Yeah, but there was nothing to compare them to, so what's your point?
A long and drawn out one for sure. There is indeed nothing to compare them to previously, and everything that can be said is clearly in hindsight. However, that hindsight gives a nice history of how the puppets were perfected over the years. Clearly, classic AM's were sloppier out of necessity because they indeed
had to stick the eyes and stuff on for every performance. Plus, first season. So yeah.
My point is that we went from imperfect to way too perfect in the course of 40+ years. But when things get too perfect, the little rough around the edges parts that give the puppets personality seem to be streamlined off in certain character.
I think there's a difference between saying "such and such puppet looks bad/good" and having a perspective of the history of how the characters looked as far as build techniques go.
But I think we can all agree to one thing. Janice no longer has that embarrassing early 80's side ponytail anymore. Ugh... she had that well into the 2000's.
And I don't really think that Bert is hurt by the excessively clean design he has now, since he's kinda supposed to be a neat freak. Ernie most definitely, but not Bert.
Mmmmm... I feel it's yes and no. It's a subtle thing that makes the characters a little more artificial to me. But I do agree that Bert doesn't look as sterile as Ernie does. I dunno... maybe I'm a bit too partial to the late 80's character designs. These things happen when advances do.
Back to the subject, I completely agree that Fozzie looks wrong in both fur and head shape, but I still think the one that bugs me is how stiff and inexpressive Gonzo looks. I get the feeling he's not that comfortable for Dave to puppeteer either, leading to stiffness of movement. I get something in the eyes being off. Like his eyelids are too heavy or something, to say the least of the nose being a little too streamlined a shape. That said, I can't really blame Disney 100% for this so much as the puppet building team. I'm sure they goad them into a certain look, though. And while I do think the fan made recreations are much, much better and superior in every way, that's...well...cuz that's usually the case with everything. I really wish that Puppet Heap would track these guys down and ask them their secrets and techniques. You know, get some outside out of the box perspective. Fans that have the money, technique, and time usually put in a
lot of effort into these things that production companies can't match with multiple people on a show/movie production budget. Shame that some who work on these sort of things officially don't really have that same perspective and the freedom of no production higher ups breathing down their neck.