Excellent Frank Oz Interview (2014)

[MrBloogarFoobly]

Towards the end, he clarifies his feelings towards the current incarnation of the Muppets.

The whole thing is very insightful.

 

[SpookyMania]

Wow, that was really great; especially his thoughts on Disney and the Muppets. I do sort of wish he'd come back and at least direct "The Cheapest Muppet Movie Ever Made" but I'm not going to hold my breath.

 

[Muppet Master]

Gosh, 42 minutes, I just do not have the time right now. I guess I will watch the full thing some other time. The parts I did watch were pretty neat. Frank Oz really threw some muppet movie logic by saying there is not enough conflict between the characters anymore, and that obviously Jerry Juhl knew how to write for the muppets. I also feel reassured that Frank Oz did love working with the muppets, but just wanted to have a diverse career, because I was under the false assumption that he did not really like it. Most of the other stuff was also great, and I am glad I got to see a recent Frank Oz interview.

 

[dwayne1115]

I think with MMW they did kind of say "Screw you Disney" In a more quite kind of way.

 

[Duke Remington]

I'm afraid to watch it for fear that he'll say nothing but unwarranted negative things about Disney owning the Muppets.

 

[Oscarfan]

I'm afraid to watch it for fear that he'll say nothing but unwarranted negative things about Disney owning the Muppets.

A. He doesn't.

B. He's an adult and so are you. He's allowed to have an opinion and you should be able to deal with it no matter what it may be.

 

[Muppet Master]

I'm afraid to watch it for fear that he'll say nothing but unwarranted negative things about Disney owning the Muppets.

Just watch it, Frank Oz just states the cold hard truth.

 

[D'Snowth]

Can I just say that I knew Frank was going to get a little upset when this guy started talking about doing voices?

I think the most profound thing Frank said in this interview is that in this day and age, when people think of puppets, they automatically think of the Muppets (and to say Muppets are like Kleenex is a pretty accurate comparison), and when you see puppetry in film and television today, they're essentially Muppets. That's pretty much one of the main reasons I wanted to do my PUPPET POWER special to show that there's more to puppetry than Muppets, and like animation, puppetry can come in different styles as well.

And as far as Disney's ownership of the Muppets, don't worry, Frank's opinion is hardly negative, he just voices the same thing that many of us have been saying all these years as far as the characters and their dynamics are concerned.

 

[antsamthompson9]

Since this interview was done before MMW came out, I'd like to hear Frank's thoughts on that.

 

[fuzzygobo]

I saw Frank interviewed live a few years back (didn't meet him, but was still awesome being in the same room with him) and then too he stressed how minor the voice is compared to the other 90% effort involved.

This interview cleared up several misconceptions I had, whether he really enjoyed being a puppeteer. I always admired his honesty, even when he could be blunt.

And his assessment of Disney says it all.