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part of a small rebellion | by maryann johanson

Muppets Most Wanted review: that’ll do, frog

Wed Mar 19 2014, 07:49pm | 21 comments

Muppets Most Wanted green light Ricky Gervais

Kermit the Frog takes on his biggest challenge yet: dual roles. And truly puts the villain in vaudevillian.
I’m “biast” (pro): love love love the Muppets like my own family

I’m “biast” (con): bite your tongue

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

In the annals of Hollywood, no puppet has seen more success on the big screen than Kermit the Frog, though many have tried. Punch was unable to make the transition from street theater to the silver screen in the 1920s, and the arrival of sound was said to have taken the heart out of his squeal, for it could not be adequately reproduced with the early technology of the time. Senator Charlie McCarthy, after he moved from show biz to politics, unjustly cut short many promising careers in the 1950s with his anti-puppet Felt List. Lamb Chop was already hitting the mint sauce hard just as her career as the token babe in Sinatra’s Rat Pack was about to take off in 1963’s Hogget, Don’t Hog It. Alf’s tragic end barely bears thinking about. And while many extol the talents of Yoda, just as many detractors would complain that he always plays the same character: a brilliant actor he may be, but a narrow range he has.

But now, here, Kermit the Frog — TV legend, bestselling author, recording artist, movie star of the movie-starriest order — takes on his biggest challenge yet: dual roles. For in Muppets Most Wanted, Kermit not only returns to his beloved signature character of the seemingly hapless but actually quite effective and charming leader of a traveling troupe of variety performers, but also daringly takes on the role of the film’s antagonist as well. Chillingly, the script — by director James Bobin and Nicholas Stoller, both returning from the Muppets’ recent previous big-screen outing — does not reveal why Constantine is considered “the world’s most dangerous frog,” but the fact that, as the film opens, he is imprisoned in a remote Russian gulag — lorded over by a terrifying warden (Tina Fey: Admission, Megamind) — and affects an ingenious escape from it is indication enough of his dastardliness.

And Kermit! My god, Kermit the Frog, with barely an evil twist to his facial expressions that is more like some external manipulation rather than anything one mortal amphibian should be able to pull off (at least not without, perhaps, some prosthetic assistance), is completely transformed from sweet, harried theatrical producer to criminal mastermind. I cannot even begin to comprehend the digital trickery that was required to create the few scenes in which Kermit-the-character and Constantine appear together. All I can say is: thank God for movies like Gravity pushing the frontiers of what FX can do so that Kermit-the-actor could play against himself.

You will be astonished. Indeed, Kermit-the-actor truly puts the villain in vaudevillian, as the script calls for Constantine to replace Kermit-the-character among his band of merry performers, the Muppets, so that he, Constantine, and his second in command, Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais: Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D, The Invention of Lying) — pronounced “Badge-ee” (it’s French) — can pull off some of the greatest heists Europe has ever seen under cover of a Muppet Continental tour, all the while chased by a crack team of Interpol agent Jean Pierre Napoleon (Ty Burrell: Mr. Peabody & Sherman, The Incredible Hulk) and CIA agent Sam Eagle.

Difficult though it may make the job of prose styling for a film critic when a movie star is portraying a character of the same name as well as another character entirely, metatextural commentary on filmic conceits and the Ouroboran nature of pop culture has always been a part of the ingenious anarchy of the Muppets. And the dual duality of Kermit both onscreen and between screen and audience isn’t even the beginning. The beginning is the end of 2011’s The Muppets, which is the beginning of Muppets Most Wanted: when the cameras fail to stop shooting, the Muppets realize this means they’re doing a sequel, and launch right into it. The compression of spacetime required for this surely demanded an application of advanced quantum cinematics. But the Statler-and-Waldorfian flair is found right in the first song of this new film (for of course it is once again a musical). Chipper yet instantly forgettable — as are all the songs in Most Wanted, as if daring the viewer not to buy the soundtrack to remind oneself of them — “We’re Doing a Sequel” contains the provocative lyric “Everybody knows the sequel is never quite as good.”

