Brian Henson comments indepth on the various company sales

[Mupp]

I know everybody keeps telling me that's I'm just being a negative pessimist about this situation, but I still say it's the opposite - I'm being REALISTIC, while you guys are following "blind faith".

I have to say that I take that as an insult.

You know, some Disney Internet fans have one thing in common with some Muppet Internet fans, they think that people who are being positive are just practicing blind faith. They think of themselves as "right", while the positive person is "wrong." Always black and white.
As Gonzo said in Muppet Christmas Movie; "Typical"

Now, Let's take an example;
Muppets From Space was not made by Disney. It has some good aspects but overall most people agree that it was lacking in several areas.

So to be frank, The Jim Henson Company does not need Disney's help to make a lackluster product.

The Muppets Studio is definitely on the right track. Their youtube channel is getting overwhelmingly positive feedback.
This is one of the recent comments on the channel;
"My 18 month old son ADORES these videos, especially Bohemian Rhapsody. Please keep the new ones coming! Whenever I take out my laptop, he begs to sit on my lap and watch these. "

Disney is NOT all bad. There ARE some genuine people within the company who DO want to do good things and make quality products. Like John Lasseter for example.

Eisner is gone, most of the company's scars are either healed, or are in the process of being healed.

 

[RedPiggy]

I wasn't too thrilled with the sale, but even though I was 13 when Jim died, I didn't need biographies and interviews to tell me that Jim was struggling at the end. Disney is just now starting to get into the family groove again, the atmosphere, anyway, and the lack of it is clearly why they sat on the Muppets for so long. The Muppets work best when you see them as an incredibly diverse family. I won't say with 100% certainty that Disney loves its characters, as it looks like it kinda depends on the property. They know to market them every once in awhile and make sequels -- but while they're capable of handling more characters than the Henson company, they aren't exactly immune to looking like they just slap a walk-around in a theme park and call that loving a character. Other than the Princess and Fairy lines, let's face it ... the Muppets are getting more love than Mickey.

 

[zns]

I never really believed that it was Brian's fault for selling the Muppets all those times. I do admit that I was very skepitcal, but if this is a sign that things may be looking up very soon, then obviously there's a strong future ahead for Kermit and the gang. I'm sure that others may feel different, but that's just what I wanted to say.

 

[Drtooth]

Disney as a company - especially an entertainment company - will be largely made up of people (both involved with the Muppets and all the other areas) dedicated to those goals of "singing and dancing and making people happy" - many of whom were probably drawn to Disney for that purpose. Other employees are of the more bean-counter, anything-for-profits variety and are drawn to Disney because of its power. Disney in particular is such an interesting case study as far as major corporations go since it alternately has a branding reputation as The Happiest Place on Earth and as one of the most vicious corporate sharks you don't want to mess with. (Two of the scariest words in the English language being "Disney Lawyer") There are those in the company dedicated to the Henson philosophy of leaving the world a better place and who are responsible for Disney's iniatives on public volunteerism and climate change with the Give a Day and Friends for Change promotions. Disney was also one of the first major corporations to extend benefits to gay employees' partners. Concurrently there are those in the company that carry the outlook and business practices associated with the idea of EEEVIL Disney (such as those keeping Kermit from appearing on dvd releases of Emmet and Christmas Toy).

I say it all the time, if Disney is "evil" so isn't Warner Bros, Sony, Universal, Paramount/Viacom, and all the rest. When it comes to what's happening on the web, I seriously think Viacom is the worst of the worst. At least Disney rarely takes down old cartoon shows they have no interest in making money off of. Disney may have a reputation of shark lawyers, but that's because no one hears or knows about anyone else's. You don't think Warners would have come down just as hard as Disney did if a daycare center made a mural of Bugs and Daffy? Face it... they own the characters and any minor references or mumbles of them... they'd do anything to protect their interests in them (though, somehow they ALWAYS manage to let lead paint covered Taiwanese sweatshop produced knockoffs slide by).

As for "broken promises"... come on! If Henson kept its promises, we'd be watching special edition extended versions of Muppet Haunted House and have the first season of the Fox Network Muppet Show on DVD. They don't really have a good batting average either. I'd say there were more dropped projects with Henson owned by EMTV and itself than with Disney. So far, we dropped an Election Special which would have been dated and rushed, a Halloween special (which had production problems and might just happen this year), a bad reality show parody (which I'm glad never saw the light of day), and a mockumentary, which I think bears revisiting. Look up "Unfinished projects" on Muppet Wikia... there's a score of ones that were supposed to happen between 2001 and Disney's buy out before Oz.

Where getting closer to a Muppet Movie than we've gotten for the Fraggle Rock movie. One we found out about in 2007 or so, one was officially announced last year, and rumored a year before. Disney has something Henson doesn't... Muscle. While Henson is struggling to find another partner for FR and POTDC, Disney just appointed a director. Henson is slowly building up to what Disney has done in the past couple years (the web exclusive content alone is epic enough for me to be optimistic), but so far, all I've seen are CGI DTV movies, CGI TV shows, and CGI/Puppetry TV shows while all their puppetry sits in mothballs (other than Puppet Up).

Think about it this way? Who just saw the Happy Time Murder Film? No one.

