Frank Oz worked on a new Muppet movie script

[Epictetus]

BUT WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!?!

No really though, I hate those parenting groups with a passion.

It's not just parenting groups, though. It's every critic who says, in a review, "Such and such a line seemed a little edgy for a supposedly family-friendly movie." It's every parent who says that something seems too "dark" for their kids. The world is dark, the world is edgy, and kids are fascinated by darkness and edginess. They want to and need to explore being frightened, being fascinated, being confused, being mean, and everything else.

American parents seem ****-bent on feeding their kids only good-for-you entertainment, rather than trying to engage their kids' minds and bring them up to be intelligent, complex, discriminating human beings.

 

[Drtooth]

This doesn't just affect kids movies. Basically all movies are kinda like this now.

 

[CensoredAlso]

It's not just parenting groups, though. It's every critic who says, in a review, "Such and such a line seemed a little edgy for a supposedly family-friendly movie." It's every parent who says that something seems too "dark" for their kids. The world is dark, the world is edgy, and kids are fascinated by darkness and edginess. They want to and need to explore being frightened, being fascinated, being confused, being mean, and everything else.

I know I get REALLY annoyed whenever I hear adults contributing to this myth of "protecting children from reality." They're the same people who complain that their kids don't care about history or can't handle life.

 

[Duke Remington]

Epictetus, could you please stop slamming the new movie and insulting those of us who were actually pleased with it?

It's great for what it is and what was needed to bring the Muppets back to life and get them back on the path to public prominence.

 

[Drtooth]

I know I get REALLY annoyed whenever I hear adults contributing to this myth of "protecting children from reality." They're the same people who complain that their kids don't care about history or can't handle life.

But again, ALL entertainment is pretty much like this. If anything, kid's television (at least preschoolers) is inorganically slow for the purposes of pretending it's interactive when it isn't. All the popular TV shows are pretty much whizz bang blink and you miss it pacing... from 30 Rock to Family Guy and everything in between. Yet, VMX and Oz were far worse at Whizz bang pace this film was, and they were done by Muppet Insiders. I mean REALLY REALLY bad, and I tend to like VMX. This was almost a slow walk in the park compared to those two. The film is indeed a product of now. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I get the complaint about tiny understanding of how it fits, but it the movie truly tried to ape those older films in the context of pacing it like the others, something tells me that would still be the case.

Like I said, we got a passionately made, yet flawed movie with an outsider take. That's not bad at all. We could have easily had another Whiz bang DTV Christmas special or Whiz Bang classic retelling that doesn't have the heart or soul of MCC and MTI... no one would really care, not even most of the fan base. The film was going to have odd pacing no matter who did it... be it an outside group or Jim Lewis and Kirk Thatcher... that's the kind of pacing everything supposedly has to have now. And yet, in those terms, this film did it much better than those two. The concepts being half baked is still a full half bake more than the rapid spitfire pop culture gags the last couple of projects had.

There was NO reason for the Kelly Osborne crap in the Wizard of Oz... man, that was a depressing piece. And not soulfully depressing... just sad... and ugly. if we had another one of those, I could care less.

 

[dwayne1115]

The new movie was great and I think this would open the door for Frank's movie or in any way might pave the wave for a new Muppet show hopflyy written by my good friend Jim Lewis.

 

[Drtooth]

The new movie was great and I think this would open the door for Frank's movie or in any way might pave the wave for a new Muppet show hopflyy written by my good friend Jim Lewis.

The thing that mystifies me is the existence of this script. I want more proof than sort of kind of in an article. We're a Muppet fan site and we've been following this movie since it was just the rumblings of a couple famous Henson fans. The question is, why WOULDN'T we have heard about it sooner than a couple weeks before the movie, and why wouldn't it have been all over the Muppet boards sooner?

I doubt the existence of the script for one reason... while it was certainly a Muppet Movie script and Frank Oz did write some of it... well... I have a feeling that the script in question was a little older than these interviews are saying.

The fact of the matter is, Frank Oz didn't have a new script in development... but a Frank Oz (and Jerry Juhl and Jim Henson) script that was announced by Disney to be put into production was shelved for the film we got. Several reasons for that include A) it was never quite finished, so I'm assuming the current Muppet team would have filled in the blanks and modernized it a bunch (and made it more Whizz Bang than this film ever could hope to be)... but then they had a perfectly good workable script anyway and B) say what you will about the movie, the getting the gang together only to realize the fans were always there, just sleeping concept WAS the right thing to do to relaunch the franchise under Disney.

While I'm sure Cheapest would have been a great movie, and By Toutatis, I wanna see that film made next, it's a pretty strange concept that wouldn't have worked in getting a foothold back into the public eye. This film needs a LOT of theater of the absurd to work. And as nonsequitor as some of the movie came off (especially the quick ending), this would have been considered too silly, even for The Muppets... a LOT of Monty Python-esque weirdness would ensue, and it would feel too darn gimmicky for its own good as a relaunch film. In fact, the title doesn't sound all that confident. It's a self deprecating wacky story with tons of potential, but we needed a much stronger solid concept to bring them back. Look how Muppet Oz almost sank Disney's use of the franchise.

I do definitely wanna see Frank do something for the Muppets someday. They're not dead to him (he returned as Grover in an AMAZING Sesame Street Skit), but any future interactions will be up to him.

 

[dwayne1115]

I had to put my hand on a rubber chicken and swore i would not say anything.
So I'll say what is known, We knew that Jim and Jerry where working on a script for a new movie back before Jim's death. So who (if anyone) would you think would be the best people to write or add to or finish or whatever to that script? I have my own persoanl thoughts on that, but I would want to hear what other people would think first.

 

[Drtooth]

I'd LOVE to see John Cleese write that one. Somehow he's the epitome of strange yet sophisticated humor, and that kind of perspective would make a movie based on such a strange concept to work. Not saying he should write the whole thing, but rather give a pass at it to punch up the total potential of something that needs the balance of wit, sophistication, and abstract humor.

 

[dwayne1115]

interesting I think as far as wit would be concernd that would be a great choice, but honestly as far as being true to the Muppets I would have to say that Frank would be good and posably Jim Lewis. the problem is that we don't know how much of the script was written, and if it would still work today.