I’m not going to lie, I was pleasantly surprised by Muppets From Space. I remember seeing some of the trailers when it was first coming out, and to me it looked like a big silly misstep. The muppets had really figured something out by interpreting literary classics with a Henson twist, but this seemed like a bad choice for a film, and when it came up on the loop tape we played in our video store I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to the muppets I loved.

So now, some twenty-odd years later I finally dug into it. And yes, it’s silly, yes, there are a slew of cameos, some great, some not so great, but, like all muppet films it’s about family, so it’s got an enjoyable message at its heart.

There are also no songs. This is the first Muppet film to not feature any original songs performed by the characters, but there is lots of source music on the soundtrack, and it’s all pretty solid.

The film itself harkens back to science fiction films of the 80s, there’s an alien somewhere on Earth, there’s a secret government agency looking for them, and the missing alien’s family is coming to look for him.

This time out, we discover that the alien is in fact, Gonzo the Great (Dave Goelz). He’s haunted by thoughts of being alone (highlighted in a dream featuring F. Murray Abraham) and wonders why he, and we, have never seen another muppet like him.

Being a marooned alien explains that, and as the government agency hunts down the famous weirdo, Miss Piggy (Frank Oz) pulls duty as a reporter, stealing the limelight from Shelley Snipes (Andie MacDowell), and Kermit (Steve Whitmire) and the rest of the muppets (who all share a house together) all try to find a way to rescue Gonzo and get him to the landing site in time to meet his long-lost family.

My favourite cameo in the entire film features Ray Liotta, though Joshua Jackson and Katie Holmes make a fun appearance. And I loved the Muppet Labs sequence!

This was the last theatrical appearance of the muppets until Jason Segal helped to revitalize them with The Muppets in 2011, and while it doesn’t have the magic of The Muppet Movie, it’s still an entertaining family film that reminds us that family isn’t always who we’re born to, but those we gather around us along the way.

Man, I love the muppets.