Is Gonzo Being phased out?

Drtooth

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Thanks for the comparison. As you can see, the eyes are much smaller, the lids are heavier, even the mouth shape is still and off. The nose is too perfect, and Muppet Babies proportioned... it's not that expressive, and it hurts the performance.
 

minor muppetz

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I was watching the movie recently and had noticed that, aside from deleted scenes, between the scene with Gonzo quitting his plumbing business and his blowing the trumpet in the opening he does seem to just be there alot (just like many lesser characters in the film). I don't recall him doing anything real interesting in the clean-up montage. It's a shame he didn't sing a line in the finale.
 

jvcarroll

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Thanks for the comparison. As you can see, the eyes are much smaller, the lids are heavier, even the mouth shape is still and off. The nose is too perfect, and Muppet Babies proportioned... it's not that expressive, and it hurts the performance.
Miss Piggy's construction was greatly improved while Gonzo's design declined. Dave Goelz is a brilliant performer and could get a great performance out of a sock puppet, but there's something particularly magic with the post 90's/pre TM Gonzo design. That puppet has so much more subtlety and range. It's the difference between a Baby Grand and a Casio. A talented person could get a stunning performance from either, but I'd prefer the finer instrument like the one who appears with his handler here...
 

Xerus

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I felt sad that Gonzo couldn't be part of the Rainbow Connection song with all those other Muppets, since he was still twirling that bowling ball. But at least Gonzo's bowling ball was what saved the day in the end.

In the Disney cruise show called Muppet's Ahoy. I heard that Brett O'Quinn performed Gonzo. Do you think Brett might take over as Gonzo someday?
 

Drtooth

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I felt sad that Gonzo couldn't be part of the Rainbow Connection song with all those other Muppets, since he was still twirling that bowling ball. But at least Gonzo's bowling ball was what saved the day in the end.
I'm very conflicted about that concept. On the one hand, it puts Gonzo in a position where he was barely there near the end of the movie, but on the other hand it gave us a big pay off for a gag that should have been a running gag if the film editors weren't so clumsy.

Still, to say he's being phased out after only one movie where he has a diminished presence isn't really the case. Most of the last Muppet projects focused more on Gonzo than on Kermit (MCC-MFS and then LTS) so I guess it was a way of averaging everything out.
 
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