The Muppets was far and away my favorite movie of 2011. I guess I should just lay that out there first. Historically, I didn’t really even consider myself a big fan of the Muppets, but as the film approached I found myself getting more and more excited. With Forgetting Sarah Marshall, writer-actor Jason Segel and director Nicholas Stoller demonstrated such heartfelt storytelling — and yes, a bit of inspired musical puppetry — that I just couldn’t help but get excited. My fiancée and I rewatched some of the terrific classic Muppet movies and TV episodes, and were pretty pumped by the time we sat down in the theater on opening weekend.
And something unexpected happened.
This is kind of embarrassing but I’m just going to be honest. I had the most emotional response that I’ve ever had with any film. It’s totally irrational and I can’t explain it. After all, it’s a fun and silly movie! There are some melancholy themes about loss and forgiveness and getting the old gang back together, but that’s not even what I initially connected with. As Gary and Walter sang the opening number “Life’s A Happy Song”, smiling and dancing and brushing their teeth in rhythm… it was just so full of joy and purity, so free of cynicism. It was beautiful. The Muppets hadn’t even appeared yet, but to my surprise warm tears were already streaming down my cheeks. Everything was great. I deeply loved these characters. I’ll spare you the details of the next 90 minutes, but they didn’t get any prettier.
Anyway, she still married me.
So when we talk about Muppets Most Wanted, I’m coming into this sequel with a bit of baggage. I was greatly disappointed that Jason Segel — in my mind responsible for both the revival and the greatness of The Muppets, would not be returning. Is the sequel as good? Well, no. Heck, I’m glad it’s not. I’m not sure my poor fragile spirit could handle it. But it is a great frolic with the Muppet gang, and very, very funny.
The film picks up literally at the end of The Muppets, with “The End”, written in fireworks, still blazing across the screen. The Muppet gang notices that the cameras are still rolling and launch into a fourth-wall-smashing number, “We’re Doing A Sequel”, which contains lots of mock-cynical and self-deprecating lines like “The studio wants more” and “All we need now is a half decent plot”.
It’s a great opening and successfully sets the lighter tone that pervades the rest of the film. The movie is both sillier and more conventional than the last, and arguably more musical. And while there are quite a lot of songs, they come from a variety of different characters and don’t get tedious.
The plot kicks off when Constantine, an evil Russian frog who basically looks like Kermit with a mole, kidnaps the Muppet leader and takes his place in the gang. Kermit is shipped off to a gulag in Siberia while the Muppets deal with Constantine. Having hidden his mole under green makeup, he masquerades as an oddly behaved, strangely distant version of their leader. With the help of his #2, Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais), he executes his plan of perpetrating a string of high profile heists across Europe under the guise of a Muppet World Tour. It’s that old chestnut, a doppelganger switcheroo (The Prince & The Pauper, The Parent Trap, The Wrong Man, Face/Off, and probably a billion others) but that’s precisely the kind of classic plot that works best in a Muppet tale, where the story usually takes a back seat to the characters and their humorous and musical antics.
Not surprisingly, a lot of the film’s humor comes from the doppelganger angle. Constantine’s attempts to imitate Kermit are predictably funny, and his sweaty disco-infused anthem to woo Miss Piggy may be the most hilarious and memorable song of the entire movie. Meanwhile Kermit must deal with harsh prison life and try to plan his escape — a difficult task under the watchful eye of the warden, Nadya (Tina Fey).
A pair of competing detectives from Interpol and the CIA, the very Frenchly named Jean Pierre Napoleon (Ty Burrell) and always very American Sam Eagle, pick up the trail and eventually tie it to the World Tour. The Muppets become the prime suspects, hence the title. Jean and Sam’s interrogation of the gang is relayed through yet another great musical number that had me smiling, and their entire subplot is one of the major highlights of the movie.
It wouldn’t be a Muppet movie without some fun cameos, and this is no exception. There’s a staggering amount of great surprises, including a few that I simply missed — some because I didn’t detect them in costume, and others because they just went by very quickly. I won’t list them out because that would kill the fun, but rest assured that they will not disappoint. I will say that Danny Trejo, who was tragically cut from the first film in one of its few missteps, returns for a happily expanded role. Closure!
I’m hard pressed to really cite anything specific I didn’t like about the movie. It does seem to use more compositing and CGI than I would normally associate with a Muppet film, but not to excess. In any case, the Muppet performances are still traditional puppetry as far as I can tell, and that’s what really matters. Some of the compositing does look pretty sloppy (I’m thinking in particular of the gulag finale), but I’m grasping at straws here. It’s not really that distracting.
Perhaps a more important downside is that with the huge cast of Muppet characters, we don’t get a lot of meaningful screentime for most of them. Even major characters like Rowlf and Gonzo are basically just along for the ride without any meaningful arcs. However it’s clear that the filmmakers were very aware of this particular challenge, and a pointed comment about it from Rizzo The Rat sets up the best gag in the whole movie.
I don’t think many would call Muppets Most Wanted the best Muppet film, but it may very well be the funniest. There are a lot of jokes and gags, and most of them land. It’s an easy recommend for Muppet fans and a worthwhile, family-friendly comedy for everyone else.
A/V Out.