Muppets from Space (or The Desperate Need for Quality Family Films)
Friday's pizza-and-a-movie night shifted to Thursdays starting this week (like you care). We've been doing this (or some variation of it) going back years. It wasn't so much an intentional tradition as it was my desire to have at least one evening a week with a simple, low-effort, no-cook / minimal-clean dinner. And some entertainment.
From the beginning, finding a movie that appeals to all of the kids has been a challenge. At times there's a toddler whose intellectual capacity is best described as CoComelon, and that's just not going to work for the rest of us when it comes to a movie choice. To make things more difficult, I'd like this to be a family thing, which means the adults have to not regret the movie choice. The catalog of family movie choices is just not impressive.
Randomly, I found Muppets from Space.
MovieAddict2016
I knew instantly that the kids would enjoy it. Glancing at the cast, I gave reasonable odds that the adults would enjoy it as well. And I was not disappointed.
Muppets from Space includes a combination of the muppets and live actors (just like Sesame Street). The cast includes:
- Jeffrey Tambor
- Rob Schneider
- Ray Liotta
- Kathy Griffin (ehh...)
- Hulk Hogan
- David Arquette
One quick tangent. I see that a man, Frank Oz, does the voice for Miss Piggy. In my mind, Miss Piggy is the muppet embodiment of Jennifer Coolidge. I had to look up her name. I kind of expected to find her as the voice actor. Apparently not.
Everything about Muppets from Space was enjoyable. It kept the attention of the kids. We (the parents) were not bored by it. I wasn't concerned about mature themes or inappropriate jokes often threaded into modern day "family" movies. And Gonzo finds his people. What's not to like?
In conclusion, I absolutely recommend Muppets from Space as a fun, safe family movie.
In other news, Apple released macOS 26.2 RC, and I think I'm finally going to upgrade once that's out. We'll see.