Could Disney be selling The Muppets?

[Dil]

Disney needs to think think THINK!!! Do you know how the Jim Henson Company did in the early years of Muppet-Movie-Making? ALL of the DISNEY Muppet Movies (MCC, MTI, MWOO) are a FAILURE. I want to have a Time Machine exist, so somebody can save Jim Henson, and bring him to the present.

 

[Barry Lee]

I agree with everybody, less is happening, more should be happening, and that upsets me dearly. If the Muppets were to go back to JHC, would I think they would do more? Yes. BUT, is JHC as financially capable to produce something brilliant? Not really. I would love Disney to at least show TMS on ABC Family, that would be the best place to (A) Put the show (B) To get the muppets out to the public, and make people more aware how great they truly are.

I believe ever since the Pixar deal, the Muppets are getting shoved to the back burner, BUT we did get new book(s), new cd, and a couple of muppet appearances, but Disney needs to step up no doubt, before its too late, because they need to put the muppets up in the right time, and that right time is now.

I also think that the french muppet show "Muppets TV" is a sort of 'preview' of the future to come this year, lets hope so....
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[maxdrive]

if disney would sell the muppets i hope the jim henson company will buy them back it seems where disney is falling with the muppets the henson company is comeing though with dvds and movies. if henson would get the muppets back you know they would do it right

 

[beaker]

Hey, I was poo pooing the current state of the Muppets too. But I think they at MMH, or Muppet Studios or whatever its called realize they cannot go a 4th year under Disney ownership without something big and exciting. I think they realize banking exclusively on old nostalgic merchandise and dvds just aint going to cut it.

 

[Beauregard]

Hey, I was poo pooing the current state of the Muppets too. But I think they at MMH, or Muppet Studios or whatever its called realize they cannot go a 4th year under Disney ownership without something big and exciting. I think they realize banking exclusively on old nostalgic merchandise and dvds just aint going to cut it.

Maybe they've been holding out on us, news wise, and have been working on stuff behind the scenes that we have yet to hear anything about. *shrugs* It could happen.

Maybe we'll get some announcements soon. I can't beleive that Kermit and Piggy are making the rounds purely for the sake of it.

 

[Dil]

If I stole the Muppets right out of Disney's hand and brought it to Henson, Disney would scream and make a huge childish tantrum, because of losing what they are using.

 

[a_Mickey_Muppet]

make a huge childish tantrum, because of losing .

sorta of like what u do on the MC boards?

 

[Tim]

Disney is focusing their attention on the high-end merchandise and burning off the library to get their money back on the deal. The Muppets probably will be bought back by Henson someday when they are finally worthless. No one else but Disney can exploit them properly, even if they aren't interested in doing so.

Warner's maybe, that way the characters can appear in those "now family friendly" Six Flags parks along with The Wiggles.

 

[Luke]

Disney is focusing their attention on the high-end merchandise and burning off the library to get their money back on the deal.

Exactly, they are doing the high end merchandise because they have little TV product out there right now, they gotta focus on the hardcore fans. As soon as they start putting shows on TV (we hope) it'll be worth them putting low end stuff out in the shops. Which is kinda what we want - even if the merchandise and DVD sales are more important to Disney than the actual shows. When Disney first bought the Muppets they started putting a range of products in Disney stores - some of the stuff sold to retro people but the kids didn't really buy into it much seeing as they aren't really exposed much to Muppets. The quality and likeness were very low as well, it was rushed out stuff really.

I can't see Henson ever getting the Muppets back. The sale to Disney was worth more to them than what it would have costed them to keep the Muppets relaunch going as it was, and they didn't really have the resources to do much more with it even if they wanted - plus they probably expected Disney would go big on Muppets and they'd get work out of that too. Hasn't quite worked out that way, but Disney can just hold onto them and make cash off the theme parks, merchandise, TV distribution and DVD sales - and because Disney stuff sells better and is more widely promoted and distributed they'd still make more money than to make it an option to sell the Muppets.

 

[Tim]

I'm not sure of the details of this go round with Disney, but my understanding of the deal Jim was working on was for them to "own" the rights for 10 years, then they would option again at that time, or everything would go back to Henson. Maybe this is the case again?