When the Muppets returned to the big screen in 2011, the felt-covered familiarity of Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and the rest of the gang was fully realized by director James Bobin. With Muppets Most Wanted, Bobin returns to the director’s chair for a sequel that picks up where The Muppets left off, taking the show on the road for a world tour, but leaving a bit of that Muppets magic behind.

Under the guidance of new manager Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais), the Muppets take The Muppet Show to some of Europe’s biggest cities. Once they arrive, however, they find that Badguy (pronounced Badgee) has booked them in the worst hole-in-the-wall dives he could find. Not only that, but Kermit suddenly has an Eastern European accent and takes on a much more menacing persona soon after the Muppets arrive in Europe. As his name so blatantly implies, Badguy is not to be trusted as he is in cahoots with Constantine, the world’s number one criminal who, aside from a Robert De Niro-like facial mole, is Kermit’s Russian doppelgänger. Having kidnapped and framed Kermit by slapping a fake mole on his face (and covering his own mole with green makeup), Constantine assumes control of the Muppets while Kermit makes some new friends inside the Siberian prison he now calls home.

Kermit becomes fast friends with WWE’s Hornswoggle, Nadya (Tina Fey) and others in “Muppets Most Wanted”.

Kermit quickly endears himself to the likes of Ray Liotta, Danny Trejo and WWE‘s Hornswoggle, as well as Nadya (Tina Fey), the officer overseeing this Gulag who already has a Piggy-like fascination with Kermit. Constantine, however, has a harder time fitting in with the rest of the Muppets, whose morale is steadily decreasing under Badguy and Constantine’s leadership. Thankfully, CIA agent Sam the Eagle and Interpol‘s Jean Pierre Napoleon (Ty Burrell) are on the case. Unfortunately, their nationalistic rivalry hinders their investigation, but does provide some comical moments.

Though it takes them a while, Walter, Fozzie and Animal figure out what’s going on and “quit the Muppets” to go spring Kermit from Siberia. But with Piggy planning to marry Constantine (thinking he’s Kermit, of course), time is running out for the Muppets. Though they haven’t seen a caper of this magnitude since 1981’s The Great Muppet Caper, the Muppets just don’t provide as many laugh-out-loud moments in Muppets Most Wanted as they have in other Muppet movies. With numerous catchy musical moments, plenty of the witticisms Muppet fans have come to expect and obligatory cameos by the likes of Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, Salma Hayek and Usher, all the ingredients are there for another great Muppet caper. But there just seems to be something missing with Muppets Most Wanted that leaves it only being a good, or maybe even really good, Muppet caper.

muppets.disney.com/muppets-most-wanted