Kermit and Disney?

[mitchk]

I was at the Hallmark store yesterday, and I was looking at the Christmas ornaments. I came across several Mickeys, Lady and the tramp...ect. Anyway, I saw a Kermit the frog ornament, it was Kermit wearing a scarf, sitting with his legs crossed reading a book. I looked on the back of the box, and to my surprise there was nothing about Disney on the box. It said it was distributed through Jim Henson enterprises. I thought maybe it was old, but the box was dated 2005. I thought Disney owned all the rights to the Muppets.:veryconfu

 

[Connor002]

I don't know much about the contract and the stipulations involved with the purchase of the mupets, but it could be that Disney is using the Jim Henson Enterprises name to distribute the products, but I'm sure there are other reasons.

 

[disneylands]

maybe it was an older item that they had in stock. Next time look at the copyright date!

 

[kiawahman]

there are a lot of things disney owns that they do not label as "disney"

 

[ThreeCircles]

The Muppets are folded into TWDC within the Muppets Holding Company. The Muppets Holding Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company. (Similar to other branches of the company like Miramax, Touchstone, ABC, etc.)

As others have mentioned, even though Disney owns many different brands, they don't always copyright them to the parent company but rather the branch from which they are produced.

I would guess that the Muppets will eventually be stamped as a Disney copyright and that perhaps the product you picked up was produced and stamped some time ago.

 

[mitchk]

It was made in 2005! I said that in my first post. If anyone happens to stop in a Hallmark store, look at the Christmas ornaments. Kermit will most likely be there, it's brand new for 2005. It's Kermit in the sitting position, reading a Christmas Carol (or something like that). It's pretty easy to spot. It's the only frog Christmas ornament I have ever seen.

 

[shoppingnut]

It was made in 2005! I said that in my first post. If anyone happens to stop in a Hallmark store, look at the Christmas ornaments. Kermit will most likely be there, it's brand new for 2005. It's Kermit in the sitting position, reading a Christmas Carol (or something like that). It's pretty easy to spot. It's the only frog Christmas ornament I have ever seen.

It wasn't made "in" 2005, but made "for" 2005. Hallmark previews ornaments in July each year, so figure that the designing and prototype stage for 2005 was probably at least 3 years ago, production was most likely started early in 2004. You need to have lots of lead time in case you encounter problems with production or shipping. These ornaments aren't produced in the current year they are sold, that would be impossible since everything is produced off-shore.

 

[CSOM]

There are a lot of things that corporations own that are not labelled by the parent company.

It is still ABC, not the Disney Broadcasting Corporation.

It is still Miramax, not Walt Disney's Miramax Production Company.

Likewise, in other industries, when Pepsi owned Pizza Hut, they kept the PH brand. Shell Oil owns Pennzoil, but the Pennzoil brand remains. If you look at the bottle, it doesn't say Shell anywhere on there. There are countless other versions of this. It's all brand management. TWDC owns the Muppet "brand" and is keeping the brand alive as it's own entity.

 

[FrumiousBoojum]

There are a lot of things that corporations own that are not labelled by the parent company.

It is still ABC, not the Disney Broadcasting Corporation.

It is still Miramax, not Walt Disney's Miramax Production Company.

Likewise, in other industries, when Pepsi owned Pizza Hut, they kept the PH brand. Shell Oil owns Pennzoil, but the Pennzoil brand remains. If you look at the bottle, it doesn't say Shell anywhere on there. There are countless other versions of this. It's all brand management. TWDC owns the Muppet "brand" and is keeping the brand alive as it's own entity.

This isn't the case for this... All new Muppet items *should* be labeled ©Disney/Muppet Holdings, LLC. or only ©Muppet Holdings, LLC, not Jim Henson Enterprises. Disney did not buy Jim Henson Enterprises, therefore they have no legal right to label anything as such.

The problem is probably more like what shoppingnut has said.... we will probably be seeing a few more Muppet items labled Jim Henson Enterprises for a while still. Only things that were completely produced under Muppet Holdings, LLC or had time to change labeling without adding too much cost will be labeled as such.