Watching a trailer for Muppets Most Wanted really grabs you by the arm and makes you consider the loved ones in your life, and if any of them would look like a mastermind criminal with the addition of a beauty mark. The marketing train for James Bobin’s upcoming sequel continues to roll with another theatrical trailer, stoking my anticipation to greater heights with a couple of new jokes.
Granted, most of the trailer is made up of footage we’ve seen already, but that’s okay, since I’d rather there be more jokes left to discover during the film itself. This sequel is going for a slightly more dense plot than the first film did, with Walter firmly invested in the lives of the Muppets as they head out on a worldwide stage tour, making what will certainly be corny jokes in London, Madrid and Berlin. In fact, the preview does feature Miss Piggy saying JFK’s "Ich bin ein Berliner," to which Sgt. Floyd Pepper replies, "More like, ‘I’m frankfurter.’" Shots fired, pig.
The international criminal mastermind Constantine (voiced by Matt Vogel), who happens to bear a striking resemblance to Kermit, is planning a caper with his right hand man Dominic (Ricky Gervais). He takes advantage of the Muppets close proximity and switches himself out for Kermit, who is placed in a prison with Tina Fey’s Russian GULAG officer Nadya. You know how it goes from there: it takes the other Muppets an eon to realize anything is wrong, and Kermit has to do most of the work by himself.
I’m a sucker for the Muppets, even though their modern existence isn’t quite what I grew up on. But I’m willing to bet I would have busted my five-year-old gut listening to a foreign Kermit try to imitate regular Kermit for an entire film. The banter between Ty Burrell’s Interpol officer Jean Pierre Napoleon and Sam the Eagle looks to be a highlight, and is a great way to shine a light on an underused character. Perhaps it could spawn a spinoff where Burrell could make us forget that Steve Martin ever brought Inspector Clouseau back.
And the celebrity roles don’t end there. The film also boasts Christoph Waltz, Zach Galifianakis, Ray Liotta, Danny Trejo, Tom Middleston, Selma Hayek, Stanley Tucci, Lady Gaga, P. Diddy, Peter Serafinowicz and Jemaine Clement. Let’s hope each of them provides at least 17 laughs when Muppets Most Wanted hits theaters on March 21.
For a small bit of non-film Muppets, check out this recently released anti-piracy ad for the U.K. film and TV Industry Trust, which taps into Constantine pirating Kermit’s identity to get to the heart of Miss Piggy’s impulsive nature.
