Eureka! Without deftly balancing each element of sci-fi/comedy, filmmakers risk overloading that forward slash one way or another. Go too heavy on your science, and you alienate the comedy; then again, make it too silly, and you’ll come off as stupid. For every stone-cold classic, three crappy movies pop up in its place like some terrible experiment gone wrong.
For everyGhostbusters,there isGhostbusters2016. For everyTwins, there is Arnold then wearing a dress inJunior. For everyGalaxy Quest,there is Eddie Murphy in a fat suit inThe Nutty Professor… and that’s just to name a few of a painfully long list that makes us feel like we’ve just been probed. In such a niche cross-genre few even dare to try, the many, many failures far outweigh the few examples of genuine magic. So how does someone take on the difficult sci-fi/comedy genre successfully? Simple — addMuppets.
Muppets… In Space!
Following the sad passing of creator Jim Henson in 1990, there was a golden age for Muppet feature films;Muppets From Spacefinished off the 1990s following now December stapleMuppets Christmas Carolin ‘92 andTreasure Islandin 1996. Released in 1999 and directed by Tim Hill,Muppets From Spaceis a reverse play onE.T: The Extra Terrestrial,as Gonzo feels like he lacks a people of his own. Odd visions begin coming to lonesome Gonzo, with a promise that there might actually be more of his kind out there. It’s a paper thin plot that doesn’t risk any bigger questions, but does give a conduit for the expected Muppet mayhem.
Related:The Muppets: How the Original Movie is Still One of the Most Charming of All Time
In a throwback to their 60s origins withSesame Street,Muppets From Spaceis a movie that embraces its own squinted googly eyes when looking for UFOs. Gonzo is wrapped in tin foil and intercepts a television transmission thinking it’s his alien brethren. The baddies’ hideout is a beat-for-beat Area 51 stand-in. Even the smaller things like the wipe transitions from scene to scene come withStar Trek’sbridge door air pocket sound effects.
Coming full circle now and spoofing their own spoof of a spoof, the movie was originally titled “Muppets in Space” (a reference toThe Muppet Show’s original “Pigs In Space”).
Riding the wave of the 90s sci-fi craze (X-FilesandStar Trek: Next Generationbullied the TV ratings, while bothThe MatrixandStar Wars' The Phantom Menacewere released the same year asMuppets From Space), this is a movie that is filled with color in reliable Muppet style, and does all of what it sets out to do rather well.
The Great Gonzo
Squarely a Gonzo episode, the long beaked blue thing is in most scenes, and his scatty energy is wonderfully charming as he finds his own identity. Kermit acts as the straight man here, dosing out genuine lines of friendship without coming off as preachy, and Miss Piggy is obviously fabulous as a plucky reporter undermining lead anchor, Andie MacDowell. Finally — and showing that he is uncancellable like his cartoon cousin Pepé Le Pew — Pepé the King Prawn is the stand-out funniest character inMuppets From Space
With a bizarro list of trademark celebrity cameos from Hulk Hogan (in thewrestler’s second best one scene cameo), Rob Schneider, and Ray Liotta (perhaps in the least morally bankrupt role of his career as a brainwashed-to-be-happy security guard), the screen pops with energy and pop culture references. Sci-fi landmarks likeClose Encounters of the Third Kindare cited regularly among the Muppets' goofy lines, and there’s an amazing direct reference to the surgery scene in fellow 90s sci-fi epicIndependence Day.
Jeffrey Tambor plays the clownish big bad Ed Singer, head of C.O.V.N.E.T., a secret corporation created to seek out alien life. Shouty and driven, Tambor is excellent as one of the few human characters on screen, and his chemistry with the repurposed and sharp-suited Bobo The Bear (here named “Rentro,” oddly) as a hapless second in command makes a great double act.
Not all of it works, sure. Beaker and Bunson, while given their own Q Laboratory scene, are sorely sidelined in this picture, which is just a baffling decision considering how at home they are in the science fiction source material. And while energetic, this is a rare Muppet movie to entirely ignore any original songs, instead opting for classic funk. It leaves the movie as a whole coming off as a little colder than usual, and a little less personable.
Destined to Be Mothballed But Still Felt Fun
When the movie hit theaters just before the new millennium,it bombed hardand didn’t earn back its budget. Alongside meek to lukewarm reviews,Muppets From Spaceessentially killed off the Muppets for a while, with Frank Oz saying toIGNin 2000: “I think in certain areas that [The Muppets brand is] struggling. In the last movie it was struggling – I don’t think the last movie was up to what it should have been. I thinkMuppets From Spacewas not the movie that we wanted it to be.” Outside thedirect-to-video releases, it would take a whole 12 years before the Muppets returned to cinemas with the magical Jason Segal outing in 2011.
Related:Frank Oz Would Do More Muppets, But Says Disney Doesn’t Want Him
However, in thawing out this caveman of a movie for science, it’s clear that it stands strong in the Muppet canon of movies despite its initial reception, popping and fizzing through its runtime at warp speed, and is considerably better thanMuppetsTake Manhattanor the self-indulgent Ricky Gervais rubbish ofMuppetsMost Wanted.Muppets From Spacetranscends these, but does it reach the same level of culture that it sets out to parody? The same groundbreaking heights thatStar Trekand the works of Spielberg set so dizzily high to reach for?
No.But in the Roswell-esque desert wasteland of the sci-fi/comedy subgenre where little to no life can survive,Muppets From Spaceis a fun addition to the (admittedly small) lexicon and should be beamed up and admired that it tried — and for the most part, succeeds as a very entertaining outing. Plus, the movie’s final line about a Jacuzzi is hysterical.
