The Facts:
Synopsis: While on a grand world tour, The Muppets find themselves wrapped into an European jewel-heist caper headed by a Kermit the Frog look-alike and his dastardly sidekick.
Stars: Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Animal, Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell, Tina Fey
Director: James Bobin
Rated: PG
Running Length: 112 minutes
Trailer Review: Here
TMMM Score: (7/10)
Review: The release of The Muppets in 2011 represented a new start for the felt character franchise that had seen its share of ups and downs during its history spanning over three decades. Though I found that film to be fun overall, I felt that it wasn’t as Muppet-centered as it could be, focusing too much time and attention on the human stars (Jason Segel and Amy Adams, American Hustle) instead of the characters so many of us grew up with.
Wisely, Walt Disney Studios (which now owned the trademark for Jim Henson’s creations) wasn’t above retooling their reboot and righted some of the past wrongs with this much better sequel that keeps the puppets front and center were they belong while keeping the humans at bay on the sidelines. Original director Jams Bobin is back as are screenwriter Nicholas Stoller (The Five-Year Engagement, Neighbors) and songwriter Bret McKenzie (who won an Oscar for “Man or Muppet” and then went on to star in the awful Austenland) and all seem to be on better footing this time around.
If the first film was more akin to The Muppet Movie from 1979 then Muppets Most Wanted could be compared (favorably) to 1981’s The Great Muppet Caper. Picking up literally where the first one left off, Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, and the rest of their comrades are sweet-talked into capitalizing on their popular resurgence and going on a world tour. Trouble is, the man behind the tour is Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais, almost as intolerable as Segel was in the previous film) and he’s in cahoots with a criminal mastermind named Constantine. Recently escaped from a Siberain gulag, he looks an awful lot like Kermit though he sounds like a amphibian Borat.
This leads to a switcheroo landing Kermit back in the gulag and Constantine using the world tour to steal pieces to a puzzle that will help him to snatch the crown jewels. Along the way there are musical numbers, a sizable amount of cameos (none of which I’ll spoil here), and quite possibly a long-overdue wedding that I thought had happened in a previous film.
The voices and talents behind The Muppets are beyond reproach (kudos Steve Whitmire, Bill Barretta, Matt Vogel, David Rudman, Eric Jacobson, Dave Goelz) so let’s focus on the flesh and blood stars that are getting in on the Muppet action. As mentioned previously, Gervais is a lot to handle and the film features far too many close-ups of his fang-y mug…though a song and dance number that finds Constantine tap dancing on his head provides a hearty chuckle. Tiny Fey (Admission) has a thin singing voice and an even thinner Russian accent as the gulag grand dame that takes a shine to Kermit. Ty Burrell plays a Jacques Clouseu-esque detective always ready to go on break…the jokes here get repetitive and old pretty quickly.
McKenzie’s songs are better than the original with several of them landing squarely on target. Though he stumbles out of the gate with the obvious “We’re Doing a Sequel” he lands a one-two punch of the Barry White-like disco seduction “I’ll Get What You Want (Cockatoo In Malibu)” and the fun “Interrogation Song” delivered with rap panache by Burrell and Sam the Eagle.
Though it runs ever slightly too long at 112 minutes and lacks the free spirit charm that came with the first trio of adventures to hit the big screen, Muppets Most Wanted is a marked improvement on every level from the previous entry…even though the new Muppet, Walter, is still featured too prominently. It can’t be a coincidence that those early films were the entries that Jim Henson was most involved with and that kind of vibrancy is hard to duplicate…but this one inches closer to that pleasant territory.
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