Billy Bunny's Animal Songs - My Thoughts

minor muppetz

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Just a few days ago I found a used copy of Billy Bunny's Animal Songs and saw the whole thing for the very first time. I had seen copies at flea markets every once in awhile but hadn't picked 'em up, only to see them gone (or maybe a customer hid those copies until they could afford them later) by the next visits. There was one time recently when I saw a copy and decided to pick it up, but I was smart enough to take the video out of the box before purchasing, and saw that the wrong tape was in there. But I finally found and purchased a copy. Ironically, I bought it on the anniversary date of Richard Hunt's death, and this was his last production (that was released).

Anyway, I thought I'd post my thoughts and observations on it.
  • This was a little better than I'd expected. I'd put it on par with Emmet Otter and The Christmas Toy (I prefer Henson productions that have some direct connection to The Muppet Show or Sesame Street, besides the use of Kermit). I think I like It's Not Easy Being Green better, but think this one is better than the Muppet Treasure Island sing-along. I expect this one to be better than the sing-along videos I haven't seen (and those are the only ones I never find at flea markets, thrift shops, goodwill stores, or any such places), which I don't have high expectations for.
  • The termite is such a cool-looking puppet.
  • I'd seen clips of the porcipine in the promo for the video, and saw the character on the video cover... But it wasn't until I saw the video and heard her voice that I knew she was a girl. All this time I thought the porcipine was a boy.
  • Some of my favorite songs in this are "Hoppity Boppity", "I Have a Secret", and "Frog Talk" (which I'd seen in It's Not Easy Being Green).
  • There's a picture of Miss Piggy in Kermit's cabin, and it looks like she's dressed as Emily Cratchet in that photo.
  • This was shot in 1990 but wasn't released until 1993. Obviously, Kermit's scenes were shot later, and it looks to me like Steve Whitmire didn't perform any other characters in this. Which makes me wonder if that's the reason why they created a new bunny character as opposed to using Bean Bunny (or maybe they just wanted it to be mostly-original characters, like in Emmet Otter).
  • It seems like David Rudman was starting to become a major performer (vocal-wise) when this was made (I know, he previously had the main role of Boo Monster on Little Muppet Monsters back in 1985) . He seems to get quite a few characters here, while Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and Dave Goelz don't seem to get very many (aside from some of the frogs I didn't notice Goezl's voice in any characters).
  • I've already been aware of this (because the clip was in It's Not Easy Being Green), but is that worm on a tree in the Frog Talk song supposed to be Slimey?
  • A clip from this was posted on The Jim Henson Company's YouTube channel, so either Henson owns the rights to this (I would have expected Muppet Studios to, due to it being part of the Muppet Sing-Along series) or Henson uploaded something it doesn't own. The company has uploaded a number of things I'd expect to be owned by other companies (some of the early commercials, Jim Henson's induction into the television hall of fame, and the "Bumble Ardy" cartoon from Sesame Street), though those don't feature any major Muppet characters (Henson's YouTube channel has also uploaded a clip of Waldo from The Secrets of the Muppets, and I'd expect Disney to own that character, since around the same time they were able to release a Waldo figure in the vinylmation line). But I wonder, if Henson does own this and were to rerelease it, would Disney make them cut out Kermit, and if so would the editing seem odd? He's there more than he is in Emmet Otter or Christmas Toy, but not as much as Rowlf is in Dog City. I think the only editing that would be real awkward would be the beginning, but I think they can just add a voice-over narrarator. But hopefully Disney would let Henson use Kermit here if rereleased.
  • I find it interesting that the promo for the video does not show on-screen lyrics while the video does have on-screen lyrics.

All in all, not something I'd put in a list of the top 20 Muppet productions, but not the worst, either.
 

CaseytheMuppet

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I've never heard of this! I'll have to check it out!

EDIT: Just quickly did some research, looks cool! :smile:
 
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