FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW

Review of Muppets from Space (Jamshied Sharifi)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... only if you clearly recognize that you're interested in this music for the humor of its parodies rather than any consistent listening enjoyment.

Avoid it... if you'd rather not hear obvious pieces from a dozen other film scores assembled into a haphazard collection of orchestral might and Lalo Schifrin-style funk from decades past.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Muppets From Space: (Jamshied Sharifi/Rupert Gregson-Williams) The film franchise based on Jim Henson's Muppets phenomenon had lost much of its magic by the 1990's. Whatever affable characteristics prevailed in Muppet Treasure Island had largely been lost five years later when Muppets From Space steered towards secondary characters, some of which invented for the occasion. The film's story is a parody of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Men in Black, revealing that the funny, blue Gonzo is actually an alien who crashed at Roswell and who is expecting his race to come and collect him (which, of course, comes in conflict with the human characters). It has been largely agreed that the humans are the weakness of Muppets From Space, along with the reduced roles for old favorites Kermit and Miss Piggy. Musically, the franchise had benefited from a spirited score by Hans Zimmer for Muppet Treasure Island, and it is no surprise that a pair of Zimmer-connected composers, Jamshied Sharifi and Rupert Gregson-Williams, took the next assignment. The roles of the two men were vastly different; Sharifi was responsible for following the distinctive collection of temp track pieces used for the film and recording suitable parodies of them, while Gregson-Williams was tasked with writing the more straight forward and darker music for the story's villain. The resulting score is intriguing from the standpoint of a veteran film music collector who can identify all the temp track inspiration, but as a standalone listening experience, Muppets From Space is about as disjointed as it gets. That's because the film balances the frivolous nature of its pop-related soundtrack, scored by Sharifi with 1960's and 1970's funk and jazz, with the more dramatic alien material that demands an orchestral and choral approach. Considering the subject matter, Sharifi and Gregson-Williams succeed in providing the necessary parody music for the occasion, but does anybody seriously want to sit around and listen to it? For its shameless attitude in the orchestral half, there's 15 minutes of head-wagging fun to be had, but whether or not that's worth the cost of the album is a whole other matter.

The half of the soundtrack that deals with the funk, jazz, and blues is in tune with David Newman's Bowfinger from roughly the same time, but the connections to Lalo Schifrin are more blatant. In its short bursts over the course of ten or so brief cues centered in the middle of the score, these passages are too obnoxious to set a consistent mood. If you're not a fan of the Hammond organ, then start running. The first four and final five cues, however, are the exclusive domain of the orchestral material. Two themes tie the score together; first comes a longing lullaby for Gonzo himself, introduced in "Gonzo's Lament" and closing with a tearjerker of a choral statement in "Gonzo's Goodbye." Gregson-Williams' theme for Singer, the villain, is heard in three cues on album, and makes use of the sinister, low ranges of brass and strings. Both of these themes, along with the auxiliary symphonic material, run through a series of parodies that will amuse score collectors. The "Main Title" cue opens with a tribute to Bernard Herrmann, including an initial theremine effect and a quote from the opening of, strangely, Vertigo. At the 0:45 mark in that same cue, Sharifi pulls a choral subtheme directly from Basil Poledouris' The Hunt for Red October. In "The Ark," he moves into the domain of David Arnold's flourishing melodramatic action sound of the era. The Gonzo theme first heard in "Gonzo's Lament" is a page out of James Horner's children's scores of the 1990's, and by "Gonzo's Goodbye," it's clear that Casper was the inspiration. The theme for Singer moves with the same stout posture and menacing tones as Zimmer's theme for the Russians in The Peacemaker. Jumping to "The Ships Arrive," Sharifi uses two quotes from Alan Silvestri's The Abyss to flank a portion of the opening march for Danny Elfman's Mars Attacks!. The victorious "Moment of Glory" takes the Gonzo theme and gives it brass treatment typical to David Newman's Hoffa (or the closing of Bowfinger). The concluding "Boldly Gone" is saturated with Jerry Goldsmith's Star Trek: First Contact material. Overall, you can't fault these parodies, but while they're fun to identify, the mass of silly funk and jazz in the middle of the album makes it a mixed bag.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 37:33

• 1. Main Title/The Ark (2:40) • 2. Gonzo's Lament (1:00) • 3. Singer's Theme (2:02) • 4. Through the Stars (0:44) • 5. Fanatics for Aliens (0:53) • 6. Gonzo on TV (1:20) • 7. Muppet Labs (1:51) • 8. Piggy and the MIBs (2:27) • 9. Singer Turns the Screws (2:13) • 10. Rats in Prison (1:43)

• 11. Rentro (1:58) • 12. Muppet Infiltration (1:42) • 13. Porcine Wiles (1:07) • 14. Rescuing Gonzo (3:03) • 15. To the Beach (2:06) • 16. The Ships Arrive (3:33) • 17. Moment of Glory (0:32) • 18. The Really Big Gun (1:58) • 19. Gonzo's Goodbye (3:06) • 20. Boldly Gone (0:55)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes no extra information about the score or film.

Copyright © 1999-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Muppets from Space are Copyright © 1999, Varèse Sarabande and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 8/31/99 and last updated 5/18/08.