'Muppets From Space' (1999)
A movie review by Walter Frith
wfrith@cgocable.net
Member of the 'Online Film Critics Society' http://www.ofcs.org
When Jim Henson passed away in 1990, many of his fans doubted that the Muppet franchise would carry on with the same wonder previously seen in some of the most ingenious outings such as 'The Muppet Movie' (1979), 'The Great Muppet Caper' (1981) and The Muppets Take Manhattan' (1984). Steve Whitmire does an incredible job of performing the voice of Kermit the Frog in the same unique and memorable fashion of Henson himself. Frank Oz and Dave Goelz also contribute greatly to the icon voices of Miss Piggy and Gonzo. The Muppet franchise seems to have survived but not with the same wonder and amazement of the early years but its nice to see them try and provide wholesome and quality entertainment for today's children.
The story of 'Muppets From Space' centres around Gonzo. He's always been a unique character and we find out that his roots come from another world and that he himself is an alien and his people want to come and take him back in a similar style seen in 'E.T.' All of your favourite Muppet characters, including Gonzo, Kermit, Miss Piggy, Rizzo the Rat, and others, all live together in the same house. It's a zoo (no pun intended) as they all fight for bathroom time, a place at the breakfast table and room to movie about. It's cute and harmless fun that in many cases is meant only for extremely young children. Older kids and adults especially may find the entire film very boring at times and many of the characters aren't given the exposure I would like to have seen. That's one thing I always enjoyed about the old television show. There would be a segment giving everyone equal time and everyone received their equal share of the pie. In this one, you only end up saying: "There's Fozzy", "There's Beaker", "There's Rolph", but we don't see enough of them.
As Gonzo is discovered to be an alien, he is captured by a secret government laboratory who want to experiment on him and it's up to the rest of the Muppets to rescue him. The whole thing is done in the most campy style imaginable. There is a spray carried by Miss Piggy where she can use it on anyone and they're hypnotized into doing whatever she says and they all carry a formula that will make them invisible. It was nice, however, to see the adult characters, such as Ray Liotta, Andie McDowall, Jeffrey Tambor, F. Murray Abraham, Rob Schneider and the laughable Hulk or Hollywood Hogan, whatever he's called these days, take a back seat to the Muppets and not over shadow their presence.
Director Tim Hill and writers Jerry Juhl and Joseph Mazzarino have made a film that looks more like television than the movies but considering that's where the Muppets roots are, that isn't such a bad thing. I just wanted to see a less pretentious climax and more zest this time around that was missing most of the way.
OUT OF 5 > * * 1/2
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* * * * * - a must see * * * * 1/2 - don't miss it * * * * - an excellent film * * * 1/2 - a marginal recommendation * * * - can't quite recommend it * * 1/2 - don't recommend it * * - avoid it * 1/2 - avoid it seriously * - avoid it AT ALL COSTS 1/2 - see it at your own risk zero - may be hazardous to your health
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