Muppets Most Wanted

Comparing 2011's revamp of The Muppets, and their just-released sequel, Muppets Most Wanted, you have to wonder if perhaps the co-writer and human star of the last movie, Jason Segel, was the real heart and soul of that film's success.  The previous Muppet film was sweet and often relentlessly sunny and cheerful, and did a great job of reintroducing the Muppet characters, while at the same time paying tribute to their past.  Segel was instrumental to that film's development, given his love of the characters and his understanding of their world, and most likely played a huge role in why that film worked so well.

For whatever reason, he chose not to return for the sequel, and his absence is definitely felt.  While the movie is never bad, it also feels oddly mechanical and lifeless.  The charm and simplicity that the last movie had in such large abundance has been replaced with a convoluted plot about Cold War-era terrorists, an evil doppelganger for Kermit the Frog, a wedding, and international thieves planning a heist.  Will kids like Most Wanted?  I honestly can't say.  The jokes often revolve around stuff they probably won't understand, like Silence of the Lambs, Jerry Maguire, the Broadway musical A Chorus Line, and even Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal.  That's not to say the movie has no laughs at all, and isn't fun in some way, as it is from time to time.  It just feels like this time around, the likable Muppet characters get sidetracked by the overly dense story.

The film actually opens mere seconds after the last one ended, with the movie wrapping up, and Kermit (voice by Steve Whitmire), Miss Piggy (voice by Eric Jacobson) and the rest unsure of what they should do, and whether the fans really do still care. (Turns out the fans who turned out at the end of their last movie were hired extras.) However, they soon realize that the cameras are still rolling, which means that the Disney Corporation has enough faith in them for a franchise and another movie.  This starts off the film's opening musical number, "We're Doing a Sequel", a funny and self-depreciating song, where the Muppets flat out admit that the sequel is never quite as good as the last one.  As Kermit and the gang try to figure out what kind of movie they should do for the next one, they are approached by a shady talent agent named Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais), who explains his suspicious last name as being French, and pronounced "Bad-Gee".

Dominic approaches the Muppets under the pretense that he wants to sign with them and help them put on a world tour across Europe.  In reality, he's a master thief with a scheme to steal the royal crown jewels.  He's also working for a criminal mastermind named Constantine (voice by Matt Vogel), billed "the world's most dangerous frog", who bears a strong resemblance to Kermit, and recently escaped from a Siberian prison camp.  Constantine's evil plan involves switching places with Kermit, so that the innocent frog goes back to jail in his place, and Constantine worms his way into Kermit's spot, winning over the other Muppets by allowing them complete and total creative freedom to do whatever they want during their show.  As the Muppets tour across Europe, Constantine and Dominic rob a variety of museums, looking for the location of a lost treasure.  As for poor Kermit, he's pretty much brushed aside in an underdeveloped subplot, where he tries to win over the prison warden (Tina Fey), put together the annual prison musical revue, and naturally escape.

Despite the Muppets getting the top billing in the title, they are given little to do, and often disappear from the narrative for long periods of time.  It's up to the villains to drive most of the plot and the scenes, and they're just not strong enough or funny enough to do so.  I have enjoyed much of Ricky Gervais' work, but here he seems oddly held back and bland.  Even when he gets to do a musical number, he doesn't seem to cut loose as completely as he should.  Constantine the Frog doesn't hold up much better, his main joke revolving around his indecipherable accent that seems somewhat inspired by Steve Carell's in the Despicable Me films, and the fact that none of the Muppets seem to realize he doesn't talk or act remotely like Kermit.  There's also a plot revolving around Miss Piggy finding herself somewhat attracted to this new version of Kermit, as he seems much more open with his feelings and affections.  It's a cute idea, but not explored as much as it should.

Just like the last movie, Muppets Most Wanted features a slew of celebrity guest stars, most of whom are on screen just long enough for us to recognize them before they walk off.  The actor who gets the most screen time, outside of Gervais, would be Ty Burrell, who shows up as an Inspector Clouseau-like Interpol Agent on the trail of the criminals.  There's also Tina Fey as the Russian prison warden.  She gets a catchy song welcoming Kermit to the Big House when he first arrives, and always seems to be on the verge of breaking out and doing something really funny, but the movie constantly shortchanges her after her introduction.  In truth, a lot of the celebrity cameos come across as missed opportunities this time around.  We get a scene where two of the great divas, Miss Piggy and Celine Dion, share the screen together for a musical number.  As soon as we see them together, our mind races with possibilities of the jokes that are to come, and...Well, nothing happens.  They just sing a ballad together, and don't even really get to interact with each other.  You don't put a pairing like that up on the screen, and not do anything with it.

There is just a disjointed feel to the material here.  So much time is spent on the villains, that the sweet and likable Muppets are pretty much pushed into the background, or flat-out forgotten about.  It's not until the third act, when three of the Muppets finally realize that the Kermit they're working for is an imposter and set out to find the real one, that they finally start to drive their own movie.  By then, it's far too late.  This is a Muppet movie that could have used much more of the Muppets, and their simple laid back charm.  The curious thing is, the last movie understood this, and let that charm drive much of the film.  Even when they weren't on screen in that one, the script itself had a similar kind of energy.  This time, it's all plot all the time, and none of the joy that we're supposed to feel.

Are there laughs to be had here?  Sure, but not enough to make up for the many flaws.  Muppets Most Wanted is overlong, overstuffed, and oddly nixes a lot of the stuff that made the last movie work.  Despite having most of the creative team of the last film come back, something feels missing.  That something, I think, is Jason Segel's understanding of these characters and their world.

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