppet characters, the Muppets.