Quite literally starting where The Muppets finished in 2011, Muppets Most Wanted is another typically crazed affair that makes up for appalling internal logic with amped insanity, in-jokes and a feel-great factor that only they could get away with. It's pretty much business as usual, which is both a blessing and a curse for while this Muppetational outing may please the fans, it's unlikely it will broaden the fan base.

In Times Square, just as Kermit and co experience a certain emptiness following the sellout shows that closed the last film, Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais – The Invention Of Lying) enters stage left and suggests a world tour. Before you can say 'cue map and dotted lines', they take a train from New York to Paris and beyond - but what none of them except Badguy (it's a French name...) recognise is that Constantine, the world's most dangerous frog, has swapped places with Kermit who now languishes in a Russian gulag. While the show goes on without him, art museums are robbed, Interpol is in pursuit and Nadya (Tina Fey – Mean Girls), the gulag's commander, demands a show of her own.

The unbridled silliness that has kept The Muppets a successful and much-loved brand for over three decades is at the core of this film. It's more of what you want in a story that doesn't this stray far from the emotional core on which audiences have been hooked for years. Riffing about loyalty, family and the messiness of true friendship, the film remains reliant on double-takes and star cameos (there are a distracting amount of familiar faces, some used to good effect – Usher – many are wasted – Tom Hiddleston, The Deep Blue Sea).

Once again, songs by Flight of the Conchords' Jermaine Clement hit all the right notes: witty, loopy, catchy. It's a successful mix that even the acerbic schtick of Gervias (an acquired taste and something of an uncomfortable match for the Muppets' loveable goofiness) doesn't compromise. Ultimately, this is not as sweet or generous as The Muppets but it is as much fun and is packed with scene after scene that underlines just what is so inspirational and celebrational about the Muppets.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at Hoyts EQ, Sydney, on 4 April 2014