I really did like how they handled him in the last movie. Not quite the giant Animal popping out of the Muppet Labs building and scaring away Doc Hopper, but probably some of my favorite theatrical Animal was in TM.
It's funny that you brought that scene up because the other day I was thinking that MMW could use something big, crazy, colourful, visual and unpredictable like the TMM giant-Animal scene. The string-of-Muppets-on-a-helicopter bits might do it when we finally see them in context on a big screen, but I'd like to see what else Stoller and Bobin concocted in terms of eye-popping visuals.
Like you, I thought some of Animal's finest moments came in TM2011. Far from being the hairy-guy-yelling-randomly-for-comic-effect that we occasionally fear he's become, Animal got some great scenes in Segel and Stoller's script, a few surprises we didn't see coming (Jack Black: "Hey, buddy, what are you doing here?" Animal: "Acting...Natural..."), and that beautiful moment when he returns to drumming during the "Rainbow Connection" number because, essentially, he knows he is needed to help save the theatre. That scene displays an undercurrent of loyalty and nobility that we don't see frequently enough in Animal, and I hope MWW continues that trend.