The Muppets Present… Great Moments in American History'

[unkadug]

And Stitch's Great Escape will be replaced by ALF - Escape to Melmac. Because, hey, ALF was a popular TV puppet once too.

It would certainly be a better attraction than what is there now.... and much more entertaining.

 

[Magenta Panther]

And your vision of a dignified and classy theme park isn't at all at odds with the giant fiberglass castle looming over it all . but then the castle is fine because Walt invented Cinderella .

What's not classy about the Castle? Because it's made of fiberglass? So are Corvettes!

 

[Phil12]

The only way the Muppets will once again succeed is when Disney takes creative control away from the Henson children. I think Disney is watching these repeated Muppet failures and planning on using them as ammunition get rid of the staff at The Jim Henson Company and bring the Muppets under direct creative control of TWDC.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

The only way the Muppets will once again succeed is when Disney takes creative control away from the Henson children. I think Disney is watching these repeated Muppet failures and planning on using them as ammunition get rid of the staff at The Jim Henson Company and bring the Muppets under direct creative control of TWDC.

I don't understand how Jim Hensons children could have creative control as Disney owns the company outright (at least I thought).

 

[Phil12]

I don't understand how Jim Hensons children could have creative control as Disney owns the company outright (at least I thought).

You've still got the old second hands performing the characters (such as Steve Whitmire and Eric Jacobson). They need to break from the old group and start fresh with new talent.

 

[FoozieBear]

I don't understand how Jim Hensons children could have creative control as Disney owns the company outright (at least I thought).

You are correct. and @Phil12, I think your info is very off. The Muppets were sold to the Walt Disney Company in it's entirety in 2004, fufilling a decade old's wish that began with Jim Henson himself. Henson always felt that The Muppets would work best within Disney, and when the franchise was in total shambles in that 1998-2004 era, Henson decided it was finally time, and it was time to keep the Muppet spirit alive within the company.

Henson has not had creative consent since 2004, and in many ways that is for the better. Yes, the ABC TV show did not work out, and the first few years of the purchase were bumpy, but Disney has thus far had a much more successful route with the characters than the Henson Company was in the post-Jim era.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

You are correct. and @Phil12, I think your info is very off. The Muppets were sold to the Walt Disney Company in it's entirety in 2004, fufilling a decade old's wish that began with Jim Henson himself. Henson always felt that The Muppets would work best within Disney, and when the franchise was in total shambles in that 1998-2004 era, Henson decided it was finally time, and it was time to keep the Muppet spirit alive within the company.

Henson has not had creative consent since 2004, and in many ways that is for the better. Yes, the ABC TV show did not work out, and the first few years of the purchase were bumpy, but Disney has thus far had a much more successful route with the characters than the Henson Company was in the post-Jim era.

Thank you for clarifying that, I assumed it was a Lucas Film type situation, where Disney owns the company outright and its original owners lost creative control. It didn't make any sense for the Hensons to still have creative control.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Sorry I thought you where were referring to me It is crazy that the old Screamscape did have the correct info. Have a magical day my man

No worries.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

Sorry, but your intolerance of diverse opinions isn't going to make me refrain from expressing my opinions in any thread I choose. But hey, I do understand if you're deriving some comfort from this little puppet show in the MK. It must ease the terrible anguish you no doubt experienced after the second puppet movie flopped and the puppet TV show bombed. Have a wonderful day!

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

You are correct. and @Phil12,
Henson has not had creative consent since 2004, and in many ways that is for the better. Yes, the ABC TV show did not work out, and the first few years of the purchase were bumpy, but Disney has thus far had a much more successful route with the characters than the Henson Company was in the post-Jim era.

Um....While I liked the show.....I was not pleased with this....

 

[Princess Leia]

Um....While I liked the show.....I was not pleased with this....

I completely forgot about that.
For a good reason.
I am really, really glad Gaga's Artpop stage is over.

 

[Phil12]

You are correct. and @Phil12, I think your info is very off. The Muppets were sold to the Walt Disney Company in it's entirety in 2004, fufilling a decade old's wish that began with Jim Henson himself. Henson always felt that The Muppets would work best within Disney, and when the franchise was in total shambles in that 1998-2004 era, Henson decided it was finally time, and it was time to keep the Muppet spirit alive within the company.

Henson has not had creative consent since 2004, and in many ways that is for the better. Yes, the ABC TV show did not work out, and the first few years of the purchase were bumpy, but Disney has thus far had a much more successful route with the characters than the Henson Company was in the post-Jim era.

Nothing has changed. Steve Whitmire still doesn't sound like or move like Kermit and the same is true for the other Muppets. Disney needs to hold auditions and find new talent that can properly interpret Kermit and the others and/or move into new territory. Unfortunately the puppeteers from the old company were allowed to destroy Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie and some of the others.

 

[Phil12]

Thank you for clarifying that, I assumed it was a Lucas Film type situation, where Disney owns the company outright and its original owners lost creative control. It didn't make any sense for the Hensons to still have creative control.

The same creatives are at work. Disney needs to hold new auditions.

 

[Phil12]

You need to learn how to spell Fozzie's name "FoozieBear".

 

[FoozieBear]

Nothing has changed. Steve Whitmire still doesn't sound like or move like Kermit and the same is true for the other Muppets. Disney needs to hold auditions and find new talent that can properly interpret Kermit and the others and/or move into new territory. Unfortunately the puppeteers from the old company were allowed to destroy Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie and some of the others.

