UNITED STATES: PREMIERE FOR NEW MUPPET MOVIE "MUPPETS IN SPACE" HELD IN LOS ANGELES

Record ID: 545920

  • Title: UNITED STATES: PREMIERE FOR NEW MUPPET MOVIE "MUPPETS IN SPACE" HELD IN LOS ANGELES
  • Date: 10th July 1999
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JULY 10, 1999 (REUTERS) SOUNDBITE (English) BRIAN HENSON SAYING "Hollywood is being targeted and a lot of people in Hollywood deserve to be targeted. We don't deserve to be targeted. We don't, and making fun of a little bit of violence in a funny way, an innocent way is fine. De-sensitising the audience to violence and killing is an
  • Embargoed: 25th July 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVA8QUWDUZCIFRYI5TSRBDAFCHMW
  • Story Text: "Muppets from Space," the sixth full-length film to showcase Jim Henson's popular puppets, includes jokey references to "Star Trek" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and a pop-tune soundtrack filled with disco and R&B from the 1970s.
    Departing from the formula employed in the last two Muppet movies -- "The Muppet Christmas Carol" (1992) and "Muppet Treasure Island" (1996) -- the new instalment goes back to basics and places the title characters in a contemporary setting.Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Rizzo the Rat and all the other cloth-and-foam-rubber creatures share cramped but comfortable digs in a weather-beaten old house.For the most part, joy prevails.Right from the start, however, it appears that the bent-beaked Gonzo (voiced by Dave Goelz) is even more of an odd man out than usual.
    The opening dream sequence, in which a skeptical Noah (F.
    Murray Abraham) refuses to admit Gonzo aboard the Ark because he doesn't have a mate, underscores the poor little guy's main concern: There is no one (or nothing) quite like him on Earth.
    His mood lightens only when he begins to receive cryptic messages ("R U There") in his Capital Alphabet breakfast cereal.Based on this and other evidence, Gonzo snaps to the idea that maybe there's a good reason he's unique -- that is, maybe he's the offspring of extraterrestrials.
    At first, Kermit and other cooler heads in the Muppet household try gently to dissuade Gonzo from trying to trace his roots.But when Miss Piggy lands a low-level job at a TV station, she eagerly uses Gonzo as her stepping stone to replace a superstar reporter (Andie MacDowell) as the host of a "reality" series titled "UFO Mania."
    Unfortunately, Gonzo's on-the-air appearance attracts the attention of K.Edgar Singer (Jeffrey Tambor), the easily frazzled chief of a government agency charged with finding and capturing alien visitors.Agents grab Gonzo and transport him to the agency's headquarters, where Gonzo befriends some lab rats who are regularly tormented by a mad scientist (David Arquette).
    Even worse things lie ahead -- Singer wants to remove Gonzo's brain for closer scrutiny -- if Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and Pepe the Prawn can't rescue their buddy in time.
    Among the human co-stars of the film are Ray Liotta as a security guard, Rob Schnieder as a TV producer and Hollywood Hogan (aka Hulk Hogan) as a man in black.
    Once again, Frank Oz voices both Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear; Kermit the Frog is voiced by Steve Whitmire.
    The script is credited to the trio of Jerry Juhl, Joseph Mazzarino and Ken Kaufman.Tim Hill was the film's director.
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