Last night my boyfriend took me to our favorite theater to see Muppets Most Wanted. It was a jolly good time I had to say.
Besides the jokes and general Muppetry being spot-on to the spirit of the Henson era, it also evoked a lot of Cold War nostalgia since the Russians are sort of the bad guys. Tina Fey stars as the head of the Siberian Gulag where Kermit is wrongfully incarcerated, due to a case of mistaken identity.
Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell, Tina Fey and a host of cameos round out the cast, and I wish that the movie had been longer so that there was more for the rest of these actors to have more screen time.
So far it hasn’t made as much as the previous film, but I really hope it becomes a sleeper hit. It was just as adorable as the last installment, and the songs in some cases I enjoyed even more.
Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Concords fame is the music supervisor. In some ways it’s a long jump between Bowie’s in Space and the Muppets, but it also isn’t. Witty lyrics, catchy tunes, goofy jokes, and just good, solid songsmithing is at the heart of the Muppets.
As I child I remember seeing actors in the Muppet movies and wondering what other movies they had been in, and most often, they were in movies that were either over my head or weren’t exactly family entertainment. That noble tradition is carried on here, as some of the cameos include Christophe Waltz, Til Schweiger, Saiorse Ronan, Hugh Bonneville, Jermaine Clement (who I initially mistook for Benecio Del Toro in full shaggy weirdo mode) and Danny Trejo. Or at least I associate those actors with entertainment that’s not family friendly, unless your family is watching a lot of Quentin Tarantino movies.
Muppets Most Wanted is in theaters now. Go see it! Go! Go!
Alas, it’s not out here until May 1. I’m looking forward to it though.