D23 Expo: Muppet news and happenings

I'm not getting in to this right now... but I'm just going to say this: Do you not understand that they can't just do a new movie and expect it to be popular? They HAVE to do TV appearances, specials, YouTube videos (which are the best thing to happen in a LONG, LONG time, and you're obviously extremely closed minded). These things take time, and you're just running out of patience at the wrong time. That's a shame.

I think you're being a little negative but I understand it. We've been burned in the past.

The Halloween special was pulled this year in favor of a 2010 release so that it wouldn't suffer the same -rushed- fate as Letters to Santa. I think we can count on this special...next year. And the YouTube stuff isn't a waste of time. It's promising and reminds me of the Sam & Friends bits. It gets the Muppets back into shape for the bigger stuff. Muppets in training!

The new Muppet film also seems promising. I believe this one. It was announced at the opening of Disney's conference. That shows the amount of confidence they have.

The rest of the stuff is just stuff. It's good to have. I think we have plenty to be happy about.

The Fraggle and Dark Crystal projects...well, that's Henson Co's doing. I've heard that things are fairly disorganized over there and they have a skeleton crew. People think of Henson as a powerhouse when actually it’s still more like a start-up company with some successes and an established name. It’s hard, but we need to cut them some slack. So many bigger companies are going under. They’re just trying to survive and fund new ventures. Takes patience.

I definitely agree. Plus, for such a small team, they have a good number of successes right now, the biggest one probably being Sid the Science Kid. It wasn't until my 10 year old sister (clearly not the target audience for the show) told me that EVERYONE watches the show that I realized how well it was doing. Plus, the Henson Alternative really seems to be Brian's baby and I'm sure he's focuses on that. I have faith that Henson won't forget about the Fraggle movie or Power of the Dark Crystal, but they're not at the position where they can snap their fingers and make whatever movie they want.

I for one, really have my hopes up. It sounds good to me!

me too

I agree with frogboy. I think the YouTube videos are some of the purest Muppet stuff we've seen in a long time. Not only like Sam & Friends bits, but like the stuff they used to do on the Ed Sullivan Show and other variety shows in their days.

And I don't care what anybody else says, I liked Letters to Santa. It wasn't the best thing they've ever done, obviously, but I liked it a lot.

Agreed on both fronts! People just need to get off of their high horses and realize quality Muppet entertainment when they see it!

im with both of you, i really enjoyed letters to santa

Me and my family LOVED Letters To Santa! And I can't wait to pick up the DVD!

i wish they found people who could perform frank's characters voices better, it might annoy me watching it, but that was really funny

Found a new video entitled: "the Pepe Initiative"

Negative? that's what I like to call fair weather fandom... and I've seen so much of it here, it makes me physically ill. WAAA WAAAA WAAA! We're never going to have another movie EXACTLY EXACTLY like The Muppet Movie ever... got some news for you... Jim's been gone for 20 years now. Get over it. Saying we should kill all the new products and projects because they don't quite measure up is effectively spitting on his legacy. Sure... we've been through crap before. Guess what? It happens with EVERY entertainment franchise. Heck, the Looney Tunes have had it a million times worse. Loonatics? Baby Looney Tunes? Gender Confused Tweety? The only post Jim Muppet project I think was a total waste was Oz, and that was because it was a miserable idea to begin with.

Even if he was still around, Hollywood would keep giving him the brush off... NBC pretty much treated the Jim Henson Hour like it was on another network. Even Muppets Tonight got a better chance. We have a very cruddy media landscape out there... reality shows, knock offs of knock offs... There's like... what, like 3 good shows on? I couldn't see a new Muppet show lasting a week before they dump all the episodes on Summer replacement marathons so they can make room for "Who wants to thrwo a rock at Fat people?" or "Who wants to marry an ex-convict on a fake Japanese Gameshow?" It's horrible out there. And what do they do? Create a Muppet website devoted to videos that are the best things I've seen come out of the franchise in years.

This whining and moaning and groaning is NOTHING but counter productive. All it's gonna do is tell Disney that we're never going to be happy with anything, they'll shove the Muppets in the Disney Vault and keep trotting out some identical looking starlet to lip sync to horrendous music written by 50 year old out of touch white guys that use the word "Bling" every other sentence. I'm sorry, but this is no time to have yet another whine fest. Unless you want another 5+ year blackout like what happened after no one liked Oz.

amen brother

Hey guys, I think this is gonna be on the cd that they announced at D23. My friend who is in the recording studio right now just told me that the band "Anarbor" is recording a cover of "You Can't Take No For An Answer". I'm trying to find out if this is for the upcoming "Muppets Revisited" album. I'll let you know.

LOVE The Pepe Initiative--SO funny! Pepe is awesome.

Glad to hear that we may have more info on another track, RokSTAR girl! Thanks for keeping us updated!

Good for you, DrTooth

Sure there are some things the Muppets have done in the Disney era that hasn't pleased everyone, or that hasn't been up to the standard that we like to see. But people should take a moment and remember the horror of the EMTV years. Did anything happen at that time? Anything at all? The Muppets going to German television was like them going to their graves. The Muppets at Disney are definitely alive, if not always perfect.

Tough Pigs has found the third missing Muppet parody poster!

BEAK-E!

TESTIFY!
Seriously. It's DISNEY. They do their thing and they do it bloody well - Disney could sell snow to eskimos. Muppet fans are lucky that Disney are giving them this much attention in terms of new material. They could be content to just shove some Kermit tees into Disney Stores and leave it at that.
But no, we're getting Tonner Dolls and DVDs and new holiday specials and a movie and sketch videos and Whatnots and a slew of other stuff for all ages.

The Classic Muppets are not coming back. Some of us working on new content are doing our best to HONOUR that period and respect Jim's legacy. But ours is not the world of retail strategies and franchise synergies and all that Marketing crap. Disney own SO MUCH STUFF and they are choosing to devote a LOT to making new Muppet content and working to endear them to a whole new generation.

Amy i gotta say you are an amazing artist and im pretty sure ive faved a few of your things on deviant art

hey drtooth,

true to all you said, Oz was the worst, and yes, things are never gonna be like the original, but people will still complain about it. i know, i complain about the new muppeter's voices all the time, it's not there fault, but people seem to love complaining and being negative, it's probably in humanities nature, i don't know.

i find, Oz was like the wake up call for them, since the movies seems to be going uphill from what i've seen, it will never be the same as it was with jim and the original muppet cast, but one day, it might be really REALLY close, and people will stop griping, who know?