Eisner confirms Disney could buy Henson and Muppets soon

[JamieDenny]

Brian made a HUGE mistake in selling to EMTV, but hey it's a $700 million dollar mistake, so yes I'd say he had a huge smile on his face.
I hope that in time he comes to realise his mistake. It won't be in time to save the Muppets from the three fingered white gloved claws. If i won the lottery I'd put in a bid and hand the company back to the people who KNOW what to do with the Muppets...JHC productions.
Im angry and hurt that the characters I know and love are being treated like they no longer matter.
Im not Anti-Brian, Im sure he's a nice guy, people who have met him say he is and i take that as read, but I'm anti the decsion he made.
That said he's only human and who knew what was going to happen.
It is my personal view that Diz doesn't understand the Muppets. I may be wrong but seeing as I've always viewed the Muppets as the Anti-Dis.*and thats a good thing*
When was the last time Disney had a penguin singing a love song to his penguin girlfriend just before the were both consumed by a monster *never happenned on the Muppet Show but there was always potential*
Can you imagine Disney having Alice Cooper on one of their shows?
Or what about IAVMMC, Dis would never have sanctioned that.
Okay there will be lots of merchandise, but will it be of the quality we are used to?
More theme-park rides, thats great news, if you live in a place near a theme park.
Disney is all about nice things without touching on reality, you cant get a newspaper in their parks, in case the real world interferes, all the horses on their roundabout are painted white because apparentley there are no bad guys in Disney World.
The reasonthe Muppets became so big was the fact that in their own way they mirrored human being with all their frailties.
I've met people like Kermit, I've never met anyone who was like Mickey Mouse before.
Im sure ive said all this before but heck I'll keep saying it untill people listen to me.
I don't hate Dis, but im uncertain about them in conjunction with the Muppets
Jamie

 

[Luke]

Originally posted by BoyRaisin2
Though I'm still sorta confused with Disney trying to buy the "Muppets." In this world, the Muppets mean three things: Jim Henson Co. itself, the "Classic Muppets," and all the Jim Henson characters, except Sesame Street (which would be better so all the franchises won't be divided.)

As i've said before, i don't see the non-classic Muppets automatically being part of a rights deal for 'The Muppets' characters. It just doesn't work that way in media - i think legally it's all divided into seperate brands. Just look at how tight the licensing has been for Palisades Muppets and the restrictions there. Thats not to say that Disney won't negotiate for extra things they might want like 'Fraggle' etc - the rich thing about the Henson Company is the countless hours of quality TV programming and Disney are a company with lots of space to fill in various places, i'm just saying you can't really just assume it will contain distribution rights for all the other shows too. Even if it didn't - yes it would be bad (a travesty to some) that the Muppets were split up from other shows and characters we love but EMTV or JHC (if it still existed) would still own that stuff and make money from distributing it like they do now. Even in worse case scenario and EMTV went bankrupt holding the rights to things like 'Fraggle Rock', 'Labyrinth', 'Dark Crystal' they would likely still get bought cheaply by Disney or someone similar - and as i've said, JHC is managing to make lots of money in the UK without the classic Muppets so the company without 'The Muppets' would be an attractive opportunity for some too.

 

[BoyRaisin2]

My 400th message/Happy Birthday Mom!

Originally posted by JamieDenny
It won't be in time to save the Muppets from the three fingered white gloved claws.

Four fingers. And I'm not concerned with what Disney has traditionally done with THEIR characters over the past 80 years, to me it's about what this big media conglom can do for the Muppets. Might not be perfect, but it's not like it's any better now, or at least until late last year anyway.

Anyway, like I'VE said before, if I had enough money I'd consider buying the whole Henson library and the Creature Shop. Don't know what they'd be worth altogether, but to own my favorite nostalgic puppet shows and fantasy films and a creature-effects shop, it'd be sweet.

Or at best, get a bunch of entertainment jobs at Disney or wherever, work my way up, and run the Henson/Muppet division myself. Oh yes, a beautiful 25-30 year plan.

 

[frogboy4]

Isn't it three fingers and a thumb? LOL! Is a thumb technically a finger? I think so. Hmmm.

I just see Disney as the ultimate winner. There are things they do that are really cool and others that make my skin crawl, but that comes with the territory in any company of their stature. It would be nice if a smaller company owned them. I'm just glad that they'd be back in America again. There was something unsettling about such an American icon being owned by a German company. Not wrong or bad, but it just seemed strange. Brits would do a good job too I think. I can just see Miss Piggy sitting in with Simon on Idol. LOL!

BTW, Luke. What is the UK company who was thinking about buying the Muppets? What is their status in the business and are they still in the running?

 

[BoyRaisin2]

That UK company was Entertainment Rights, correct? One of the Valentine articles in January said they were out of the hunt.

 

[Luke]

Yeah Entertainment Rights, they are a HOT company with top people, more or less everything they have done has been successful - i would definitely trust the Muppets with them beyond a shadow of a doubt. Sadly out of the running it seems, there have also been rumors about HIT showing an interest again, they have some free money to spend.

 

[JamieDenny]

Yeah I like the idea of a sucessful british company running the Muppets

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I would definitely trust the British company more than any other company in the running right now. I would have trusted a sale in the beginning to a British company, but I never trusted the EM.TV sale. Never.

GO BRITS!!

 

[Movies205]

I have a question what happens if EMTV not able to sell the muppets by the end of april...

 

[BoyRaisin2]

Then we'd probably be asking ourselves "What will happen if EM.TV is not able to sell the Muppets by the end of May?"

And personally, I don't think Disney will buy the Muppets and/or Henson. I just don't think they will. Despite all these half-baked articles, it just seems too likely to be likely. I still think it'll be May and we're still talking about these German retards who couldn't sell a real frog and pig if their financial futures depended on it. Hopefully I'm wrong, but I've grown tired of optimism.