Muppets From Space (1999)

In 7 words or less: What-ever-he-is Gonzo discovers his origin

What's it all About? After several recurring dreams about Noah not letting him on the Ark as their is only one of him, Gonzo begins to wonder where he came from and what he is. Queue shady government agency out to capture extraterrestrial life. Our hook nosed friend becomes a prime candidate and falls into the clutches of an evil government lackey. It's up to Kermit, Fozzie and the gang to rescue him.

Best bits? The soundtrack is funk and disco/soul all the way. Samtterings of James Brown, Earth, Wind & Fire and The O'Jays are ever present. Although this is a good thing, we don't get any actual muppets singing which is usually a highlight of any muppet picture. 

I'm holding some jello

As far as performances go, the best lines of script are given to Pepe the King Prawn, 'I will smack you like a bad, bad donkey' and Rentro the Bear, 'Jalapenos, jalapenos, getting my friend some jalapenos.' These newish muppets are a joy to watch.

Did it make you think thoughts? I like Gonzo. However, he's not my favourite character out of the top tier muppets. With all this focus on him, we get a reduced portion of Fozzie and Kermit which is no good thing. As Gonzo's best friend, Rizzo the Rat gets a lot of screen time and his 'lab rat' scenes are funny. The evil government agent (Jeffrey Tambor who is superb in the tv series Arrested Development. Go watch it now) has some great back and forth with his bumbling sidekick Rentro (played by Bobo the Bear). 

That's a big gun sir!

Strangley, the muppets are at their best when they don't have to worry about a protracted storyline to stick to and can just be themselves. With this being a story heavy film, we seem to get less zingy one-liners and more out-of-characters situations. That's not a movie-damaging thing just an observation.

Would you watch it again? This is getting silly now. If you've been following my reviews you'll know that I'll watch anything muppet related over and over.

Rating (out of 100%): A good film that loses a few marks because it feels more un-muppet like than most muppet movies. Still, I give Muppets From Space a UFOing 70%