 

[Mupp]

I say it all the time, if Disney is "evil" so isn't Warner Bros, Sony, Universal, Paramount/Viacom, and all the rest. When it comes to what's happening on the web, I seriously think Viacom is the worst of the worst. At least Disney rarely takes down old cartoon shows they have no interest in making money off of. Disney may have a reputation of shark lawyers, but that's because no one hears or knows about anyone else's. You don't think Warners would have come down just as hard as Disney did if a daycare center made a mural of Bugs and Daffy? Face it... they own the characters and any minor references or mumbles of them... they'd do anything to protect their interests in them (though, somehow they ALWAYS manage to let lead paint covered Taiwanese sweatshop produced knockoffs slide by).

As for "broken promises"... come on! If Henson kept its promises, we'd be watching special edition extended versions of Muppet Haunted House and have the first season of the Fox Network Muppet Show on DVD. They don't really have a good batting average either. I'd say there were more dropped projects with Henson owned by EMTV and itself than with Disney. So far, we dropped an Election Special which would have been dated and rushed, a Halloween special (which had production problems and might just happen this year), a bad reality show parody (which I'm glad never saw the light of day), and a mockumentary, which I think bears revisiting. Look up "Unfinished projects" on Muppet Wikia... there's a score of ones that were supposed to happen between 2001 and Disney's buy out before Oz.

Where getting closer to a Muppet Movie than we've gotten for the Fraggle Rock movie. One we found out about in 2007 or so, one was officially announced last year, and rumored a year before. Disney has something Henson doesn't... Muscle. While Henson is struggling to find another partner for FR and POTDC, Disney just appointed a director. Henson is slowly building up to what Disney has done in the past couple years (the web exclusive content alone is epic enough for me to be optimistic), but so far, all I've seen are CGI DTV movies, CGI TV shows, and CGI/Puppetry TV shows while all their puppetry sits in mothballs (other than Puppet Up).

Think about it this way? Who just saw the Happy Time Murder Film? No one.

Yes, that is a good way of looking at it; Disney is no more "evil" than any of those other companies that you mentioned. Every company is protective of their characters.

You've made a lot of other good points as well.

 

[Drtooth]

I've always said... say what you will about Disney... but even Michael Eisner wasn't so desperate that he turned all the classic characters into what an out of touch 40 year old thinks Anime is and thrust them into a generic action show.

 

[RedPiggy]

*shudders at the travesty*

Tiny Toons was a rip-off but it was a funny rip-off. Whoever came up with that melodramatic "action" show needed to be mailed a bunch of ACME stuff.

 

[Drtooth]

Tiny Toons was a "next Generation" deal, and it was originally to be a movie. The fact that they used the same or similar humor and managed to put the exact characters in as their mentors/teachers really made it more than a "Baby-fication." But it still was what the Looney Tunes was all about.

Loonatics was nothing more than idiotic corporate synergy that tried to make a toy line before a show, and there wasn't EVEN a toy line. I remember some interview in an animation magazine where they were pathetically trying to defend it saying how it's not made for the people who were kvetching about it, and how they thought kids would enjoy it. They didn't, causing them to actually try on the second season. Now, I will admit, they added the concept of making the Looney Tunes fight futuristic versions of their characters instead of generic super hero villains (cliches so tired, Darkwing Duck already ripped them to shreds 10 years earlier)... if they did that all along, it would have been a decent show. In fact, there actually a couple episodes in the second season that ARE watchable and even enjoyable. But other than that, it was a pathetic generic action toon to begin with. As opposed to Duck Dodgers which was all Sci-Fi parody that didn't even need to alter Daffy or Porky and they still managed to make it hip.

Of course, this is the season they callously and blatantly ripped off Spongebob and I still wish Viacom jumped on them the way they jump on anyone who wants to post a Spongebob Poop or AMV on Youtube.

That said, Disney's characters, Mickey especially DO have an action side to them. Of course, it's a fantasy/fairy tale type deal... sometimes melodrama, sometimes treasure hunting... so things like Kingdom Hearts, Epic Mickey, and the Italian Disney action comics fit perfectly with the characters.

 

[Mupp]

I've always said... say what you will about Disney... but even Michael Eisner wasn't so desperate that he turned all the classic characters into what an out of touch 40 year old thinks Anime is and thrust them into a generic action show.

Ah yes...

Loonatics was such an ill-fated and terrible idea.
Some of the episodes that I've seen were sort of interesting, but it was still too much of a "far out" idea to work.

And like you said, Disney's attempts at action have been more fantasy things and have fit well with the characters.
I really enjoy the Kingdom Hearts games!

 

[Drtooth]

Loonatics was such an ill-fated and terrible idea.
Some of the episodes that I've seen were sort of interesting, but it was still too much of a "far out" idea to work.

Far out would have been interesting. Far out is what they attempted to do season 2. But over all, it was just so routine... it's like you can pick up the most generic action cartoon script imaginable and just rename everyone and you'd have an episode. Had it been more comically based, again, Duck Dodgers, and they managed to fight counterparts of their old villains in a semi-sci fi/semi-wacky way it would have worked. Plus, the initial character designs were a BILLION times better looking than they had. I hear tell they're planning another LT cartoon... they better think about Taz-Mania, Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries and Duck Dodgers next time they do it. I don;t expect any LT show for television to be just as good as the original theatricals (nothing can top them), I just expect it to be good. But that's off a tangent.