The United States government called on Walt Disney Pictures to delay or cancel the release of Muppets Most Wanted on national security grounds. Or at least, it should have. Not only might this movie annoy Russia, with whom the American government is already nose-to-nose over Crimea, but it could also cause any European allies being courted by President Obama to unfriend him and the rest of the country.
The film, a music-filled follow-up to the 2011 hit The Muppets, lands poor Kermit in a gulag in Siberia, which is depicted just as unflatteringly as gulags in Siberia always are. Vladimir V Putin is unlikely to be amused. But the real concern, in terms of America’s international relations, is its sly skewering of its European allies, whose work habits, vacation-taking and such are mocked relentlessly.
In the story, the gang, drunk on the success of the 2011 movie, signs on for a world tour with a shifty promoter named Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais). Dominic is in cahoots with Constantine, a criminal frog who bears a striking resemblance to Kermit. The two work a mistaken-identity trick that lands Kermit in the gulag and allows Constantine to take his place on the Muppet world tour. The Muppet stage shows in various European cities become a tool in a complex scheme by Dominic and Constantine to steal the crown jewels in Britain.
