What went wrong with Muppets from Space?

[MelissaY1]

I'd shudder to call painting the house, checking mail, and 4 out of hundreds of wacky characters bored and playing cards hip. I get what you mean, but other than a couple buzz cameos (lists of potential cameos in Muppet films don't always equal the end result... considering the disdain the movie had, I'm not surprised by who was in the movie), it seems like quite the opposite. Any attempt to be hip or edgy or anything in the movie was quashed by Tim Hill's view: boredom=mundane=realistic.

I mean, VMX and Oz tried too hard to be hip, sure... it actually worked pretty good for VMX... Oz was overkill on hip (Kelly Osborne?) But I doubt a funk track in a movie from that decade qualifies as trying to be hip, especially when the gold standard for out of touch 50 year old film exec hip is G and PG rated rap that's 10+ years out of style. Trust me on that one. I've seen it TOOOOO many times.

You know, the opening number reminds me of that Family Guy where Lois inherits a beach house from her annoying blue blood aunt. The entire staff starts singing and dancing an elaborate number... hundreds of little characters, then they all leave saying "we were only paid up for the song." If nothing else, the OTHER Muppets should have stayed home and screwed up painting the house or fought over the TV when they were watching Piggy's show. At least THAT would have been fun. Seems most of the group deserts the house entirely only yo magically appear again at the alien landing... I'm surprised that they didn't show them all as telemarketers or something.

Eh, I don't know I thought it tried too hard and suffered because of it. And I think it suffered more from a horrendous script than the director though I agree he's definitely to blame as well.

 

[MelissaY1]

This probably isn't going to help his case any with most folks here, but didn't Tim Hill also direct "The Fantastic Four" movies? I actually did enjoy those pretty well, despite most comic book fans slamming them. You have to admit that The Silver Surfer looked way cool in "The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer"
Oh well- Marvel's going to redo that franchise now anyway, so we'll see if they do it better next time.
As for "Muppets From Space", I saw it in theaters and loved it! I'm particularly glad they included "She's a Brick House" and "Celebration" in the movie- both great disco songs that I like (I particularly love "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang) and it's not too surprising to see '70s and early '80s disco classics in the movie since the '70s nostalgia was still pretty big in the late '90s.
But then, I enjoy all the Muppet productions to some degree or another. I do wish the soundtrack version of Gonzo's "I'm Going to Go Back There Someday" had been included in the movie- it seems like it would have fit well at the start of the movie after Gonzo's dream about Noah's Ark- which, by the way, was a great introductory scene for the movie and very fitting about emphasizing that Gonzo didn't have a mate to go into the Ark two by two.
Anyway- I am happy for all the new Muppet productions so I just try to find the good things I can enjoy about each one- and it's always fun to me to see the Muppet gang together.

The scene with Gonzo and the Noah's Ark bit was actually one of the best scenes in the movie in my opinion and that's because it was written by the late great Jerry Juhl. The biggest problem I've had since Jim passed away is the writing on many of these projects that just don't seem to understand what makes the Muppets tick. The reason Sesame Street still cracks me up after all these years is they have some of the best writers in television: period. Even though I don't like the format it's taken in recent years, I can still turn it on and chuckle and sadly that hasn't happened for me with a post Jim Muppet project in awhile.

 

[CensoredAlso]

When I watched MFS (which is rarely), I just get this vibe of children pretending to be adults. The original Muppet films actually were adult and sophisticated. Muppets from Space wishes it could be that grown up!

And that's basically the vibe I've continually gotten from the post-Jim Muppet projects.

 

[JJandJanice]

No Muppet Musical moments? What do you call "She's a Brick House' at the beginning? Or "Celebration" towards the end? It wasn't in the actual movie, but the soundtrack had an updated version of Gonzo singing his classic "I'm Going to Go Back There Someday", just like Kermit's done different versions of "Bein' Green", for both SST and TMS.

.

No one said the movie didn't have "musical moments" it didn't have "music numbers." Which are original songs for the movie, which Muppets from Space did not have at all. Having characters dance or lip sync to a popular song isn't the same as having an original music number. I mean really, what's more memorable to Muppet fans here, Kermit singing Rainbow connection at the start of the Muppet movie or the Muppets dancing to "Brick House" in Muppets from Space?

With that being said, personally, I think overall, I enjoyed Muppets from Space a little more (just a little) than Muppet Treasure Island.

 

[frogboy4]

When I watched MFS (which is rarely), I just get this vibe of children pretending to be adults. The original Muppet films actually were adult and sophisticated. Muppets from Space wishes it could be that grown up!

And that's basically the vibe I've continually gotten from the post-Jim Muppet projects.

Exactly!

 

[minor muppetz]

I mean really, what's more memorable to Muppet fans here, Kermit singing Rainbow connection at the start of the Muppet movie or the Muppets dancing to "Brick House" in Muppets from Space?

