MUPPETS MOST WANTED
Ricky Gervais as Dominic / Ty Burrell as Jean Pierre Napoleon / Tina Fey as Nadya / Steve Whitmire as Kermit / Beaker / Statler / Rizzo / Newsman / Foo-Foo (voice) / Eric Jacobson as Miss Piggy / Fozzie Bear / Animal / Sam Eagle (voice) / Dave Goelz as Gonzo / Dr. Bunsen Honeydew / Zoot / Beauregard / Waldorf (voice) / Bill Barretta as Swedish Chef / Rowlf / Dr. Teeth / Pepe the Prawn / Bobo (voice) / Matt Vogel as Sgt. Floyd Pepper / Camilla / Sweetums / Lew Zealand / Crazy Harry (voice) / Peter Linz as Walter (voice) / David Rudman as Scooter / Janice (voice) Directed by James Bobin / Written by Nicholas Stoller and James Bobin |
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In pure
Muppets fashion, the opening section of the film contains a wonderfully
self-reverential song and dance number called, yes, “We’re Doing A
Sequel” that goes amusingly out of its way to relay the difficulties of
follow-up films and how they can’t possibly live up to the quality of
their antecedents. It’s a
highly clever way for the film to give an all-knowing wink to the audience
by letting them know that it’s not taking itself too seriously. Alas,
as scientist extraordinaire Dr. Bunsen Honeydew rather shrewdly explains
during the aforementioned song, MUPPETS MOST WANTED is actually the eighth
theatrical feature film involving everyone’s favorite felt and padded
puppets, harkening back to the original THE MUPPET MOVIE from 1979.
So, technically, MUPPETS MOST WANTED is the seventh sequel in the
series and not really the first, but…ah…never mind.
What should be noted is that the 2011 MUPPET film was crucial for
re-energizing the somewhat dormant franchise and paying loving tribute and
respect to Jim Henson’s iconic creation.
I adored the film for how steeped it was in our joyous collective memories of enjoying these character on both TV and
in films.
For certain, MUPPETS MOST WANTED is definitely not the equal to the
2011 entry (it lacks its boundless energy, freshness, and high nostalgia
factor), but
it remains a terrific family entertainment and is consistently a giddily
endearing delight. This
sequel takes place seconds – literally – after the ending of THE MUPPETS,
during which time the gang is approached by smarmy and manipulative
showbiz agent Dominic Badguy (pronounced "Bad-gee" and played by
Ricky Gervais, more reserved than expected)
that finagles the Kermit and company to embark on a world tour, mostly
against Kermit’s wishes (he senses something is afoul, but his team
thinks otherwise). What the
Muppets don’t know is that Dominic has actually teamed up with the
nefarious criminal Constantine, who looks alarmingly like Kermit in every
detail, sans a rather large mole on his cheek.
Constantine manages to escape a Siberian gulag, after which time he
plots to frognap Kermit and take his place, all while orchestrating a massive
theft of England’s crown jewels.
Unfortunately
for poor old Kermit, he is indeed captured by Constantine and shipped off
to a dark, dreary, and seemingly escape proof gulag, monitored over by
Nadya (a delightful Tina Fey), who comes off as tough-as-nails Russian
guard, but actually may have some obsessive tendencies towards Kermit.
Meanwhile, Constantine has placed himself within Kermit’s world
back home (he covers up his mole with green foundation makeup and studies
old reruns of The Muppet Show to change his Slavic accent to a more
Kermit-ized one…with mixed results).
Of course, no one – not even Miss Piggy or Fozzie – notice that
Kermit is actually Constantine, despite his increasingly odd and erratic behavior. While Constantine
continues on with his plot to destroy the Muppets and embark on his heist
with Dominic, Kermit struggles to acclimatize himself to his new
surroundings. Like
the 2011 film, MUPPETS MOST WANTED takes great relish in not only poking
fun at itself, but also with the types of heist/prison genre films it’s
borrowing from. I especially
liked Fey’s very game portrayal of her rough and rugged minded Russian
prison guard that has a predilection for breaking out into song.
This leads to one of the more inspired bits in the film of her
forcing Kermit to help her stage a prison version of A CHORUS LINE, which
hysterically features cameos by Ray Liotta, Danny Trejo, and Jemaine
Clement singing…roughly in tune together. I also enjoyed the pairing of Ty Burrell and Sam the Eagle,
the former who plays an Inspector Clouseau-like detective named Napoleon
that teams up with the proudly American Sam to help bring Constantine to
justice. The film gets many
solid laughs at the running gag of Napoleon’s francophone method of
police work versus Sam's American approach.
Sam gets increasingly miffed by how much time his French
counterpart takes for rest and eating. Of
course, the star-studded cameo roster here is a long staple of Muppet
tradition, and aside from Tyrell, Fey, and Gervais, MUPPETS MOST WANTED
gets ample comedic mileage out of its many blink-or-you’ll-miss-them
celeb appearances. I guess if
there were a weak spot amidst the human performers in the film it would
be, oddly enough, Gervais himself. He’s
proved time and time again that he can be one of the most engagingly funny
men on the planet with a scathing wit, but here Gervais seems a bit more
withdrawn and keeps his sarcastic bravado in check, which is ultimately a
bit of a disappointment. He
does somewhat redeem himself with a series of pithy one-liners and a
sublime song and dance number involving that he does with Constantine, during which
time the villain goes to great pains to emphasize that Dominic is indeed a
lowly henchman under his subjugated rule. However,
let’s be honest: we don’t attend a Muppet film for the human presence,
but rather for its non-human presence.
Like THE MUPPETS, MUPPETS MOST WANTED wisely invests and celebrates
its characters with a warm-hearted tenderness and satiric comedic edge.
Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, and even newcomers like Walter are such
endlessly affable and welcoming creations because they are so well
rounded, defined, and relatable as distinct characters.
It’s no wonder that within a few scant minutes of watching any of
the MUPPET films that you become less and less conscious of the fact that
these are puppets controlled by human performers; they just become real
and tangible personas on screen. In
a relative age of heavy computer generated fakery that permeates the
movies, it’s kind of an ethereal thrill to see that relatively archaic
and simple looking puppets still can have more personality than just about any
expensive looking, but half-hearted CGI
creation. Having said that, though, MUPPETS MOST WANTED doesn’t achieve the last film’s deliriously energized highs and many of the songs here – great toe-tapping delights in their own respective light – are not that imminently humable a day after seeing them were the ones in THE MUPPETS. The central heist caper in the script and its many other narrative detours leads to a somewhat over-padded and over-plotted feel to the film. Lastly, MUPPETS MOST WANTED really misses the presence of Jason Segal and Amy Adams, who communicated a sincere love of the franchise and characters in every scene they occupied in the 2011 entry. Yet, MUPPETS MOST WANTED has enough inspired gags and euphoric good will to help override even the most cynical of filmgoers and nitpickers. That, and the film finally provides an answer (sort-of) to the age-old question of what kind of offspring would result from a Kermit and Miss Piggy union. The result seems to make sense. |
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