Muppets From Space

Muppets From Space is the sixth in a series that began in 1979 with The Muppets Movie. The last Muppets movie, Muppet Treasure Island, came out in 1996.

Since then, there has been a barrage of new entertainment for little kids. Every month or two a new animated flick opens up, like the recent Tarzan. Or there’s a special effects movie, like A Bug’s Life.

The Muppets franchise, as evident in Muppets From Space, might be heading toward collecting its Social Security and Medicare benefits. The movie pokes fun at "The X-Files" and "Men in Black," but it just doesn’t have any energy. It’s almost as if the fuzzy creatures have phoned in their performances, dancing to a soundtrack of 70’s tunes.

For starters, Kermit the Frog only makes a brief appearance. Miss Piggy plays a secondary role as a TV commentator. The movie centers around blue-nosed Gonzo, who sees telekinetic messages from outer space in his alphabet cereal. When "R U There?" is spelled out on the kitchen table, the special effects look like they come from a Gumby short film in the 1950’s.

Gonzo spends the rest of the movie in search of extraterrestrials. Not before we have obligatory human cameo appearances by the likes of Hollywood Hulk Hogan, F. Murray Abraham, Rob Schneider, and David Arquette. Even veteran character actor Pat Hingle turns up alive in this movie.

Muppets From Space generates lots of laughter from its intended audience, the little tykes and lassies. That’s good. Unfortunately, it will generate a lot of yawns from the parents who have to sit through the whole thing...not good.