Questions about Muppet Babies in general

[mupcollector1]

Well you can rave about adult puppetry but that doesn't mean the networks and audiences are always going to be interested. So like you said, if your characters have kid potential it would be wise to use them to help fund the projects you really want to make.

Well I didn't technically mean anything in terms of kid potential, just how Jim did business to fund the more bigger and better projects and such. I think the reason why there's barely any adult puppetry is mainly because puppets are expensive and unfortunately it seems like our culture is so more interested seeing humans acting in TV and film and not fictional characters which I find very sad. But yes I agree that it seems like puppets and cartoons tend to be aimed more so towards children. Yet it creates a negitive stereotype towards the art form. Centuries ago in Europe and probably other places in the world as well, puppets and cartoons were aimed at adults. Most cartooning and puppetry had a bit of political satire aspect of it. Even Punch and Judy got toned down through the years ending up just a silly puppet show of two characters beating each other up. Though I remember reading something on the internet and it might still be there under a Punch and Judy site, a transcript of one of the original shows from the 1600s and it was quite grim, very dark, Punch was basicly a murderer and it's just him rubbing off all the other characters until he meets with The Devil himself and becomes the new ruler of the underword. So it seems that irreverent humor was really big over in Europe and I think that's sort of how Jim Henson himself got into adult puppetry because he took a trip to Europe and seen an adult puppet show and noticed that the puppeteers were adults entertaining adult audiences. Basicly it seems like art is becoming less interesting in America in the mainstream and perhaps this is just my opinion. Esspecially intellectual art like satire or a really strong plot using art like puppets or animation to reach out to the adult audience, not only making then laugh at the world around them, but making then think. It's a very rare quality because everything in general entertainment just seems so simple minded entertainment. But then again, that's just my opinion.

Anyway back to Muppet Babies, wasn't there a DVD release of the show recently then it disappeared? Like a complete season box set?

 

[Drtooth]

I love Muppet Babies but it annoys me how Muppet Show Scooter has suddenly become a nerd. Nothing against nerds but Muppet Show Scooter was not like that. He was an eager yet calculating young person desperate to get into show business, lol.

Like I said, Nerds=someone with glasses, 1980's cartoons needed nerds (even though they had Bunsen Honeydew). In fact, I've come to a realization. That's why Skeeter was created instead of using Janice. 1980's cartoons also needed an athlete. But then gain, Scooter seems pretty eager in the older episodes (debatable if that is nerdy behavior), and in those MTM production photos, they did portray him loving Marvel super heroes and reading their comics. Well, at least having them and posters when he was hanging out of that locker.

However, that seems to be the biggest stretch of how a child version of that character would have been portrayed. Everyone else is pretty much on par with what they'd grow up to be, Gonzo's biggest change is being morally ambiguous at times (Great Cookie Robbery)... but then again, the shows tend to have Aesops.

But you know what I really like about Muppet Babies? The Toei animation was actually better than the Korean stuff they used later (just with a low frame rate). There was a lot more detail used in earlier episodes and nice little animated asides. I've noticed some earlier episodes have Skeeter constantly adjusting/pulling up her pants as a tic. An unscripted detail, courtesy of the animators. They even managed to avoid the voice coming out of the wrong character's mouth more than Akom did. Only instance I remember is Piggy singing with Skeeter's voice in Keep your Animal Clean. Not like the hugely noticeable Gonzo saying "Now remember what I told you" coming out of Animal in the Valentines episode. And I'll take the darker, grainier look that Toei had in the first season over the muddy, overcolored, never correct look of Akom. I never understood why everything turned purple in the Jetsons parody where Scooter and Skeeter are fighting about Bean playing Elroy.

 

[mupcollector1]

But you know what I really like about Muppet Babies? The Toei animation was actually better than the Korean stuff they used later (just with a low frame rate). There was a lot more detail used in earlier episodes and nice little animated asides. I've noticed some earlier episodes have Skeeter constantly adjusting/pulling up her pants as a tic. An unscripted detail, courtesy of the animators. They even managed to avoid the voice coming out of the wrong character's mouth more than Akom did. Only instance I remember is Piggy singing with Skeeter's voice in Keep your Animal Clean. Not like the hugely noticeable Gonzo saying "Now remember what I told you" coming out of Animal in the Valentines episode. And I'll take the darker, grainier look that Toei had in the first season over the muddy, overcolored, never correct look of Akom. I never understood why everything turned purple in the Jetsons parody where Scooter and Skeeter are fighting about Bean playing Elroy.

