Next Muppet Movie

[Mistersuperstar]

A Muppet Mockumentary?

Sounds good to me!

 

[Mistersuperstar]

Picture the scene. It's set in the 70's. The Muppet Show is at the height of it's sucess. A film crew want to do a documentary about the Muppets as they try to make it to the big screen. We have the gang talking about the upcoming movie and the crew follow the Muppets over the years as they go from strength to strength, doing new movies and TV appearances. We see clips from the original movies, newly recorded "outtakes" from the movies and backstage banter on the set and interviews with the Muppet cast.

I always felt that some of the best stuff from The Muppet Show was the backstage scenes. The bits where we see the characters REALLY interacting with each other. On stage, Kermit was always too professional to show his true feelings towards another character but backstage he could tell Piggy she was fired or tell Fozzie his jokes weren't funny.

This "mockumentary" could really put the Muppets back to how they were in the 70's and it wouldn't cost as much as a new movie would to make.

 

[Teheheman]

Actually, an Office parody would be kinda cool. You just gotta make sure that you don't over-do the whole thing. Do it a little bit, I mean, it'll be cool for like the end or something where it's a "Where are they now" sorta thing, where Fozzie is trying out for Steve Carrell's character on the Office, and Piggy's recovering from bypass surgery and has become a vegan and all that fun, Hollywood stuff. Kermit has become the CEO of a multi-national corporation, but gets jailed for some corporate mis-doings that weren't his fault. Raulf has become a section pianist for the musical Cats, Gonzo is now married with 4 eggs about to hatch any minute(god knows what those offspring are gonna look like), Beaker has speech thearpy and Bunsen has lazik eye surgery to show that he, indeed, has eyeballs. Statler and Waldorf finally died and was buried. Fozzie was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct when he was found urinating on their grave. We all saw the Electric Mayhem on Robot Chicken, so we know what happened there, I think that's about everybody.

Daniel

 

[Drtooth]

There's a difference: The cameos in TMM were timeless stars, folks who will never be forgotten and they didn't do the whole Hulk Hogan rant which really times the MFS movie. Now, there were other cameos in that film that did work: The Men in Black, Ray Liotta...my problem falls on the Hogan rant with the cameos in MFS.

Heh! Didn't you once complain about Kojack in TMM?

Actually, I kinda liked Hulk Hogan being in MFS. It was kinda funny, and this dude's been around since the 80's. Hulk even has his own Geroge Forman Knockoff grill infomercial. Of all the countless infomercials they play on TV, that's the only one that doesn't get shown much.

I think the cameos in the last few films, VMX and Oz especially, were VERY dated. I don't know if NBC orchistrated Scrubs and other NBC celebrity appearances or if it was someone on Henson's side that wanted to use it to coax NBC to help them. I do admit, Jeff Tambor and Quentin Tarrentino were about the ONLY interresting things to happen in Oz. But Kelly Ozborn? I mean, if you're gonna make a dated refference, at least make sure its the same date.

I will admit, a lot of things in Earlier Muppet films were both timeless and dated. While I do agree the TMM ones were timeless, they were largely celebs that were popular in the 70's. Then, look at MTM, and we have a bunch of people popular in the3 80's, not to mention how early 80's everything looked. The only ones I'd call totally timeless would be the 2 book films, since those were period peices. I mean, the datedness got worse, but you could argue a lot of it was like that before.

What I want to see is a Muppet film that's a sketch film (similar to Monty Python's Meaning of Life). I came up with the perfect idea. The Muppets are trying to make films, but they just go around pitching ideas, and each idea would be a short 5-10 minute film. They'd go up to a movie exec and pitch these ideas, like Daffy Duck did in the Scarlet Pumpernickle (Unless I am thinking of another one. Please correct me if I'm wrong). Piggy would do some cheesey romantic comedy send up, Fozzie would do some oddball comedy thing.... maybe they could intergrate the Muppet Babies in somehow, in theatrical animated form... and of course, make fun of them doing book films, by picking the oddest book they can think of and reinacting it goofily with a random celebrity.

 

[unclematt]

I think anytime you put a cameo by a celebrity in a movie it dates that movie. I would also say that there were some cameos in TMM that just didnt work but the good overshines little things like that.

 

[Mistersuperstar]

Paul Williams was good, Richard Pryor was a great cameo and Mel Brooks was as good as ever. I don't remember a single cameo that was particularly bad.

 

[Marky]

I think anytime you put a cameo by a celebrity in a movie it dates that movie. I would also say that there were some cameos in TMM that just didnt work but the good overshines little things like that.

I agree with your first sentance, and the late seventies were a golden age in Hollywood. While the baby boomers had their cultural heydey in the 60's, we Gen Xers had it only a decade later, at a much younger age. When Pop culture was at its prime (the 70's, we GenXers, too young to know black & white tv, soaked it all up in Juicy Atari Pop Rock Elmoless Goodess), the Muppet Movie highlighted a who's who of cameos. Celebrities today are far more disposable and unimportant as they were back then. This goes for movies and music (although tv is entering a new golden age with the CSIs and the Serialzed Drama).

We had the best movies, Star Wars, Superman, Rocky, Jaws!
We had the best family tv, Muppets, Sesame, network specials when families still chose to watch something together as an event.

Hence, my strong disagreement with your second sentance - what cameo in The Muppet Movie could you have possibly object too???

Then again, if you weren't there at the time, and judging by your post, you likely weren't, I can't expect you to possibly understand.

 

[Drtooth]

We had the best movies, Star Wars, Superman, Rocky, Jaws!
We had the best family tv, Muppets, Sesame, network specials when families still chose to watch something together as an event.

But your cartoons sucked. I mean, they were all Scooby doo or Archies knockoffs. Fat Albert ruled, though.

I agree that celebs are more disposable today. I mean, TMM did have a few dated people in it, but it also had Charlie McCarthy and Bob Hope in it. And they're REALLY dated by that aspect. But the latest ones had very dated cameos. Hulk Hogan was probably the most timeless MFS had (he got his start in the 80's). Rob Schnider should be hung (or is it hanged) for making such horrible movies. And all I can say about F. Murray Abraham? F...MURRAY...ABRAHAM!!!! (Simpsons refference). But that's still peanuts to Kelly Ripa and Kelly Ozborne.

 

[unclematt]

I dont object to any but there are some that I feel took away from the movie and the other cameos. I guess the two that bothered me the most were Carol Kane and Paul Williams. Neither of which I would describe as timeless. I understand that Paul Williams was a great friend of the Muppets I just think that by adding him to the cameos you take away from the Bob Hopes, Milton Berles and Edgar Bergmans.

Marky, I am not trying to cause a rif here I love TMM and I am just stating how I feel about the two minor cameos. It is still a true classic and in my opion one of the best movies ever made.

 

[Mistersuperstar]

Unless you use people who will never age and always be at the same height of popularity, a movie will automatically date over a number of years. It can't be helped.