Disney Enlists Segel & Stoller for new Muppets movie

[Beauregard]

I agree. And I won't speak for you, but in my mind, Eric Jacobsen is one of those people.

Hear hear!

 

[TheJimHensonHour]

I agree with Prawnie and Beaker, most definitely. Why would you want to change up who we've got? The performers are fantastic. So what if you know someone who can do a Kermit voice closer than Steve can. Can they do the personality? Connect with the other characters? That's a whole other thing entirely. Steve is awesome, 100% I don't care what anyone says.

See you guys get all mad any time some one has a differnce of oppion about Steves Kermit, I'm allowed to not think it's that great and yes I do know some one who can do it better and would kill for the job and quite frankly I think they should try out for people as understudies at least because lets face it these men are not going to last forever.
And I'm sorry but Steve does not do kermit anywhere as close as Jim did because he's not Jim and Kermit was Jim.
He does an ok job but I think if they can find some one who can do a better job then that person should be doing it.
You guys can dissagre and be mad at me about how I feel all you want but it doesn't change anything about how I feel.
I personally have no problems with Steve at all and love His own characters allot.
I just find myself wondering allot of the time what was Jim thinking.

 

[dwayne1115]

Wow how did what i post about them may or may not be using certain people get into all this. I am truly sorry for all that was said.

 

[Mistersuperstar]

From official sources, Oz has distanced himself from the Muppets to concentrate on directing. He has been doing that since the 80s for non-Muppet or Henson related movies. I am guessing that Henson's death gave Frank the excuse to slowly move away from just being a "hand in a sock" and a voice to doing something that's more hands on. Don't forget, Jim only came into puppeteering as a way to get into television. It's kinda like a wannabe singer doing "American Idol" to get into the spotlight and then changing their style and sound to something they really want to do once they have the fame to back it up.

As far as Steve Whitmire's Kermit goes, I was impressed with the early performance when he was mimicking Jim's Kermit but now he seems to have taken the character somewhere different. The voice isn't the same as it was and the puppeteering seems to have changed too. Not that he isn't a very talented performer and voice artist, I just think, for some reason, the whole Kermit performance has changed.

The new voices and puppet performaces of classic Muppet characters take some getting used to for me. I seriously applaude the likes of Bill Barretta and Eric Jaconson for their great work and the fact they have obviously studied the characters' performers but, being a Muppet fan since the age of 3, do miss the Golden Age of the Muppets and the original Muppet performers. Having said that, without the "new" guys taking over the classic characters the Muppets would be dead. At least with new performers taking over the roles the Muppets could, in theory, continue on our screens forever.

 

[Mistersuperstar]

It kinda reminds me of recording artists like Prince or Michael Jackson. In their heyday they were at the top of their game and had millions of fans buying their records and paying to see them on stage. As time goes on these artists have to either continue to release the same kind of material, that would keep the original fans happy but maybe not create any new fans and run the risk of going stale, or change their style with the times, upsetting original fans with their "new" sound but maybe attracting new fans and staying fresh. The only other alternative is to get out of the business altogther and leave the fans with the body of work they have created but not release anything else.

 

[Drtooth]

I really think that since Jim Died that the Classic Muppets have really just looked for a leader, and have yet to find one.

That's the problem when someone like that dies. At least with creators or other big people behind an idea or product. Look at the state of Flux Disney was in for years after Walt died. it took them until The Little Mermaid to really get everything back on track. Warners, as I've said countless times, still has trouble finding new media featuring Looney Tunes, since the last of the classic animators (Chuck Jones) died years ago.

To me, everything they've done was just off being what it should have been. Face it, we lost Jim and Richard, and Frank wasn't as attentitive as he used to be. Somehow MCC and MTI worked because of Jerry Juhl's writing... but then again, they also didn't work because they had trouble with certain conceptual things... like making humans co-stars the stars of the film, and the Muppets playing second or third. Muppets from Space in its original form really had a classic Muppet spirit. Too bad that other conceptual problems (the lack of original musical numbers), and Sony's sickly hand in the project ruined what could have been a great film.
Then we get to the DTV/Telefilms, which had new writers, and their own conceptual problems as well.

