Disney Channel Preps for Muppet "Mini Movies"

[beaker]

Yeah as far as Im concerned the Muppet brand, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, and anything non fantasy but still puppets Henson/Henson Alt does will always be "Jim Henson's Muppets" in my view and most people's views. The lawyers at Disney can never change this.

Why Viacom put Invader Zim on Nick instead of MTV is beyond me, but I saw no compromise with Zim...every episode seemed perfect and to this day in my view is the best looking American animation to date that no cable American toon has tried to replicate.

If you understand the references, South Park and Family Guy are about as extreme as it gets...(strangely enough Family guys gets a tv-14 rating, but at times goes beyond the taboo of South Park material) Its kind of mind numbing tho, I end up preferring the more subtle fun of say...Dilbert the animated series, The Tick animated series or King of the Hill.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah as far as Im concerned the Muppet brand, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, and anything non fantasy but still puppets Henson/Henson Alt does will always be "Jim Henson's Muppets" in my view and most people's views. The lawyers at Disney can never change this.

Agreed. The fact they can't even call them Jim Henson's Muppets, while holding the copyright is pretty disheartening. I still call all the characters that were created by Henson Muppets... and that Includes Dinosaurs.

Why Viacom put Invader Zim on Nick instead of MTV is beyond me, but I saw no compromise with Zim...every episode seemed perfect and to this day in my view is the best looking American animation to date that no cable American toon has tried to replicate.

Why they still can't put him on MTV is beyond me, since so many fans are calmmoring for it. But I swear, if they put that show on Nick today, it wouldn't have gone past 4 episodes, and would have been replaced with some cheap live action show about a phoney prefabricated kid's band. You know, the kind of "Kids rule, Adult's drool." stuff that was actually created by adults. Talk about hypocritical.

If you understand the references, South Park and Family Guy are about as extreme as it gets...(strangely enough Family guys gets a tv-14 rating, but at times goes beyond the taboo of South Park material) Its kind of mind numbing tho, I end up preferring the more subtle fun of say...Dilbert the animated series, The Tick animated series or King of the Hill.

As for Adult Swim, I watch some of it on its site. Other than Harvey Birdman, Space Ghost, and Aqua Teen hunger Force, they're all just the same stale college stoner humor that's getting quite old. Though I would love to see Boondocks, as I am a fan of the comic strip.

 

[IgorPonweed]

Wrong. Just like the infamous Montreal Screwjob of 1997 in which Bret caused HBK, Hebner, and Vince to turn on him by declaring his deflection to the competition (when we all know Vince would rather his own company do better, hence why the revived ECW is a mock of the original), both Nick AND Johnen Vasquez caused Zim's demise.

Sure, Nick ruined Johnen's original ideas for Zim, but Vasquez should've known what he was getting into when he signed with Nick to do the series in the first place, given the company's standards at the time.

This was--and is--because Nick's standards were--and still are, to some degree--primarily those things of a family-friendly (though often stupid) nature, whereas Vasquez's work was always morbidly...well...different and wasn't really meant for children, anyway.

Vasquez said as much himself on the released DVDs too, for once Nick dumbed Zim down (for a lot of the original ideas were even darker than how the TV series actually went, such as Dib being murdered & various ripped apart organs and bodily parts being actually depicted instead of just being shadowy shiloettes), Vasquez gave up on animation--sans his comics--altogether, granting all rights of the entire Zim franchise to Nick (which means that Nick's execs could essentially do with Zim as they wish nowadays, for they own Zim now).

Tearing apart organs on screen? I don't think the could get away with that on pretty much any channel. I understand many great ideas were cut, but I think 70% were kept. And it wasn't ALL Jhonen. Both Jhonen AND Nick wanted the show to be gone. A way to describe Jhonen's opinion is, give me creative freedom, or give me cancellation! Nick wanted a larger time-slot for shows with higher ratings. So they came to an agreement.

 

[wwfpooh]

Tearing apart organs on screen? I don't think the could get away with that on pretty much any channel. I understand many great ideas were cut, but I think 70% were kept. And it wasn't ALL Jhonen. Both Jhonen AND Nick wanted the show to be gone. A way to describe Jhonen's opinion is, give me creative freedom, or give me cancellation! Nick wanted a larger time-slot for shows with higher ratings. So they came to an agreement.

And as a result poor Zim gets the boot, despite being high-rated of its own accord.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I always hate when a tv network takes someone's idea and destroys it. I think they should have let the creator maintain control of the show, just as Diz should have let Doug's creator maintain control.

When corporate takes over, things get watered down and dumbed down too much.

 

[frogboy4]

I always hate when a tv network takes someone's idea and destroys it. I think they should have let the creator maintain control of the show, just as Diz should have let Doug's creator maintain control.

When corporate takes over, things get watered down and dumbed down too much.

Hey, I like the ideas from "The Grouper Group!"
I like Virgil the Monkey!
(Muppets Tonight reference for those who are sleepy at this hour)

 

[wwfpooh]

When corporate takes over, things get watered down and dumbed down too much.

Just ask Elmo. He probably knows a lot about corporate doings!

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I suppose the Grouper Group were coming up with some new twists on old ideas and maybe, as a corporate entity, were coming up with good ideas.

However, Virgil the Monkey gave me warts...

 

[wwfpooh]

I suppose the Grouper Group were coming up with some new twists on old ideas...

But not all twists are good.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

They sure aren't. Ever seen a hippo in a tutu dance the Twist? Ick.