Eat your heart out, Miss Piggy! The real star of Muppets from Space is Gonzo the Great. This wacky sci-fi spoof follows that daredevil Muppet on a search for his extraterrestrial roots. Do Gonzo’s long-lost relatives really come from another planet? Is he living proof that “we are not alone in the universe,” as he announces on Miss Piggy’s UFO Mania talk show? (Piggy has chosen television journalism as a career because of its great perks, “adventure, excitement, and new outfits.”) Will Gonzo leave on the mother ship when it arrives or stay here on earth with friends he loves? Answers to these provocative questions are revealed in this sixth Muppet movie adventure.

What started Gonzo on his quest? According to Kermit the Frog, the strange hooked-nosed Muppet has wondered for years what he actually is. “He’s sort of a ‘whatever,’ a little like a turkey, a little like a chicken. We’re not quite sure. Now we’re going to find out and I think it will make him very happy,” the concerned amphibian explains. But it’s not all fun and games for Gonzo, especially when a paranoid government agent (Jeffrey Tambor) imprisons him in a secret compound.

Although Gonzo is the leading man in this comic space odyssey, all the Muppets join in to help. In addition to Miss Piggy and Kermit, there’s Animal, Fozzie Bear, Rizzo the Rat, Bunsen Honeydew, Beaker, etc. Making their debuts in the film are some intriguing new Muppets, including Pepe the Prawn and Bobo the Bear. And a number of distinguished live actors (besides Tambor) mix it up with the Muppets. Ray Liotta, Andie MacDowell, Rob Schneider, David Arquette, Josh Charles, Kathy Griffin, and F. Murray Abraham blend in convincingly.

Because Muppets seem so much like real people, I was happy to see them playing themselves in Muppets from Space. They live in a boarding house where Kermit holds everything together, as usual. While their whimsical abode is something to behold, it can’t match Gonzo’s unique spaceship for visual surprises. Critics should not give too much away about a movie, but viewers need to be prepared for this amazing intergalactic-vaudeville-touring-show transport.

Another warning goes out to anyone expecting the usual four or five big musical production numbers. No Muppet movie would be complete without music, so there’s plenty of it here --- from The Commodores, Earth, Wind and Fire, Billy Preston, the O’Jays, and the Isley Brothers. But there’s only one big production number, a rousing rendition of “Celebration.”

Muppets from Space may not be the best Muppet movie ever (that honor goes to their first film), but it is a welcome contrast to the many "R" rated movies now playing in the nation's multiplexes.

(Released by Columbia Pictures/Jim Henson Pictures and rated “G” as suitable for general audiences.)