Your Thoughts: Muppets From Space

I think Gonzo is a puppet.



I actually really dug MFS, and I don't know why. A lot of people make very strong and well thought out statements about the Muppets playing characters vs. the Muppets playing themselves, and that's probably why MFS is my favorite post Jim Muppet film.

Did you see MFS in the theater or on home video? The small screen experience is much different and better one in my experience. After the opening number - the scope of the script that they went with didn't suit the big screen. I remember getting restless in the theater more than I do when I stick in the disc at home.

There was just so much opportunity squandered in the writing and direction. The joy was missing for me along with the number of clever quips that MTI had in abundance. Still I prefer the Muppets being themselves.

I just wish they'd been given more to do in Tim Hill's movie. I feel it's a D grade film, but a C video. I'd rather it been an hour-long TV special and VMX been a fleshed-out full theatrical feature. Well, if they'd offered a bit more music and some happier moments. Still, those projects were years apart. I just want to hear the Segel movie's in active production.

I saw it in the theater. Yeah, it coulda' been better, and it felt thin, but I still enjoyed it.

I wish they'd kept the energy of the opening throughout the picture along with Jerry Juhl's original vision.

Today's audiences expect more humor than ever before. The Simpsons can wedge a dozen gags a minute every week. There's no need for Kermit to look so bored in a feature film.

There was a fun film in MFS and it shows through in bits and pieces, but I kept wanting to jerk the camera away from the director and point it at the far more interesting avenues in the margins of the movie. Also the idea to scrap any original music was strange. People always claim the film musical is dead, then a Moulin Rouge, Chicago or even High School Musical hits the theaters and makes a fortune.

I understand the MFS love. It's just once that opening day I really felt it was over for the Muppet brand for a long time to come. It's ten years later and things are looking up.

I've said it before, but I'm still in the "I can believe Gonzo is an alien." group. HOWEVER, he is a whatever first and foremost. I think part of the awkwardness of the movie was that it wasn't really needed. And it could have been handled so much better. But it wasn't something that really needed to be gone into anyway.

But for all the hard times the fans give this movie, it did have its bright spots. Jeffery Tambor and Bobo were pretty funny. Gonzo, while he did come off as being almost an entirely different character from his Muppet Show days, was at least sincere. Many of the other Muppets just didn't have the same feeling or connection that they had in other movies and series that came before.

Good point. Also was there ever a "dedicated to Jim Henson" bit in ANY of the films?

Muppet Christmas Carol was dedicated to Jim Henson and Richard Hunt. The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film was also dedicated to Jim Henson because the Creature Shop created the animatronic suits. Muppets From Space has a little nod to Jim Henson when Kermit reads his local newspaper - The Hensonville Observer. We make a nod to that on this site in the background of the News section menu.

I hate to correct you but they did the memory of Jim on Turtles 2 not 1

I think it was more of a directing thing than anything else...

Here's an excerpt from the Tough pigs interview with Joey, who wrote part of the movie:

(full interview at http://www.toughpigs.com/blogarchive/2009_02_01_archive.html )

You can really sense how annoying it was... who wouldn't have been. It really seems like the director came in and derailed everything to make it more "realistic." And I wanna bet he was instrumental in getting rid of the musical numbers.

Seeing the film in theaters twice, I felt it was good for what it was... I liked it up until the part where I found out how great it could have been had certain people not meddled in it.

Anyway, anyone else notice that Gonzo's alien brethren go unnamed anyway?

You're right. Jim died two months after the first Turtles film. The dedication was in two. The second film was only one year after the first.

I read that article. It's a shame. It is things like that that confirm to me that Disney's current direction is much better than under Henson ownership in the 90s. It just wasn't making the sorts of quality decisions or taking chances that Jim was known for.

Mazzarino's obviously being very gracious in saying that Hill was a "nice guy" and did a "descent" job. It appears he's the reasons that the Muppets looked bored and aimless. I suppose he'd rather have them paint the house, watch TV and check the mail than actually do anything Muppety. It was fun seeing them lounging, but there wasn't anything adjacent to it. Thank frog for Pepe. Without him that movie would have been quite tedious.

From what I've been reading lately on this thread, it seems when the new director came he must've been like a giant green monster or something! Devouring the muppets and the film and puking out what we have now.

Oh yeah... I mean, this guy went on to do the Garfield films and the Chipmunks film. The Chipmunks film was fun, enjoyable... had a nice message to it, but it really wasn't a great film. I wonder how much vision the last director lacked that it was such a problem. Wonder why Oz didn't step up and say, "fine! I'll do it, only because we're in a pinch!"

I wonder to what extent the parodies were... something to the extent of VMX, with flying satires and references? Seems they kept a couple references in, like the Men in Black, a modified line from Star Wars, and a couple riffs on Close Encounters. Only thing that really bugs me is that he changed an amazing, depth-filled ending for a flat one.

Whats interesting is that the movie has been out for years and we are just now finding things out about it. Tim Hill also has done some work on Spongebob, and I think in that he seems to do really well.

I have a feeling that more of the film would have been IN space and there would have been some Muppet Show feel to it as well. Maybe even some Pigs in Space send-up, original music and a lot more wackiness. Muppets From Space should have been titled Muppets Floss, Eat, Watch Some Television, Mow the Lawn and then Meet Some Aliens at the End.

You forgot Muppets check the mail and Muppets do brief reference to Get Smart.

Someone should have told the director that there is a difference between realistic and mundane. I liked the idea of the Muppet boarding house and all, but the film spent too much time there.