Seems they've been really trying to find a voice, and everytime they got close, some corporate hand or conceptual problem took them a step back.

From official sources, Oz has distanced himself from the Muppets to concentrate on directing. He has been doing that since the 80s for non-Muppet or Henson related movies. I am guessing that Henson's death gave Frank the excuse to slowly move away from just being a "hand in a sock" and a voice to doing something that's more hands on. Don't forget, Jim only came into puppeteering as a way to get into television. It's kinda like a wannabe singer doing "American Idol" to get into the spotlight and then changing their style and sound to something they really want to do once they have the fame to back it up.

As far as Steve Whitmire's Kermit goes, I was impressed with the early performance when he was mimicking Jim's Kermit but now he seems to have taken the character somewhere different. The voice isn't the same as it was and the puppeteering seems to have changed too. Not that he isn't a very talented performer and voice artist, I just think, for some reason, the whole Kermit performance has changed.

The new voices and puppet performaces of classic Muppet characters take some getting used to for me. I seriously applaude the likes of Bill Barretta and Eric Jaconson for their great work and the fact they have obviously studied the characters' performers but, being a Muppet fan since the age of 3, do miss the Golden Age of the Muppets and the original Muppet performers. Having said that, without the "new" guys taking over the classic characters the Muppets would be dead. At least with new performers taking over the roles the Muppets could, in theory, continue on our screens forever.

I agree with all of that. I really do. We have to realise we're working with Muppets: the next generation. Frank wants to do films (though the Stepford Remake? Come on) that's his right. The only old schoolers really left are Dave and Steve. Jerry's in a state of semi-retirement, though he still does voice recording for Sesame, but I think that's about it.

I miss Frank as much as anyone else, but if he doesn't want to do it, he doesn't have to. I'd rather see someone talented like Eric take on and recreat the roles than have that whole Muppets tonight/MTi thing going where the focus was solely on the new characters due to his absense. I have some problems with Steve's Kermit, much as I do with the different Looney Tunes recasts. They don't even have one official voice artist for each anymore (it's very common to hear Billy West playing Bugs Bunny, then Jeff Bergman, then Joe Alasky- depending on who's available). I'm glad that most of the muppets have settled on one performer continuing the roles. Though characters like Dr. Teeth still bounce from performer to performer until someone has a handle on them.

We have to face the fact that the last great Muppet project was finished just before Jim passed on. Much like the last Great Looney Tunes project ended when Termite Terrace closed down. The thing here isn't to copy the essense of the classics head on. No one can do that, no matter how much talent they have. The real task is getting things as close to those glory days as possible, all the while keeping things fresh, and giving the artists behind it a real voice. Something I felt lack in MOZ and to some extent the other post Jerry Juhl films.

 

[dwayne1115]

Wow ok guys i think we all just need to back up take some deep breaths, and just take all this in. There is a whole lot of emotion running in this thread, and i think we should tone it down just a little. Let's try and get everyone on the same page here and talk about something we all can agree on for the most part. That would be that we are very exited about this new movie coming out, and we can't wait to see what direction this well take the Muppets.

Now let's get back on the topic of Music for the Movie. What type of music do you all think should be used. We have seen how R&B really does not seem to fit well with the Muppets. So I think more of a soft rock and some country would be a nice touch. What do you all think?

 

[TheJimHensonHour]

Like I said before Paul Williams.

 

[theprawncracker]

Like I said before Paul Williams.

Yes. I really don't think there's any other option.

But if Paul falls through, I think Alan Menken would do a bang-up job with it.

- Did somebody say BANG? *pushes down dynamite plunger*

 

[dwayne1115]

I would love for Paul to do this movie, I would also love see him do another Cameo as well. I think we really need a verity of Music and let several diffrent Muppets have solo's


I would love to see sam the eagle to sing an oprah type song. or a hip hop rap lol that would be funny Slim Shady Vs. Sam Eagel