Well, considering TMM is a lot older and did a lot better at the box office... (no, stop throwing your tomatos at me!....)

 

[Drtooth]

Eh, I don't know I thought it tried too hard and suffered because of it. And I think it suffered more from a horrendous script than the director though I agree he's definitely to blame as well.

A good director can make a terrible script shine more than it needs to, a good actor can act the heck out of a bad script too. I've seen a lot of bad, downright stupid movies that had good direction and acting that made the project seem better than it should have been. A Bad director can ruin ANYTHING. They stifle the actor's, they pull stuff out of the script if they don't think it matches their vision, and of course, they can botch the overall look of the film.

Now, I don't feel the script was great (I wish wish wish someone would leak the original... remember several years when the original Muppet Movie script was leaked, and there were all these weird Henry Kissinger running gags?), but it deserved a lot more than an amature director who, again, makes crummy kiddy film that are stifled, don't try hard enough, and almost talk down to kids. I swear, there WERE some good concepts, and some good scenes that survived the terrible direction (I can't get enough of the bit with Gonzo and VanNeuter... that's like the best part of the movie after the opening).

There was clearly a too many cooks moment with the script, but Joey's done some funny stuff on Sesame Street... and it seems like the stuff he wanted in the script that was taken out would have helped the movie out. I mean, even if it was still bad, we'd LOVE the fact Traveling Matt had an appearance. Above all, there was no excuse for dropping a multi-layered ending for a cheap little happy banal one.

And I contest... how funny would it have been if more muppets were painting the house? or have Bunsen and Beaker make an automatic paint-o-matic that blew a hole in the roof? That's Muppet. Sitting around, playing cards and drinking Minute Maid? Not Muppet. Jeez... 90% of the footage might as well have been taken in the green room.

But then again, maybe if they had a better project over all... one that didn't need space.

 

[minor muppetz]

I've mentioned it before, but I still wonder why Brian Henson or anybody else with Muppet directing experience didn't direct this one. The two movies directed by Brian did well (I know one of them is the second highest-grossing Muppet movie, can't remember which one). Too bad Frank Oz was busy with other things (if he had to dub his characters voices then I'm sure he wouldn't have been available to direct... Ironically after this one came out it was announced that Oz was interested in directing the next movie after that).

 

[Drtooth]

That's what bugs me... I'm sure he was busy with something at the time, but he really should have stomped his foot down and said, "You know what? I'll do it myself." I'm sure we would have had a better project (and someone that gets the importance of giving a Fraggle a cameo). Not a great movie, but at least it wouldn't have had such a DTV/Telefilm look to it.

Though I still contest, MupOz was a far worse film. At least when Bobo was with Jeffery Tambor, Jeffery could ACT and he had chemistry. There was so much wrong with MupOz, but Ashanti's bad acting and the awkwardness of the chemistry just made the film even more uncomfortable to watch.

 

[MelissaY1]

A good director can make a terrible script shine more than it needs to, a good actor can act the heck out of a bad script too. I've seen a lot of bad, downright stupid movies that had good direction and acting that made the project seem better than it should have been. A Bad director can ruin ANYTHING. They stifle the actor's, they pull stuff out of the script if they don't think it matches their vision, and of course, they can botch the overall look of the film.

Now, I don't feel the script was great (I wish wish wish someone would leak the original... remember several years when the original Muppet Movie script was leaked, and there were all these weird Henry Kissinger running gags?), but it deserved a lot more than an amature director who, again, makes crummy kiddy film that are stifled, don't try hard enough, and almost talk down to kids. I swear, there WERE some good concepts, and some good scenes that survived the terrible direction (I can't get enough of the bit with Gonzo and VanNeuter... that's like the best part of the movie after the opening).

There was clearly a too many cooks moment with the script, but Joey's done some funny stuff on Sesame Street... and it seems like the stuff he wanted in the script that was taken out would have helped the movie out. I mean, even if it was still bad, we'd LOVE the fact Traveling Matt had an appearance. Above all, there was no excuse for dropping a multi-layered ending for a cheap little happy banal one.

And I contest... how funny would it have been if more muppets were painting the house? or have Bunsen and Beaker make an automatic paint-o-matic that blew a hole in the roof? That's Muppet. Sitting around, playing cards and drinking Minute Maid? Not Muppet. Jeez... 90% of the footage might as well have been taken in the green room.

But then again, maybe if they had a better project over all... one that didn't need space.

I agree with what you're saying to an extent, but in my opinion, bad script was what sabotaged this one. And I actually haven't enjoyed Joey's contributions to Sesame much. If there's one film that's worse than Muppets From Space, it's Elmo in Grouchland. Great performer but he should stick to that I think.