Jim Henson created many remarkable things in his life, but I dare say that The Muppets are the very best characters he ever brought to life. A wide range of different characters working together each week to put on joyous shows could have been a lackluster premise for a television program had the cast and crew not been infused with amazing characters like Kermit, Fozzie, Miss Piggy, and my personal favorite, Rowlf The Dog. These characters return to theatres with their 8th movie, Muppets Most Wanted, to decent, though not astounding, results.

Now that the gang’s back together, Kermit and the rest of The Muppets embark on a world tour with the help of Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais). However, it turns out Dominic is in cahoots with the worlds most dangerous frog, Constantine, who plans to take Kermit’s place and use The Muppets as a way to cover his robberies. It’s up to Kermit to thwart Constantine and save all of his friends.

I think it’s impossible for any Muppet movie to be truly bad (yes, I even consider Muppets From Space to be fine), but if not properly handled, things can simply settle for being OK instead of terrific like the best Muppet movies. Unfortunately, this movie makes the critical mistake of removing Kermit from the rest of the Muppets for much of the film. Without Kermit’s everyman perspective into these wacky characters, things can just descend into episodic wackiness.

Not helping matters is the fact that the film contains an extraneous subplot involving Sam The Eagle and a French Interpol Agent that is one of the films few humorous things that just doesn’t work as well as it should. Thankfully, Kermit’s hijinks away from The Muppets remain highly amusing, as he attempts to blend into a Russian gulag inhabited by Tina Fey and Ray Liotta, among other celebrities.

Although they’re not exactly given much motivation, Constantine and Dominic Badguy remain entertaining presences in the movie, mainly thanks to a terrific song “I’m Number One” that helps get their relationship across in a single stupendous musical number. Speaking of which, the music in this thing is splendid, full of toe-tapping numbers that’ll be stuck in your head for many days after. Aside from the aforementioned villain musical number, the best may be the opening number “We’re Doing A Sequel”, in which all of The Muppets poke fun at some of the more well known tropes of common sequels. And of course, it’s not just in music where fun can be found, as the films numerous humorous moments also land nicely, especially a bizarre gag involving Constantine’s knitting habit.

As the film’s overlong, but undeniably entertaining finale (where the two main plots finally merge) finishes, I really was disappointed that the film’s flaws were so prominent, as there’s so much that Muppets Most Wanted gets really right. Alas, some sloppy screenwriting hinders this otherwise entertaining film which has just enough music, lights and Muppets to make for a humorous enough adventure.