#725 – Muppets from Space (1999)

Muppets from Space (1999)

Film review #725

Director: Tim Hill

SYNOPSIS: Gonzo becomes concerned abut who he is and where he came from, when he starts seeing strange messages everywhere. Believing he is being contacted by aliens who are his people, he is imprisoned by a super secret organisation, and the Muppets must work together to free their friend…

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Muppets from Space is a 1999 sci-fi film starring (unsurprisingly) The Muppets. The film’s story centres around Gonzo, as he begins to wonder what he is and where he came from. He starts seeing strange messages that he believes are aliens trying to communicate with him, and that they are his lost people. This is the main focus of the story, and while it somewhat makes sense, insofar as Gonzo’s species has always been “whatever,” you never feel like it’s something that ever needed an answer. The issue here is that Gonzo has never, in any of the Muppets previous films or appearances, expressed concerns about his identity or origins: the “whatever” recurring joke has always be enough. To have him start this movie sad and worried about it with no real impetus or motivation doesn’t really fit his character. With the focus on Gonzo, a lot of the other Muppets don’t really get to be a part of the story in any meaningful way: Rizzo, Gonzo’s friend and roommate gets a small side plot, as does Miss Piggy, but they don’t really go anywhere, and Kermit just…doesn’t have anything going on at all. It’s nice that the film focuses on other Muppets for a change, but Kermit really feels like a spare part, along with many of the others.

The runtime of this film is only eighty minutes (excluding credits sequences), so there’s not really any time to build up any sub-plots, or just have any real fun with the characters. The threat is always mild, and there’s not too much sense of urgency. The Muppets work best when they’ve got something or someone to riff on, and some space for physical comedy, and neither of those things manifest in this film in any meaningful way. The story fulfils its objectives and has a decent amount of charm and fun – as any Muppets film does – but there’s just a lack of any gravity to anything. Even at the end when the aliens arrive, all they do is sing a song and leave again; it’s a pay off that reminds me of the Explorers film. There’s a fair amount of acknowledgement from the people involved that the film wasn’t what they wanted it to be, and it’s hard to disagree: the short runtime and weak motivations don’t give anything a chance to shine. That said; it’s still a Muppets film, and has a lot of the charm and fun you would want from it.