Fish and Cherries Productions

Muppets Most Wanted is by no means a bad film, but it has its share of serious flaws. Apart from parts of the plot feeling very contrived and the Muppets feeling out of focus for the first half of their own movie, the tone is really dark for a Muppet movies, the parts where they move via strings or special effects dip into the uncanny valley, and quite a few of the jokes towards the Interpol officer feel very mean-spirited. However, quite a few of the positive notes are really good. The songs stand out, especially the Interrogation Song, the fourth wall jokes are spot on, there were some really clever moments in the humor and the writing, and the stuff where the Muppets play an important role is pretty engaging. On the whole, though, I feel a little let down, especially since the previous movie was so good and uplifting. It’s worth a watch, but I’d give it a matinee or a rental.

Okay, so after sitting on this piece for a little bit, my opinion on the movie has softened quite a bit. This is mainly because the good parts of the movie have stayed with me and stand out in my memory really vividly. I still think it’s a bit dark for a Muppet movie, but the good stuff was still good fun.

Mr. Peabody and Sherman was a fairly good movie that also left me a little disappointed. One of the movie’s biggest strengths is that it’s very intelligent, both in most of its humor and Peabody being portrayed as a Holmesian genius prodigy, which is a nice touch. However, the film’s greatest strength is also a potential drawback, as some of the humor might be so sophisticated that it might leave some of the younger viewers feeling lost. But the biggest drawback is the character of Ms. Grunion, whose only purpose is to be a one-dimensional antagonist that simply exists to harass Peabody and make him miserable, even getting excited about him getting possibly put down, with no believable motive or reason for doing so apart from “he’s a dog and dogs shouldn’t raise humans.” That does stand aside some other heavy and well thought out conflicts and themes too, like parenting techniques, what family truly is, and other such things that really have a lot of heart and make you feel for these characters. However, this comes at the expense of a rather cliched story and some fairly tired tropes, like the aforementioned bully in Ms. Grunion and also isn’t as strong in the laugh department. So as you can tell, I’m fairly mixed about this movie. It’s much more mature than the advertisements make it out to be and it’s very smart, but the intelligence is held back by a rather formulaic plot. But it is far superior to any of the other adaptation of the segments of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show that came before it, so take that for what it’s worth.