[7.4/10] I don’t know if The Muppets need heart to be truly great. *The Muppet Movie* was a snootful of madcap humor, zany antics, and scene-chewing cameos. But it was also a stealthily earnest film about following your dreams and finding joy in pursuing them with people who share your hopes and your vision.

*The Great Muppet Caper* is, like its predecessor, another movie chock full of the wild and wooly antics decades of fans have come to expect from The Muppets. But instead of a broader notion of following your dreams, it’s mainly about...following a jewel thief.

That’s okay! The story of Jim Henson and company’s second major theatrical outing doesn’t aim as high in terms of sentiment as their first. But its story is still solid and exists to buttress beaucoup gags, set pieces, and musical numbers which still amaze and delight. The whimsy and off-the-wall fun are just as enjoyable, even without the sincerity these little dolls were known for.

The place where *The Great Muppet Caper* most plainly tops *The Muppet Movie* is in those imaginative musical numbers. In terms of pure song-smithing, the 1979 original still wins. But *Caper*’s tunes are still bob-worthy, and more to the point, Henson and his team find more elaborate and creative ways to use their smiling hand puppets and fleshier performers to bring them to life.

A visit to a “supper club” turns into a grandiose performance where puppets dip one another in time with people and Miss Piggy herself performs a little tap routine. The film’s opening number sees a chaotic city street brimming with activity and musical theater panache by man and muppet alike. And in the film’s most impressive sequence, the spotlight-stealing ham channels the spirit of Esther Williams for a sparkler-filled synchronized swimming routine. The songs aren’t quite as earnest, but the silver screen realizations are that much more eye-catching.

Likewise, Henson’s crew ups their technical prowess with their second at bat. With advances in technology and efforts to top themselves, there’s no limit to what a puppet can do in *Caper*. Aside from the aforementioned tap-dancing and underwater ballet, the Muppets shimmy up walls, ride bicycles en masse, leap and land in one another’s arms, and any number of other stunts that prompt a quick-fire “How’d they do that?” even forty years later. The sheer production wizardry at play marks the movie as an achievement on its own.

Even if the boffo technicals aren’t your speed, it’s hard not to appreciate the amazing chemistry that Henson (Kermit), Frank Oz (Fozzy, Piggy), and Dave Goelz (Gonzo) had achieved after years of working together. The whole muppet cast interact with one another seamlessly here, and the back-and-forth in big group scenes is impressive as a matter of scale.

Yet, even when it’s just a few of the major characters interacting, the rhythm and repartee is all pitch perfect comedy. Kermit the straight man, Fozzy the goofball, Gonzo the weirdo, and Piggy the primadonna play off one another with gusto in moments big and small. A quartet of writers provides the particular patter, and the movie’s lead performers bring it to life so naturally that these big strips of felt and ping pong balls can’t help but feel like old friends.

Among the human performers, Diana Rigg is a pip, whose uptight fashion mogul persona, Lady Holiday, make for an amusing foil to Miss Piggy and presages Miranda Priestly in *Devil Wears Prada* while still managing to make the affected air work within an irreverent gag-fest like this one. (Ironically, 2011 *The Muppets* would make the comparison more explicit.) Charles Grodin hams it up himself, and the other celebrity cameos are all ably done, but lack the spark that Rigg brings to the table.

Part of that works in her dry responses to the abject silliness all around. *Caper* is just as slapstick-y as any of the best Muppet outings, while adding in even more off-the-wall gags for good measure. There’s a vaudevillian flair to the proceedings, with expert timing for running gags like the lone lightbulb in a crummy hotel breaking off right on cue. Kermit and Fozzy claim to be twins, with uproarious new layers to the joke each time it’s brought up. So much of the movie is pure farce, with a loony, anything goes vibe that keeps things light and irreverent at all times.

To the same end, *Caper* maintains the Muppets’ fourth wall-breaking style of comedy with flair. Whether it’s a trio of muppets commenting on the opening credits, or Kermit chastising Miss Piggy for overacting before coaxing her back into it, or Lady Holiday noting that they have to deliver the plot exposition *somewhere*, the playacting vibe of this Muppety story is a feature, not a bug.

Maybe that’s the cinch for this movie. Its predecessor had more than a few fourth-wall breaking moments, but it more or less played the emotional crux of Kermit’s quest straight. By contrast, the jewel thief storyline in the sequel seems almost perfunctory, a cheap excuse to throw our heroes into a bunch of wacky situations in London and let them bounce off of one another. (Sometimes literally.)

That too has its charm though. And what’s more, the movie seems aware of what it’s doing on that front. The winks to the audience are a small acceptance that the story isn’t all that important here. The “mystery” plot isn’t hard for even younger viewers to figure out, and when challenged on the reasons behind his two-bit skullduggery, the film’s antagonist simply shrugs and says he had to do all this because he’s the villain.

To the extent there’s any sentimental ballast here, it comes in the form of the familiar Piggy and Kermit romance. Their pig/frog coupling remains sweet and inherently goofy in equal measure, but even it feels a tad inessential given the way it’s wrapped in a loopy case of mistaken identity. For the most part, *The Great Muppet Caper* seems to acknowledge that deep down, this is all just for fun. But with this many laughs, this much charm, and so many superb silly sequences, the fun is more than enough.