Like Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan this drab, often grating puppet show is another fantasy film version of the Waste Land myth; From Ritual to Romance, that classic of crackpot lit crit, seems to have been the most read book in Hollywood at the time. Jim Henson and Frank Oz, the masterminds of the Muppets, designed and directed this 1983 film, in which no human actors appear (except as crude long-shot doubles for the animated figures); it’s a cute gimmick, but the puppets are so stiff and inexpressive that the film drops dead. The soundtrack is full of shrieking voices and unpleasant noises; apparently Oz and Henson hope to make up in aural stimulation what the film lacks in physical movement. It’s like being locked in a roomful of blaring transistor radios—a lot of sound and no evidence of life.