Bad Movies We Love: Muppets From Space

Call me a glum frog with a hand flapping up my ass, but I didn’t love The Muppets. Jim Henson’s franchise is about goofy, heartfelt antics, and his whimsy warps into a barrage of Glee tunes, self-conscious dorkiness and perky, perky people under the pen of Jason Segel. It’s a no for me. Luckily, the ’90s already gave us a solid, if stupendously, un-self-consciously dorky Muppets update in the form of Muppets From Space. It’s not exactly a part of the classic Kermit cannon, but that’s because it’s a tangential Henson operation. Think of it as Muppets Origins: Gonzo. Now you’re in. Muppets From Space is an 85-minute detour into Gonzo’s extraterrestrial heritage, and that we should appreciate. Even if it doesn’t take an Ancestry.com printout to realize Gonzo is a hybrid of Grover’s comic exasperation and Fozzie’s showbiz jones, it’s great fun to watch the classic Muppet mine his past. Very Born This Way. As the movie starts, we glimpse his recurring dream that he can’t board Noah’s ark because he’s the only member of his species, and that’s a resonant and traumatizing vision — even if you don’t realize that Noah, in this case, is played by F. Murray Abraham. Which he is. Soon, Gonzo receives paranormal messages in breakfast cereal letters, and he and the other Muppets are led on an adventure that connects them with his intergalactic loved ones. Harmless, often hilarious, and light as air. Like many Bad Movies We Love, it’s slow in spots and dotted with unremarkable characters, but that doesn’t mean it skimps on fun. Here are the best five moments in Muppets From Space; I hope you’ve ironed your polyester leisure suit in advance. Or your felt leisure suit. Either/or. 5. Kathy Griffin’s finest role: a befuddled security guard who’s horny for Muppets Forget Suddenly Susan, because Kathy Griffin’s best acting moment is in Muppets From Space. The honorable D-Lister spots Fozzie, who accidentally washed off his invisibility cloak with soap, and tries to cuff him before he can escape. Later she makes out with Animal (who then rejects her) and claims “You’re all the same — animals.” Though Jeffrey Tambor, Hulk Hogan, and Ray Liotta round out the supporting cast, Griffin is the feistiest trooper in the posse. 4. Guess what’s funny? Watching Miss Piggy get punched in the face. Pardon the shoddy quality of the following clip, but you simply must see it before you move on with your day. In Muppets From Space, Miss Piggy is a roving reporter dressed exactly like Jane Fonda in The China Syndrome, and she’s willing to use karate and one-liners to secure a scoop. Problem is, she meets her match in the kickass Josh Charles (of The Good Wife and the immortal Sports Night), and what ensues is a slapstick beatdown funnier than any single moment in The Muppets. I’ve watched this four times so far. Here comes five and six. 3. Spoiler: Gonzo’s home planet is a nonstop discotheque. Early in the movie, we’re treated to a loooong morning sequence set to The Commodores’ “Brick House,” and it turns out to be just the beginning of Muppets From Space’s unashamed funk/disco fixation. When Gonzo meets his family after a climactic ship landing, he and his new-found folks rip into a spirited rendition of Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration.” If you thought Kermit the Frog’s “Kokomo” cover was hokey, wait until you see Gonzo’s Julie Kavner-esque mother encourage the whole planet to come on! (Sidenote: I am obsessed with the last 30 seconds of “Ladies Night” at the moment, and my judgment may be swayed by James “J.T.” Taylor’s blithe sonic force.) 2. The most underrated Muppet ever: Pepe the King Prawn While I appreciate Muppets From Space’s use of Clifford, the Muppet who acted as emcee of the failed primetime variety series Muppets Tonight, the true underdog hero of the movie is Pepe the King Prawn. A fellow Muppets Tonight evacuee, Pepe is a world-class charmer thanks to his heavy Spanish accent, bug-eyed alertness, and continuous mispronunciation of Kermit’s name. (“Kermin” is his attempt.) In this hilarious moment, Pepe and Kermit fool a patrolling doctor. Kermit’s working his ho-hum chutzpah, but Pepe takes the scene in his grasp and woos us with pure heart — or at least a cephalothorax. 1. It’s a stoner comedy. Muppets are inherently trippy, but Muppets From Space keys up the stoner quotient to a new high. In no particular order: Gonzo receives an important message from a talking sandwich, drifts through the sky like Jim Breuer in Half Baked, chats with “cosmic fish” in the stratosphere, and watches his cereal form warnings in claymation choreography stolen from the video for “Sledgehammer.” If I have to invoke the name of Peter Gabriel’s stop-motion circus, you can assume I’m talking about a marijuana-friendly work. Revel (in the poor-quality video). Follow Louis Virtel on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.