And thus, in that Muppetationally silly way that is all anyone is truly looking for in a Muppet movie, the primary criticism that may be leveled against Most Wanted is acknowledged and dismissed with high kicks, glitter, dancing, and amusingly demented blink-and-you-miss-’em celebrity cameos. And all is right with the world.


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Muppets Most Wanted (2014)
US/Can release: Mar 21 2014
UK/Ire release: Mar 28 2014

Flick Filosopher Real Rating: rated FHG (my face hurt from grinning)
MPAA: rated PG for some mild action
BBFC: rated U (contains mild comic violence and infrequent very mild language)

viewed in 2D
viewed at a semipublic screening with an audience of critics and ordinary moviegoers

official site | IMDb | trailer
more reviews: Movie Review Query Engine | Rotten Tomatoes

If you’re tempted to post a comment that resembles anything on the film review comment bingo card, please reconsider.

  • LaSargenta

    One Question: Do Statler & Waldorf have screen time?

  • Of course!

  • LaSargenta

    *happydance*

  • Bluejay

    Remote Russian gulag? Terrifying Russian warden? Evil Russian frog? Enough with the stale Russian bad-guy stereotypes, already! The Cold War is over, people! We’re in a bright new era of East-West relations! The Russians love their children too!

    Oh, and I finally fixed the glitch in my NY Times subscription. Did I miss anything?

  • Maybe if they filmed along the calming, peaceful coastal waterways of the Crimea…

  • Fey is not actually terrifying, for whatever that’s worth. :->

  • LaSargenta

    And had a rainbow flag in every scene…

  • Danielm80

    Rainbow flags make me think of this:

    http://youtu.be/-HAS52TWUjM

  • LaSargenta

    :-D

  • LaSargenta

    I think there’s a plane missing somewhere…or is that a video game?

  • Bluejay

    I have a feeling Putin doesn’t want any Russian citizens to find the rainbow connection.

  • LaSargenta
  • RogerBW

    But does it counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor?

  • Tonio Kruger

    Ya think? :)

  • Martin

    THROW HIM OFF THE SHIP!!!!

  • CB

    “I cannot even begin to comprehend the digital trickery that was required
    to create the few scenes in which Kermit-the-character and Constantine
    appear together.”

    There wouldn’t happen to be any scenes where they’re both on camera and there’s an obvious split down the screen, is there? That would be awesome.

  • That would have been hilarious. But no.

  • Bluejay

    I enjoyed this. Loved the Ty Burrell/Sam the Eagle partnership, loved the Spanish version of the Muppet Show opening, loved Constantine. He got all the best songs!

    I initially thought (and was impressed that) Kermit’s puppeteer, Steve Whitmire, performed Constantine as well. But it turns out that Constantine is performed by Matt Vogel, who currently plays the Count on Sesame Street (and now I can hear the vocal similarities between Constantine and the Count). Still equally impressed!

    It’s not a perfect film; I felt it was a little too forced and scripted at times, and lacked the looseness and apparent spontaneity that I remember from the Henson-era Muppets. Piggy was a Smurfette and didn’t really have much to do besides play damsel-in-distress. But it was at least a forward-looking adventure, rather than the “let’s all remember growing up with the Muppets” nostalgia-fest that the first film was (which was enjoyable on its own terms).

    I think I’ll always be a little sad that it’s not Jim Henson’s and Frank Oz’s Muppets anymore, but I guess there’s nothing to be done about that. Creating fun new characters like Constantine is a breath of fresh air, and I think they should keep going in that direction.

  • Tonio Kruger

    I liked it, too, though not as much as the previous Muppet movie. The first two songs were great and it was nice to see Ricky Gervais as a villain for a change and not as a romantic lead. Some bits toward the end were predictable, but for a movie with so many bad reviews, it was surprisingly entertaining.

  • Bluejay

    The first two songs were great

    Just the first two? :-) I think Constantine’s “I’ll Get You What You Want” comes a little further along in the film, and it’s Grade-A Bret McKenzie.

    Though I admit I prefer it when McKenzie himself sings the full version.

  • Tonio Kruger

    Well, a lot of the other tunes are good, too, but the first two are my favorites. Of course, considering how eclectic and eccentric my tastes in music can be, you might not consider that a compliment, but still…

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