Muppets Most Wanted (UK Rating: U)
It may not be billed as a sequel but, as the second Muppet movie from Disney, Muppets Most Wanted most definitely is one. Just to reinforce the point, the very first musical number is all about making a sequel and how they are never as good as the original. It’s meant to be a joke With Muppets Most Wanted due to go on general release on Friday, 28th March, Freda Cooper treats dear readers to another Lights, Camera, Action! to see how good the movie turned out.
With the previous film all wrapped up, the gang are wondering what to do next when they are approached by a smarmy agent, Dominic (Ricky Gervais), who persuades them to go on a European tour. What they don’t realise is that he’s the sidekick of the world’s most dangerous frog, Constantine, who is a double for Kermit, apart from a crucial mole on his top lip. Constantine escapes from a Russian gulag, has Kermit banged up in his place and, under the guise of the tour, sets about staging a series of high-profile burglaries, with the aim of stealing the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
It’s not the most original of plots, being more of a mechanism to include as many songs as possible – and, in truth, most of them aren’t really worth it. Brett McKenzie, who wrote the Oscar winning ‘Man or Muppet’ in the first film, returns to the fold with another clutch of songs, but is unlikely to pick up any awards this time for what is a mainly forgettable lot. The only exception is Miss Piggy’s big number towards the end of the film, which she graciously shares with Celine Dion and which is styled like one of her videos.
It’s taken just over two years for this sequel to arrive, so it hasn’t been rushed but, strangely, it feels like it’s been put together as quickly as possible, with the likes of the story and characters almost being afterthoughts. In truth, the plot is its big weakness, so director James Brobin, who was also at the helm for the 2011 film, has decided to cover it up with one of the biggest line-ups of celebrity cameos ever packed into one film. The gulag inmates include Ray Liotta, Jermaine Clement and Danny Trejo (Machete), with Stanley Tucci on sentry duty. In The Muppet Show itself, Christoph Waltz dances the waltz and Salma Hayek is reluctantly involved in live bull running. Then there’s Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, Tom Hiddleston, Frank Langella, Toby Jones, Mackenzie Crook, Sean Coombs the list goes on.
All that mass celeb-spotting is fun for the adults – The Muppets has always had a broad appeal – but what about the children? There are plenty of action sequences and chases, gags both verbal and visual and, of course, the gloriously wacky gang itself, so there’s also plenty to keep them occupied.
However, this does feel more like the Kermit and Miss Piggy Show than previous outings. Poor old Fozzie Bear has been relegated to the side lines and has lost most of his trademark terrible jokes. Other regulars like Gonzo, Beaker, Rowlf the Dog, Scoot and Sweetums start to merge into one great Muppet mass, although thankfully Animal doesn’t – he would never merge into anything! He’s the only one who isn’t fooled by Constantine posing as Kermit. The Swedish Chef has a moment of glory talking about existentialism in films la Ingmar Bergman (another one for the grown-ups), while Sam the American Eagle is the only one with a proper role, as a CIA agent constantly competing with French secret service operative Ty Burrell to prove who has got the biggest badge.
Aside from the cameos, Tina Fey has fun as the gulag commandant, but Ricky Gervais doesn’t have much to do as Dominic other than be slippery, occasionally drop in a few steps from David Brent’s all-too-familiar dance and try to convince the audience that the body double in the final burglary sequence really is him.
[score=7]Muppets Most Wanted will put a smile on everybody’s face – regardless of age – but it does rather live up to those lines in the opening number about sequels. The Muppets – all of them – can do so much more, but here most of them have been held back, so the end result doesn’t have enough of the warmth or the energy associated with them – the key ingredients that have helped them stay at the top of the family entertainment tree on TV and film for the best part of 40 years.
