Animal is pretty awesome, right?

[Beauregard]

Usually I find Animal too simplistic a character to really keep my attention for very long, or to have ever been anywhere close to a favorite character of mine, but today I spent about an hour just clicking around youtube on videos of just him...and he's hilarious.

He acts like a real rockstar...unable to articulate himself properly, but not really minding that he can't.

His comic timing was always just great when he was performed by Frank. Something as simply as hitting a drum and a cymbol on time could become hilarious from just his performance. But I also love his recent Eric based nuances as well, where he seems to have developed a bit of smug Rock-starishness as well.

Not to mention...BUNNY?

 

[Borples]

They know how to use him. I love any time he hunches on screen, opens his eyes wide, growls something, lowers his eyebrows again, and hunches off. Like his part in Habanera. It's comedy gold. Both Frank and Eric do it perfectly.

 

[dwmckim]

Animal is comedy gold. Heck, Muppet Babies wouldn't have been nearly as good as it was without him!

 

[minor muppetz]

Animal is a great character, but at the same time I find him overrated. I like him a lot better when he's part of The Electric Mayhem then when he's without them. Though there are great Animal moments without the band being involved, such as Fever (I guess it's debatable whether the band was involved... Floyd's there at the beginning, and while you COULD say the rest is there but off-screen, Kermit did call both Animal and Floyd to the stage... While not mentioning Rita Moreno) and Wild Thing. In the movies I like him eating his seat cushion, growing into a giant, eating through the bars, and attacking Dabney Coleman.

Maybe it's because I didn't like that they put Animal with the main group of characters in Muppets from Space while the rest of the band had limited screen time (when they were just starting to recast more of Jim and Richard's characters). I was also a little bothered they gave Animal his own subplot in The Muppets, even though the movie had a lot more of The Electric Mayhem. Or maybe it's because there were so many productions in the 1990s and 2000s that featured Animal but not the rest of the band (not even Floyd), though most of those productions were fairly small productions (music videos, Odyssey insertials, etc.). And don't get me started on the fact that Animal had his own section of muppets.com while as far as I know the rest of the band was absent from the site, even after all the current recasts were in place (though I'm not sure if Vogel or Rudman performed in anything on that site; I don't recall any of Jerry Nelson's characters being present).

I wonder how I would feel if it was a different member of the band getting so much attention over the others. Would I find Zoot overrated? Or Dr. Teeth? Or even Lips? If Janice was the hugely-popular one would and Animal was hardly used anymore would I be wishing for more Animal and less Janice? Who knows? When it comes to hard-to-understand characters I prefer Beaker.

 

[CaseytheMuppet]

I wouldn't call him my favorite, but he is pretty awesome. They have been pretty good in the films about not giving him too much spotlight. Merchandise, on the other hand, is another story.

 

[Animal'sBunny]

OF COURSE ANIMAL IS AWESOME!!!!!!!! HE'S THE BEST! EAT DRUMS EAT DRUMS! *NO BEAT DRUMS BEAT DRUMS* BEAT DRUMS BEAT DRUMS! IN CONTROL! ACTING NATURAL! (YES HE IS MY FAVOURITE! HOW'D YOU GUESS? )

 

[Twisted Tails]

I believe Animal is awesome, 'cause he is great drummer, (HA! HA!), beats the drums, and that's awwwwesome! What would the Electric Mayhem would be like without Animal? I love him and he loves women.
WOMAN! WOMAN!
FLOYDDDD! Get your tail in here, please! Animal's chasing me!
Aw man, not again! Animal! ANIMAL! Stop chasing her!
SOR-EEE!