Synopsis
The Muppets embark on a hilarious extraterrestrial adventure in hopes of finding out about Gonzo’s past, and discover that Gonzo’s family members are aliens from a distant planet! Gonzo then gets a message that his relatives are coming for a visit from outer space! But when word gets out on Miss Piggy’s talk show, “UFOMania,” that thefriendly aliens are coming, a secret government agency let by K. Edgar Singer (Jeffrey Tambor) captures Gonzo and goes to great lengths to learn when his extra-terrestrial family will arrive. Now only the Muppets, led by Kermit and Miss Piggy, can save Gonzo and make the world safe for a friendly alien invasion!
The Muppets seemed to have hit a wall once Jim Henson had passed away. A lot of people thought that once the heart and soul of the franchise had faded that there was never to be another Muppet film again. It completely made sense. How could the film franchise continue without its leader? His son, Brian Henson, took at shot at walking in his father’s footsteps in the 90s and rebooting the Muppet franchise, while still maintaining his father’s vision; certainly a tough task. What came out of it was The Muppet Christmas Carol in 1992, which did remarkably well. Following that was The Muppet Treasure Island, a take on the popular book of the same title, which also did well. To finish out the 90s, while he was on a creative roll, was Muppets from Space (1999). Regretfully, it didn’t do so hot, as it didn’t make it’s budget back in the box office (according to IMDB.com), but as things go sometimes critics can be wrong.
Muppets from Space goes where no other Muppet film had dared to adventure — it explained where Gonzo had come from. While I’m shocked this had never been a question brought up in any Muppet film to date, it was refreshing to see Brian Henson and director Tim Hill putting a solid origin behind one of the most beloved characters in the Muppet franchise. The movie is enormously funny, as it depends on stupid gags and witty writing to form a cohesive Muppet film. If there was ever an open door for a Muppet film to work its creative magic then this would have been it. You have things like Gonzo getting signals through his cereal from outer space, Piggy trying to host a UFO news show and even Arrested Development‘s Jeffrey Tambor as K. Edgar Singer, the head of an alien taskforce trying to locate aliens including Gonzo. Along the way you also get new Muppets such as Pepe the Prawn and Bobo the Bear (though he was called Rentro in this film) working some memorable comedy magic to extend the Muppet family.
Muppets from Space does a spectacular job of not taking itself too seriously. Everything in this film is fast-paced, always moving. Unlike The Muppets Take Manhattan, where there is a loll in the middle of the story, Muppets from Space just keeps bringing the comedy and drives home the goofy origin of our favorite big-nosed Muppet. Maybe most folks thought the story was too goofy or maybe not deep enough in classic Jim Henson style, but it’s fun from beginning to end. Kids will absolutely love this film, and adults (who don’t have a bee in their bonnet) will laugh with them.
As for the Blu-ray portion of this release, Muppets from Space is better than The Muppets Take Manhattan in terms of HD transfer. There is absolutely no artifacts or graininess that I could see on the film. The film is much newer, so that probably helped it out a bit, but it’s still over 10 years old. You get a sharp picture with no color banding, which says a lot about Sony Pictures’ transfer process. Folks, this movie looks absolutely outstanding. In addition to the great picture you also get some great audio, which lends well to a great soundtrack. The audio and visuals for this Blu-ray release is pretty sharp.
Regretfully, the features didn’t live up to the transfer. Here’s what you’re looking at:
– Outtakes
– Music Video
I wish there had been more, possibly even a featurette with Brian Henson. Commentary or something else would have made this part of the Blu-ray release much better. I’m not trying to take anything away from the outtakes, but it would have been nice just to have a little bit more goods with the special features.
