Your dream 2011 Muppet Promotions

[dwmckim]

We've heard the buzz about how Disney's pulling out the big marketing muscle promotional blitz for the Muppets next year with Toy Story 3 levels of getting them all over the place. This thread is a big collective brainstorm of stuff you'd love to see happen during this time - you can get as realistic or wild as you like..."fan fictions" of appearances, lists of merchandise, special events. Have fun!

I'd love to see a station do a Muppet Show marathon of episodes just before the movie opens.

A talk show appearance where Hason Segel is the scheduled guest. When the host introduces him, instead out comes a Muppet Seagull singing ("And I flew..into the sky so blu-oo-oo"). Segel of course interupts asking who he is and after arguing about who's supposed to be there, they agree that Segel and Muppets work well together so they sing a duet.

Other late night appearances where they perform updated classic skits like Magna Mahna and Visual Thinking.

"A Muppet Freak's Guide to the Muppets" - a network special detailing the Muppets' history and best moments.

Around Halloween, have all the ABC/Disney shows have its characters in Muppet costumes.

Have Kermit reprise his April 1st tradition of guest hosting for Larry King (or someone else if no longer on the air) and/or a new episode of Muppets taking over Nightline (including The Newsman and Fleet Scribbler)

Have Fleet Scribbler make occassional appearances on one of the Hollywood gossip shows like Entertainment Tonight or one of those other ones i can't think of the name of chiming in with Muppet Gossip.

Have a night (or week) where all the primetime ABC shows end with a closing critique/comment by Statler & Waldorf.

 

[Beauregard]

I LOVE the idea of the shows ending with S&W! I can totally see that happening!

 

[Drtooth]

I just wanna see more Virmups and more of the comic books. Anything else will be just icing. Maybe a production vlog for the movie or something on their official YT channel.

Oh, and by all means get that Halloween special produced after a nice break after filming the movie.

 

[Luke]

Yeah i would agree some kind of TV special is a must in order to get the Muppets "over" with the kiddies and just people in general again.

I'd like to see the Muppets on Letterman, but apparently he hates puppets so maybe not, and it's a shame Larry King won't be around as i always enjoyed the Muppets on that at Christmas time. So maybe Leno or Ferguson i guess.

Generally just seeing the Muppets all over TV would be superb

 

[minor muppetz]

I read that there will be a set of Muppet plush resembling the actual puppets to be released when the movie does. I assume they'll be different from the Master Replicas. But still, I'd like there to be a big McDonald's happy meal promotion. Perhaps something as big as the 1996 happy meal promotion for 101 Dalmations, or the big kids meal promotions Burger King had with Pokemon. That way there could be over a hundred characters released (though I don't expect 100 Muppets to have notable parts in the film), and if it's a happy meal/kids meal thing, kids wouldn't be picking out the toys they get (so no need to worry about whether the customers know the characters). An action figure or PVC set representing the movie would also be cool (I'd expect Walter to be included).

And I want some Muppet DVDs to be released. If nothing else The Muppet Show: Season Four (though I want that to come out sooner). It would be great if Disney would release the first-ever UNCUT DVD of A Muppet Family Christmas, remastered/restored from the original master tapes (just like what is supposedly being done for The Muppet Show DVDs), or The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years. Maybe the time of the release would be a good time to release better special editions of the movies, especially in blu-ray.

And I'd like some DVD releases of Muppet appearances, outside of what Disney owns (seems a few such appearances have been released lately). Maybe a compilation of Rowlf's appearances on The Jimmy Dean Show, Kermit's 1979 hosting gig on The Tonight Show, an official Sam and Friends DVD, and best of all, a 1 or 2-disc collection of Kermit's Sesame Street appearances. It would especially be great if Disney would allow for Sesame Workshop to use Kermit in special introductions for such a collection. In fact during the week of the new movie it'd be great if sesamestreet.org adds several Kermit clips to the site (though I don't want sesame workshop to hold off on adding kermit clips until then.... and I want some more classic clips added period).

I'd like for new Muppet comic books to be out in some way, rather they be new "Muppet Show Comic Book" issues done by different people, new "Muppet Classics", or comics with the characters as themselves outside the theater.

And I'd like for some new Muppet video games. Maybe something along the lines of Epic Mickey (would "Epic Muppets" or "Epic Kermit" be too much?). And some new viral videos. And I'd like ABC Family to have a special Muppet month or week (I read that ABC Family is about to have a Pixar week despite it being "25 Days of Christmas" and the fact that hardly any Pixar movies invovle Christmas).

And we need a Muppet book. Something like the Sesame Street 40th anniversary book. But representing the Muppet Studios' Muppets.

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Deep breath...

