Muppets From Space - Positives and Negatives

[Drtooth]

But personally, I just felt this film was mehhhhhh. From what I read on Wikipedia, didn't they rush film production because Columbia thought it would be a big summer blockbuster?

Yeah, I had to get that off the actual wikipedia. I don't see why the Muppet one isn't so subjective. The movie was plagued with production problems and a labored script rewritten a bunch of times. Columbia screwed Henson on this one, but Henson basically didn't care. No one did. The director was the nail in the coffin, as he clearly didn't know what he was doing and was a replacement for someone who lacked vision. That must have been SOME lack of vision to be worse than that.

Everyone involved seemed to be disappointed by the film. And I agree. it could have been a great film had they had the time, the effort, and a stronger director who was sympatico with the Muppets. It wouldn't have been a great film, but it could have certainly been a better one.

 

[Pinkflower7783]

Yeah well when Kermit doesn't even like the film we know it's bad.

 

[Mo Frackle]

I did, however, enjoy the audio commentary on the DVD. It's really very funny, and it's interesting that Tim Hill is involved. Though I think it makes sense to have him there (as a straight man).

 

[Drtooth]

Kermit nothing...

Check out this interview from 2000. If you don't want to scroll down to the whole article, Frank says:

I think in certain areas that it's struggling. In the last movie it was struggling – I don't think the last movie was up to what it should have been. I think Muppets From Space was not the movie that we wanted it to be. I think we've lost our way a little bit in certain areas, but in other areas, like the Creature Shop, we're doing fantastic work, and so is Sesame Street.

YEOW! I'd love to hear his full opinion on it some day.

I did, however, enjoy the audio commentary on the DVD. It's really very funny, and it's interesting that Tim Hill is involved. Though I think it makes sense to have him there (as a straight man).

The commentary was the best thing about the movie. Tim's probably great back when he did Spongebob... but his live action stuff is very... well... crap. There's something very off about the films he does. He seems to be in LOVE with the concept of fantastic characters doing extremely mundane things in a mundane way. And poo eating, but that's another story.

 

[Pinkflower7783]

Kermit everything! As for Frank now that's one statement I can agree with him 100% on. Actually I remember reading that interview awhile ago.

 

[leafysuburbs]

Hello, I'm a recent convert, still haven't seen all the films (lucky me), but I really enjoyed Muppets from Space, enough to bother posting something. Its not perfect but what is? The humour in it is grade A, and true to the Muppets, not spiteful or mocking.

Bobo cracks me up every time, comic gold. Pepe, "Look who's here, over here" etc
The house montage is great.
Maybe its too humour reliant, I do miss a good Muppet singalong.

Does no one else get the Big Lebowski reference?

If I have one quibble in general, its the lack of a strong second/third... female character, 80's robot is good but gender neutral.

Thats it, just wanted to register my existence.

 

[Beauregard]

I recently saw it with a friend (I'm always WAY more critical when watching with other people) and I was really weirded out by the really low quality of Puppets that seemed to be used. Especially Piggy. Did they forget to stuff her head? And her jaw was half fallen off it looked like in most of the scenes. Fozzie and Gonzo both ooked like they were about to fall apart.

 

[beatnikchick300]

I liked a lot of MFS. Some parts of it dragged, and some could have been better, but a lot of it was pretty solid. Although I agree with Mo Frackle about Johnny and Sal (naturally).

 

[robodog]

It's wierd that this thread should come up because I saw this for the first time last night. I really enjoyed it. It wasn't perfect, but then, what is? I think I may have to face the fact that I'm just incapable of disliking a Muppet movie.

 

[GonzoWaltsfan]

I don't understand the hate for this film, its one of my favorites matter of fact. The one thing that made this film so special for me though was how they showed what great friends Gonzo and Rizzo were, you could really tell how much they care for one another. I also really like how the film was about Gonzo as hes my favorite, yes I think the funniest part was when the cake got eaten and them lying to Gonzo about it myselfXD The only negative thing I have to say, why did they need to give Piggy a subplot in this film? They could have just left her out of it for once, it didn't involve her relationship with Kermit for once and was about Gonzo and Rizzo pretty much, what was the point?