The Muppets have seemingly timeless appeal. A disarmingly disparate collection of felt animals, people and… whatevers. The voices might occasionally differ to those from The Muppet Show telecasts of the 80s, but the inimitable spirit and message remains.
With such lovable and unique characters it should be expected that the Muppet message can cut through the cynicism of a sufficient number of children even in these modern times to find an audience. Hence Muppets Most Wanted arrives within three years of the previous 2011 reboot.
For the most part the biggest agents of change in the Muppet universe are the honest to goodness humans that fill out their world. The 2011 Jason Segal film got things about right. He and Amy Adams played a couple who were essentially along for the ride, and Chris Cooper played a wealthy bad guy, but the main plot lines were Muppet driven. Other more notable humans were relegated to where they belonged, minor cameos and small roles necessary to move things forward.
This time around the balance of power has shifted. There are more humans in this film. Well known humans. Humans who consider themselves – rightfully for the most part – to be ‘stars’ in their own right. As a result they want to have prominent roles, access to choice jokes, and all too often a musical number of their own. In fact after a cheery Muppet voiced song about the failings of even contemplating a sequel (how Muppet-meta!), most, if not all, of the songs until the finale are dominated by the human cast.
The threadbare plot is OK; a duplicitous ‘producer’ Dominic Badguy (Gervais), pronounced ‘Bad-Gee’ convinces the newly ‘so Hot right now’ Muppets to undergo a world tour, with destinations coincidentally at cities hosting some of the world’s most precious artworks. Meanwhile everybody’s green frill-necked voice of reason Kermit has been ‘swapped’ with a lookalike named Constantine…AKA the most dangerous frog in the world.
If that’s all too confusing wait a couple minutes, there’ll be a song to explain everything.
Look, if I wanted to watch humans sing badly I’d flick channel five times on any weeknight and listen to America’s Next Most Desperate Teens or America’s Got Unfulfilled Aspirations, or any of the other myriad singing competitions seemingly aimed at highlighting the most mediocre and forgettable ‘talent’ available. I don’t think anyone rocked up to the ticket booth breathless in anticipation at the prospect of a Ricky Gervais solo or an off key Tina Fey singalong.
Even this isn’t the film’s primary failing. That would be having so very many humans, and none of them being very likable. Sure Tina Fey plays the world’s most lovable Russian gulag operator, but she remains the administrator of a Russian prison. Ricky Gervais smiles a lot, as he steals the world’s art treasures and uses the Muppets for his own nefarious gains. Even Ty Burrell’s Interpol officer spends more effort hindering the investigation than furthering it.
With only varying degrees of non-sympathetic characters it’s hard to find someone for the Muppets to side with and rely on, and on their own they are but lovable cloth offcuts. Kermit has his moments in his subplot diversion and Sam the Eagle strangely gets a subplot of his own (strange since he has never been a prominent character).
The recurring joke about how no-one (except Animal) twigs that the heavily Russian-accented frog just might not be Kermit is played nicely, but with so much time devoted to human-kind too many Muppets are left on the periphery, to the extent that most of them might as well have stayed on the wall-hooks where they were stored since completion of the last film. I for one would have gladly gone without half a dozen pointless cameos (GaGa! Celine Dion! P.Diddy!) if it meant more time with Pepe the prawn, the Swedish Chef and Lew Zealand.
Alas it was not to be. Muppets Most Wanted entertains and occasionally thrills. It has a few songs that pack the requisite punch and a few gags that remind us of the glory years. But this is less an updated Muppet Caper as it is a checklist of the real life stars that they could convince to appear.
Final Rating – 7 / 10. It will never be a bad idea to make another Muppet movie. I just hope they play a more prominent role in their next adventure.