First off, merchandise:

• Re-releases of the Muppet movies Disney owns. It would also be a perfect chance to release the four movies on Blu-ray. By nixing widescreen, even if the people who worked on the movie don't have time to work on new material for the discs, they still have tons of stuff they could put on the discs. The Muppet Movie could have The Muppets Go Hollywood, Jim Frawley's original camera tests, the extended scenes from the UK video release, the theatrical trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE6i23QHSqk), TV spot (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7XF2aBQaYE&NR=1) and Kermit singing "Rainbow Connection" at the '80 Oscars PLUS the Pepe Profile from the original DVD. MCC and MTI can have all their original DVD extras re-instated. It could work out great and cost-effective for the Mouse.
• Seasons 4 and 5 have to come out. Just so long as we get one of them before the movie, I'll be happy.
• The Art of "The Muppets". All the Pixar, WDFA and a handful of live-action Disney releases have "art-of" books, this one should be no exception. Perhaps this one would have to be more like Of Muppets and Men (a re-publishing of it wouldn't be a bad idea though ) but focused on the movie but it's definitely something that Disney should look into.
• Like minormuppetz said, yes, a DVD release of Muppet Family Christmas even with just some of the cut songs re-instated would make for a great release. Furthermore, Disney should make every effort to get that special broadcast on a network that December alongside Letters to Santa and The Muppet Christmas Carol and perhaps even Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree.
• Oh, and re-releases of at least the first Muppet Show album, Muppet Beach Party and Kermit Unpigged. It'd be a good way to unearth the old music videos, too.

As for everything else...

• Get TMS re-runs on TV somewhere. The Hub perhaps?
• A good "Muppets-take-over-a-talk-show" is in order. Maybe Jimmy Kimmel can pull some strings with that since he's on ABC.
• And again on ABC, have Muppets show up during commercial breaks wishing viewers "Happy holidays!"
• Macy's Parade comeback is in order. A "hastily-put together" float "by" the Muppets would be awesome. Kermit can sing "I Believe," we all know the drill by now.

I need a break, I'll be back with more later.

 

[minor muppetz]

• Re-releases of the Muppet movies Disney owns. It would also be a perfect chance to release the four movies on Blu-ray. By nixing widescreen, even if the people who worked on the movie don't have time to work on new material for the discs, they still have tons of stuff they could put on the discs.

I'm a little confused by this line. Are you saying that they could put more material by nixing widescreen? I don't think including it in either widescreen or full frame would affect the amount of disc space for bonus features. Unless you meant to only include one option and prefer widescreen to be nixed (I think that would be a bad idea. Considering many TVs are in widescreen these days, I'd say it's more practical to include the widescreen version and nix the full frame version).

I wonder if Disney has access to the UK print of TMM, with additional scenes. It would be great if that version were remastered. Or if not, maybe if Disney can locate the 1980s UK VHS release they can include those extra scenes as bonus features (maybe even call them "deleted scenes", which they sort of are).

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

I'm a little confused by this line. Are you saying that they could put more material by nixing widescreen? I don't think including it in either widescreen or full frame would affect the amount of disc space for bonus features. Unless you meant to only include one option and prefer widescreen to be nixed (I think that would be a bad idea. Considering many TVs are in widescreen these days, I'd say it's more practical to include the widescreen version and nix the full frame version).

I wonder if Disney has access to the UK print of TMM, with additional scenes. It would be great if that version were remastered. Or if not, maybe if Disney can locate the 1980s UK VHS release they can include those extra scenes as bonus features (maybe even call them "deleted scenes", which they sort of are).

Whoops! I meant nixing the full screen versions. Ultimate typo.

 

[Phillip]

I want to encourage everyone to keep these suggestions and ideas coming. There are multiple people from Disney and Muppets Studio reading this discussion to see how your ideas line up with what they are planning for 2011.

 

[RedPiggy]

And I'd like for some new Muppet video games. Maybe something along the lines of Epic Mickey (would "Epic Muppets" or "Epic Kermit" be too much?).

I'd love something like that.

My dream video game (would need to be on a high-end console or a PC or something):

Depending on how the movie plays out, I'd like to see some elements of the movie as the overall plot. Instead of Walter looking for the Muppets, though, you could have a choice to play him or as your own created whatnot (using existing and thought-about Muppet Workshop options). You hear that the Muppet Studios are under attack by the evil oil guy (seriously, how dated can this be when oil disasters happen in the news like every other month? *edit* and Disney and Henson both worked on Dinosaurs -- it'd be a major sin in my book if an oil magnate is your bad guy and Wesayso is NEVER referenced at all, LOL) and you need to bring everyone together because it was distressing to hear that everyone broke up. You reminisce by playing levels based on the various movies and shows. They could be narrative levels or mini-games. You would choose one of three Muppets to play as, such as Kermit, Gonzo, Piggy, Floyd, Animal, whoever. Who you pick would influence the details in the level (both the nostalgic levels and the current plot ones) as well as who congratulates you for bringing everyone together in the ending, though the other characters you didn't pick will decide to come if the one you picked decides to join you (based, perhaps, on objectives met or numerical score).

If you "die" or otherwise lose, the Game Over screen is S&W mocking your performance.

I would like to see trophies/achievements that encourage Muppety mayhem, such as baiting Crazy Harry into blowing stuff up or monsters eating characters/stuff, etc.

Why play levels based on earlier stuff? Well, Walter/your character is obsessed with the Muppets. The character knows very well that some of the Muppets' strongest works are about pulling together for a common good. By reliving these times, your character can plead more passionately with the character you chose to locate in that level.

I want multiple endings, depending if you got all three of those characters to sign on (at the least) or just a couple or maybe even none of the above (but you managed to get others, so it's not like you HAVE to have a bad ending where the Studios get bulldozed, although it's possible).