Muppets from Space

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Statler: I wonder if there really is life on other planets?
Waldorf: What do you care? You don't have a life on this planet.
Both: Do-ho-ho-ho-hoh!

Kermit is a frog. Fozzie is a bear. Gonzo is...what exactly is Gonzo?
The Hub's commercial for this movie

Muppets From Space is a 1999 Muppets movie starring their regular cast of characters, focusing on Gonzo's back story. It is directed by Tim Hill. It is so far the only Muppet movie to not be a musical, with the score being filled with already-popular oldies soul and funk (some of which are covered for the film), and it also has the distinction of being the last Henson-related film featuring Frank Oz before he retired his characters to someone else. Additionally, it is the first Muppet film since Jim Henson's death that has an original story and is not a spoof/tribute to a popular work of literature, and the humor is based on the more recent Muppets Tonight show.

In this film, the Muppets are living communally in an old house (for some reason), with Piggy's motivation to become a successful TV reporter being the only clear source of their income. Gonzo feels lonely, because there's no one like him; he has friends, but no family, and everyone else does. Feeling despondent, he is contacted through his breakfast cereal (no, really) and told to watch the sky. Eventually, he is convinced that he is actually an alien that somehow wound up on Earth; elated at the thought that there may be more of his kind in space, he tries to communicate with the other beings, while being thought of as crazy by his friends. Between being duped into building a Jacuzzi for the aliens, being captured and interrogated by a anonymous government agency headed by Jeffrey Tambor, and nearly being dissected by a (puppet) Mad Scientist, it takes a while before Gonzo finally gets to meet his space-brethren.

It received mixed reviews, with some minor Internet Backlash, though the majority seem to consider this to be a fairly good Muppet film. It also seemed, for a while, that it might be the last of its kind - the next film would not come for another twelve years!

Tropes used in Muppets from Space include:
  • Alien Among Us: Gonzo.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: A mild case, as Gonzo's friends openly doubt his claims that he's from outer space. Granted, Gonzo's an oddball, but he is the only "whatever" they've ever seen before. Not to mention his alien status is being doubted in a world full of talking frogs, pigs, bears and rats.
  • The Ark: The movie begins with Gonzo having a nightmare about Noah refusing to let him onto the ark because he can't identify his species.
  • Armies Are Evil
  • Bad Bad Acting: Piggy as a newscaster.
  • Berserk Button: Don't laugh at Ed.
  • BFG: "The Really Big Gun" that Ed uses at the climax ...which Bobo disarms before Ed ever gets to fire it.

Kermit: Gee, that was close...
Bobo: Not as close as you think, my friend. ...*Holds up the BFG's power source* "Please load weapon!"

  • Bland-Name Product
  • Brick Joke: In the beginning, Pepe and Rizzo trick Gonzo into building a jacuzzi because "If you build a jacuzzi, we will commmme, okaayyy..." Once the movie comes to a close, Gonzo wonders why he had to build a jacuzzi in the first place.
  • Buffy-Speak

Ed: ...The really big gun!
Bobo: Oh!

Kermit: You never miss the chance to shoot yourself out of a cannon.

  • Paper-Thin Disguise: The aforementioned lab coats.
  • Parental Bonus: Bunsen and Beaker trading their bags of snack food to a van full of stoner hippies in exchange for a ride to the beach.
    • Not to mention that whole business of Animal getting some.
    • The score being comprised of 70's funk makes some wonder if Parental Bonus was the direction a family-friendly Muppet film was supposed to go. 'Brickhouse' is played over the Muppets waking up and getting ready for the day, but only in reference to how they live in a brick house. A few Muppets say uncharacteristic 70's one-liners such as "get down with your bad self." Even the poster on the top of this page has the tagline "The Ultimate Muppet Trip."
  • The Power of Friendship: ...is more important than family...?
    • Also known as "Total strangers, however much they may enjoy parties and launching themselves out of cannons, are not necessarily more of a family than the people you've lived/worked with and been supported by for the past several decades."
  • Power Perversion Potential: Pepe and the invisibility spray. Twice.
  • Punny Name: K. Edgar Singer. Initial, "Edgar", name of domestic appliance company.
  • Ring Ring CRUNCH: Happens during the "waking up" montage near the opening.
  • Shout-Out: To Independence Day when Dr. Phil van Neuter tries to remove Gonzo's brain.

Dr. Phil van Neuter: Release... me...