Rating: 13/20 (Abbey: 10/20; Buster: no rating)
Plot: Gonzo is convinced that aliens are communicating to him via his alphabets cereal and ends up being Gonzo-napped by Jeffrey Tambor and a bear wearing a suit. Some of the other Muppets have to save him.
I like Gonzo, but I don't know if I would have asked for an entire movie to revolve around him. I'm just not sure Gonzo should be in the foreground as much as he is here. The Muppets work best when they're all together, I think. And when they're singing about rainbows. The most magical part of this movie is an opening montage where they're all getting up in the morning and getting ready for breakfast. The entire cast is up to something, and the attention to detail with the design of their house is a lot of fun. Once the plot gets going, most of the usual suspects aren't around (thankfully, if we're talking about Scooter but unfortunate if you're a fan of the Electric Mayhem) all that much. It makes the whole thing feel more like Follow That Bird than a Muppets movie. You get a lot more Rizzo the Rat and Pepe the Prawn though. And there's a ton of Clifford for reasons I don't totally understand. Beaker and Doc Bunsen are around a bit, but the majority of the action involves Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, and Animal. There's still some off-the-wall humor, but this feels more like somebody's attempt to reach a new generation of fans rather than make fans of the original series or movies happy. In fact, it was hard for me to even care all that much for the duration. As with all Muppet movies, there are more than a few celebrity cameos, but when they're Rob Schneider, Kathy Griffin, David Arquette, and Andie MacDowell, it's hard to get all that excited. The latter, I'll admit, was almost smokin', however, and there's an Andie MacDowell/Miss Piggy catfight if you're in to that sort of thing, you pervert. Lots of funk in the soundtrack helped this feel like the 70's, but a few 90's references are going to be missed by kids watching this today. I did enjoy the beginning sequence with a good-looking Noah's ark and F. Murray Abraham as Noah.
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