It isn't about "sounding" like Kermit, and as a side note, I think Steve Whitmire does a wonderful job. But the performance is only 10% voice and 90% character. Could Disney find someone who sounds a little closer to the Jim Henson Kermit? Probably, but it would be missing so much about the importance of the character. Steve Whitmire understands Kermit. He does a flawless job at performing Kermit's characteristics and his importance. Steve trained right under Jim Henson, and heck, they even share the same birthday. It's not about "imitating" Kermit's voice, it's about getting into Jim Henson's head and translating that into the frog. Many people say Jim was very much like Kermit, so how could you understand Kermit without understanding Jim? Besides, Steve understands the importance of the integrity of the character. You could hold auditions tomorrow for Kermit the Frog and you'd probably find a good Kermit impression, but the character of "Kermit" would be gone, and it would just be a soulless performance. Steve understands this, and this is what makes him such a brilliant performer.

 

[FoozieBear]

You need to learn how to spell Fozzie's name "FoozieBear".

Rest assured, I am well aware of how to spell Fozzie Bear's name. The name is due to the fact that FozzieBear was taken, so I instead chose the name of Foozie Bear, which at the time I chose the name, was a reference to The Moopets' band member, Foozie Bear, who is Fozzie's evil doppledanger/rip-off hired by The Moopets after Tex Richman buys The Muppet name and strikes a deal with the band in an attempt to replace them with the cheesy Moopet act. It was an obscure reference and a great gag.

Had I put more thought into it many years ago, I probably would have come up with something better, but don't even think I don't know how to spell the name of one of my favorite Muppets.

 

[FigmentJedi]

You are correct. and @Phil12, I think your info is very off. The Muppets were sold to the Walt Disney Company in it's entirety in 2004, fufilling a decade old's wish that began with Jim Henson himself. Henson always felt that The Muppets would work best within Disney, and when the franchise was in total shambles in that 1998-2004 era, Henson decided it was finally time, and it was time to keep the Muppet spirit alive within the company.

The franchise was in shambles because the Germans that bought out and owned the Jim Henson Company during that period had no idea what the hell to do with those characters.
When the Henson family were able to take the company back, they sold the Muppets (and Bear in the Big Blue House) because Disney had the resources to treat those characters right and fulfill Jim's wishes and had CTW get full custody of Sesame Street which Jim also desired, but they kept everything else because they wanted the creative freedom to pursue more mature projects that people like Eisner would never approve, but that experimentation hasn't beared as much fruit because you know, surviving on licensing out Fraggles and Creature Shop movies or creating digital puppetry stuff for PBS isn't really all that good for the financial side of things. It'd be like if George Lucas only sold Star Wars and Indy to Disney and tried to keep the company afloat on Willow spinoffs.

The Jim Henson Company was very much dependent on the Muppets and the Muppets actually had a coherent sense of direction under the post-Jim company even if results were hit and miss. You had a lot of active production work going on in film and TV and healthy distribution of the back catalog of Muppet material back in the 90s. When Eisner bought the Muppets, we had a misguided TV adaptation of the Wizard of Oz, a stillborn Kermit the Frog anniversary celebration promotion and a Muppet Show DVD release they stopped midway through with quite a few cuts in the first season. It really wasn't until the Segel Muppet film that they started developing a sense of drive for the franchise, but with both of the recent movies being "The Muppet Show The Movie", they didn't really try tapping into the ambition behind the pre-buyout movies.

Really, if Bob wants to make one more purchase before he goes, finish the job, get the rest of Henson and perhaps the Muppets could have a sense of direction and we can actually get all those movies the Jim Henson Company keeps talking about but having to shelf. And maybe bring back Farscape.

 

[Turtle]

Pixar has Lasseter. Marvel has Kevin Feige. Lucasfilm has Kathy Kennedy.

I think an issue with the Muppets today is that their is no clear vision at the helm, especially now that Jim is gone. The 2011 Muppets film and the new show are great, meanwhile the new show and the 2014 movie are hit-or-miss.

 

[FoozieBear]

Pixar has Lasseter. Marvel has Kevin Feige. Lucasfilm has Kathy Kennedy.

I think an issue with the Muppets today is that their is no clear vision at the helm, especially now that Jim is gone. The 2011 Muppets film and the new show are great, meanwhile the new show and the 2014 movie are hit-or-miss.

I see what you mean and that's a good point. They need to figure out a team of people who are going to oversee all productions. Right now it basically keeps falling into the hands of different people, which is why each production has been very different lately (like the 2015 TV show was so completely different than the 2011 and 2014 movies were).

 

[Phil12]

It isn't about "sounding" like Kermit, and as a side note, I think Steve Whitmire does a wonderful job. But the performance is only 10% voice and 90% character. Could Disney find someone who sounds a little closer to the Jim Henson Kermit? Probably, but it would be missing so much about the importance of the character. Steve Whitmire understands Kermit. He does a flawless job at performing Kermit's characteristics and his importance. Steve trained right under Jim Henson, and heck, they even share the same birthday. It's not about "imitating" Kermit's voice, it's about getting into Jim Henson's head and translating that into the frog. Many people say Jim was very much like Kermit, so how could you understand Kermit without understanding Jim? Besides, Steve understands the importance of the integrity of the character. You could hold auditions tomorrow for Kermit the Frog and you'd probably find a good Kermit impression, but the character of "Kermit" would be gone, and it would just be a soulless performance. Steve understands this, and this is what makes him such a brilliant performer.

The problem is that Steve Whitmire is doing a lousy imitation of Jim Henson doing Kermit. And it isn't about getting into Jim Henson's head, it's about getting into Kermit's head. Steve Whitmire has failed to capture and interpret Kermit. And the proof is that Kermit's popularity has dropped like a stone.

And it all goes back to what I said before, the current Muppet team are left overs from when the Henson children called the shots. They made bad decisions then and Disney has gone along with those decisions.

But I think it's obvious that Kermit is completely without his soul now. New talent is needed. Time will fix the problem.