That was the Japanize animation studio right? Yeah, their animation seemed better, I was going to point out that probably later in the show the animation seemed stiff and like you said a low frame rate. Also how the mouths tended to stop half way instead of the mouth fully closing. I notice that the show Franklin (the turtle, show on Nick JR) tended to do that kind of mouth lyp-sync, I wonder if it was their way of animating characters who don't have teeth. Well thank Goodness puppeteers don't do that in their lyp-sync. lol Unless there's something seriously wrong with the mouth plate of course, like being jammed or whatever. lol

I might have mentioned this already but I like "Singing in the Steet" and "Underground" out of the songs they've done. And Get Your Animal Clean was hilarious. Baby Aninal used to be really really funny in the early episodes but seemed to be toned down in the later ones. Not so much as funny as the real Animal but funny as is. Wasn't there two voice actors for him?

 

[Drtooth]

That was the Japanize animation studio right? Yeah, their animation seemed better, I was going to point out that probably later in the show the animation seemed stiff and like you said a low frame rate.

Toei is Japanese, yes. I figure they did the animation, as the production company was Marvel, and they had a deal with Toei at the time. After all, they animated Transformers and G.I. Joe. Weren't they also Marvel productions. It goes back further than that. Toei had a live action Japanese Spider-Man show (where he was now a Sentai Ranger) and a terrible adaption of Tomb of Dracula, and an obscure character Marvel had named Miss America turned up as a member of another Sentai team.

Still, you have to wonder what the show would look like if they used the other Japanese studio that did American Outsourcing, TMS. If you look at TMS's animation for Ducktales, it's among the most beautiful of the series, and it manages to have a very Carl Barks look to it. And let's not forget they did some of the best looking Tiny Toons and Animaniacs episodes. You could only imagine how fluid that animation would have been.

 

[mupcollector1]

Toei is Japanese, yes. I figure they did the animation, as the production company was Marvel, and they had a deal with Toei at the time. After all, they animated Transformers and G.I. Joe. Weren't they also Marvel productions. It goes back further than that. Toei had a live action Japanese Spider-Man show (where he was now a Sentai Ranger) and a terrible adaption of Tomb of Dracula, and an obscure character Marvel had named Miss America turned up as a member of another Sentai team.

Still, you have to wonder what the show would look like if they used the other Japanese studio that did American Outsourcing, TMS. If you look at TMS's animation for Ducktales, it's among the most beautiful of the series, and it manages to have a very Carl Barks look to it. And let's not forget they did some of the best looking Tiny Toons and Animaniacs episodes. You could only imagine how fluid that animation would have been.

So this animation studio did Tiny Toons and Animaniacs? Japanize not North Korea? WOW, I've noticed that some of the 90s Disney and Warner Bros TV shows and how well animated they were. Then technically most 90s Cartoons were so well animated. Though about 90% worthed with Rough Draft Studios. Though I though Carbunkle Cartoons did very well animating some of the later Season 2 Ren & Stimpy episodes like Sven Hoek which kind of looks very cinematic. In fact I'm starting to collect some of the 1980s cartoon movies Who Framed Roger Rabbit (I still need to get the DVD), Brave Little Toaster (still need to get the DVD), Quest of Ninth and The Chipmunk Adventure. There's something about 80s movie animation that's done very very well, like Disney style which I think is 24 frames unlike TV animation today which is I think 12 Frames per Second. Plus back then they did shading effects and stuff like that. Though lots of animation today is flash based probably to save budget. Though I heard that Toon Boom software was getting so advanced that American shows would no longer need to ship stuff overseas for animation anymore. I've got Toon Boom Studio myself and still trying to figure it out. lol I got to watch my training videos and study them. lol

But yeah back to Muppet Babies, wasn't there a DVD release like Season 1 somewhere?