I was actually going to post a similair thread. I think I'll just post what I was going to say here.
You're right, it is a great time to be a Muppet fan! All of this is very exciting. Besides all of that, a Fraggle Rock movie, Fraggle DVDs and more Muppet DVDs (the remaining Muppet Show DVDs should probably be out before the new movie arrives).
You made a note of how it will have been over a decade since the last theatrically released Muppet film. Here's a little timeline for the Muppet movies:
July 22, 1979 - The Muppet Movie was released, the highest grossing Muppet movie to date.
June 26, 1981 - Two years after the success of the first film, The Great Muppet Caper is released.
July 13, 1984 - The Muppets take three years off, then The Muppets Take Manhattan comes to theaters.
December 11, 1992 - Eight years have passed, some good friends are gone, but the Muppets return, taking on classic literature with The Muppet Christmas Carol.
February 16, 1996 - Four years later, the Muppets return to the storybook setting for some swashbuckling fun in Muppet Treasure Island.
July 14, 1999 - The Muppets return to playing themselves three years later in Muppets from Space.
2010 - After
ELEVEN years, the Muppets return to the big screen!
Eleven years. That's far too long for the Muppets to be missing from a medium that just seems to be perfect for them. The Muppets work better on the silver screen than anywhere else, as far as this frog fan is concerned. Thirty-one years from the release of The Muppet Movie, and a longer wait than any Muppet movie before it, even longer than the time between The Muppets Take Manhattan and The Muppet Christmas Carol. Let's hope they're welcomed back warmly. It will be exciting to see, and I'd dare say this could be the most financially successful Muppet movie ever, if it's good enough. Perhaps even more so than the first... mainly because it will be the first Muppet movie that I will be able to see many, many, many times in the theater.
It is an exciting time. I look forward to seeing what comes of all of this.