We have now reached our final Muppets villain and I’m sorry but Muppets Most Wanted is a bad movie. It relies on two of my least favorite tropes, the characters fawning over someone who is clearly a bad guy and their friend knows it. Yes, it’s played as a joke here considering the character’s name is Dominic Badguy but just because you lampshade it doesn’t make it work. And then you have the trope of characters taking the idiot pill for the plot to move forward considering how easily everyone but Animal is tricked into thinking Constantine is Kermit. Again, I get it joke and he is Kermit’s doppelgänger but it’s just kinda annoying.
Now Constantine is the first time we’ve had a Muppet as a villain in one of these theatrically released movies but not the first time we’ve had a Muppet as a villain. Miss Piggy played the Wicked Witch of the West in Muppets Wizard of Oz and if we go more Muppets adjacent, the first Sesame Street movie had Muppet in the secondary antagonist role with Miss Finch in Follow That Bird. So having a Muppet as a villain while unique isn’t new.
Also, it’s interesting to note how Disney tried to make Constantine happen as he is to date the only Muppets villains to have a meet and greet at one of these parks as he was featured at Disney Hollywood Studios for a villains event years ago.
Personally, I think he’s fine but nothing special. At best Constantine nowadays is more remembered for memes than he is for this movie and it’s not even the best Muppets meme.
First Appearance/Personality
We see Constantine escaping The Gulag and not having any issue as he takes down every guard with skill and ease. This is something we will discuss when looking at his personality but Constantine is the type of villain that has to be number one. Heck, one of his songs is called I’m Number One.
As we see with his treatment of Dominic who is the true brains behind the operation, he treats his partner like dirt and thinks he should get all the spotlight. He’s in it for the glory of being the most famous criminal in the world. Considering how he is always calling himself number one, he has no desire to share any of the spotlight with his partner. He doesn’t care about things being equal.
Grand Desire
On the surface one might say that stealing the jewels is his greatest desire and on the surface that is true but if we look at the bigger picture, he is driven by ego and relies on his id so much. He is perhaps the most ego driven villain of the Muppets franchise Being fair, most villains are driven by ego in a sense but with Constantine he is the one villain where it is most evident and on display.
Being Number One is the thing he holds onto and honestly, it’s the only thing he has. He boasts a big game and while he can back it up, that’s much of a life.
Lackey
Dominic Badguy
I aired my grievances with Dominic in the intro and as I have said, he does most of the heavy lifting that Constantine wants to take credit for. He’s the one that tricks The Muppets into going on a world tour and sets up the venues for them to preform at that are conveniently located next to the places they want to rob. Oh and I’d be remiss to mention Dominic is the number most wanted bad guy, The Lemur and tried to double cross Constantine to become number one again showing how Constantine treats him is something he is fed up with
Songs
I’m Number One
This song is fun and a great villain song. This ties back into how Constantine has a huge ego and he uses this whole number to gloat about how he’s the best. Still only the second best Muppets villain after A Professional Pirate
I’ll Get You What You Want (Cockatoo in Malibu)
Again, this song is just so silly and I love it for that. He’s promising all these superficial things to Piggy feeding off her superficial desires. This is not a dig at Piggy but let’s be real, she’s all about someone pampering her like this and that she believes it to be her Kermit makes it all the more enticing for her.
Most Evil Deed
If we go with how he gave Piggy everything she wanted, he gives her the one thing she’s wanted more than anything, marriage. She believes she is marrying her beloved frog but it is all just a ruse as the church where they are getting married is near where the final item he wants to steal is, the Crown Jewels.
He uses something Piggy has wanted for years as a way to further his gains and your heart can’t help but break knowing the wedding is a ruse.
Demise
After the jig is up, Constantine kidnaps Piggy and takes her into his helicopter to escape. Oh and btw her wedding ring is a bomb. Constantine starts attacking Kermit in front of Piggy which big mistake and she defends her frog and he ends up back in the gulag.
Is Constantine Good Villain?
I wish the movie was better as Constantine is a decent enough villain but this is on the lower tier of Muppet movies for me. It’s not boring like Muppets from Space but some of the choices annoy me but not Constantine, he’s a fun villain and I wish the franchise would use him more.
I hope you enjoyed this series, I make look at other Muppets villains in the future. As you can see I’m planning on keeping Villains Profile it’s own series for now and honestly I don’t see myself going back to blogging about Disney anytime soon, I’m just burnt out covering Disney. Expanding this series to other villains beyond my niche interests has felt so freeing.
About Author
Muppets Most Wanted is a movie I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, there’s a lot of great comedy and meta-humor, but on the other, a lot of the plot depends on most of the Muppets not realizing Kermit’s been secretly replaced with an imposter until the third act. At least Kermit’s feelings are hurt when he finds this out after Fozzie, Walter, and Animal find and rescue him.
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But Constantine is a fun antagonist nonetheless, and his Villain Song is certainly a highlight.
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If The Muppets (2011) is the spiritual successor of The Muppet Movie, then Muppets Most Wanted is the spiritual successor of The Great Muppet Caper. Both of them involve the Muppets getting involved in a crime caper. Both of them have Miss Piggy deceived by the villain. Both of them have one of the Muppets framed and have to escape from a prison (in The Great Muppet Caper, it was Miss Piggy, in Muppets Most Wanted it’s Kermit). Both of them have a big finale where the Muppets join together to thwart the villains, with Muppet silliness mixed in with action.
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I recently rewatched Muppets Most Wanted, and there’s some fun stuff in it and some not so fun stuff. There are a few parts that haven’t aged well (there’s some gratuitous celebrity cameos, and one in particular is difficult to see since that celebrity has since become disgraced and controversial, to put it mildly), and again the main plot depends on most of the Muppets not really noticing the false Kermit’s out of character behavior until the third act. But the crime caper is still fun, the comedy still holds up for the most part, and the musical numbers are still great.
I still have yet to watch this movie. I mostly avoided it from word of mouth of it not being very good. The only thing I know of Constantine is just the memes of him. Sounds like he’d be one of the more redeeming things about it.
He’s really the only good part of this movie