"If I ran the Muppets" thread. Post YOUR good ideas HERE!

[minor muppetz]

Or they could be like the game Looney Tunes Collector: Alert! In that game, players start as Bugs Bunny, and then they can eventually "collect" other characters. Players could switch to many of the characters they collect, but some characters who get collected can't be playable (they only appear in some special screens that show who all has been collected). Players collect them either after battling them as bosses or after rescuing them. And I think they can be traded via link cable. Maybe there could be a few different games, with the same plots but different main playable characters and an alternate choice of who can be played in each game. And then the characetrs exclusive to certain games could be traded.

An obvious choice would be a Kermit the Frog editon and a Miss Piggy edition. Maybe they can both start out at different areas, and maybe they can appear in both games, only the other one would have to be rescued by the other in the respective game so that they can be traded to the other versions (though this might cause a problem if both people are playing as the same character). I'm not sure what would/ could be done about that.

Like in the Looney Tunes game, each character would have their own special moves. Kermit would jump high and/ or swim, Miss Piggy would karate chop opponents, Animal would bite and/ or attack others, Lew Zeland would use his boomerang fish... (it's amazing... I've had this idea since 2001, but have only now had the idea of a miss Piggy version. Until a few minutes ago, I'd only thought about there being a Kermit edition).

I would like to add that back when I had this idea, I had on my mind having Fraggle Rock as an area that could be used, and the Fraggles being playable/ rescuable characters. I guess that wouldn't be legally possible now, though I would hope that Henson would be willing to license the characters (at a reasonable price). I can't remember, but I probably also had on my mind including the Sesame Street Muppets (though I had this idea after the rights were sold to Sesame Workshop). I can't remember who I thought of included, though it was probably everybody that I knew of at the time (except for the international characters).

 

[minor muppetz]

You know, now that I think about it, I don't think I had ever envisioned having the Sesame Street Muppets in that game idea. I can think of special moves for the Muppets, but not for many of the Sesame Street Muppets. Sure, Oscar could throw trash at opponents, Bert could make a chain out of his paper clips and attack enemies with it (or he could throw bottle caps, but would he want to risk his bottlecaps being stolen by the enemies?), and Cookie Monster could either bite the opponents (but I doubt Sesame Workshop would allow that) or throw cookies at the enemies (but I doubt Cookie Monster would want to do that). But what would Ernie do (squeak his rubber duckie to death)?

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Thoes aer some pretty interesting Ideas. But woudn't it be just like the Muppet's just ripping off pop culture again?

That is such a harsh word, but I wish there was another I could think of at the moment.

 

[minor muppetz]

Here is how I've envisioned the plot of the game.

It begins with Kermit finding out that this weeks special guest star is actually an evil alien who plans on taking over the world. The alien guest soon goes to his home planet, and Kermit needs to get help from the other Muppets.

Kermit realises that many Muppets are on vacation, and that he'll need to rent a boat. Scooter says that JP Grosse will finance the boat for the Muppets if Kermit (and others) complete a series of tasks. Once JP Grosse finances the boat, Scooter becomes a playable character.

At the Muppet Theater, Pops becomes a playable character once Kermit encounters him. In the canteen, The Swedish Chef is being attacked by the food, and Kermit must defeat the food in order to rescue him (and so that we can playa s the chef). Back in 2001 I hardly knew about Gladys, so I probably didn't think about putting her in the game. On-stage, Fozzie is gettign tomadoes and other rotten foods thrown at him by Statler and Waldorf, and Kermit must battle them and rescue Fozzie. Kermit can also make George the Janitor and Hilda into playable characters. And if you go to Miss Piggy's dressing room, Foo-Foo starts to attack Kermit, and once Kermit (or whoever) defeats Foo-Foo, Miss Piggy becoems playable (though she does karate chop Kermit). Lew zeland can also be unlocked here.

The Muppets also have to leave the theater to contact other characters. Fleet Scribbler and Marvin Suggs just hang out on the street. I'm pretty sure that Louis kazagger would have been a playable character, but I forget how he would have been unlocked. The Newsman would make news reports during the game. Kermit can go to a barnyard, where Gonzo and Rizzo are beign held prisioners by a group of evil chickens.

At the Muppet Boarding House, Kermit can unlock Rowlf, Sam the Eagle, some penguins, Bean Bunny, Crazy harry, Beauregard, and Thog into playable characters. Players can also go to the KMUP studio, to unlock Clifford, Bobo, Nigel the Director, Seymour, Pepe, Carl, Bill the Bubble Guy, and Spamela. Kermit goes to Johnny Fiamas dressing room, where Sal is overly protective of Johnny, and you must defeat Sal before they can become playable.

Muppet Central gets taken over by the Gorillia Television crew, and Digit, Waldo, and Leon must all be rescued. When you are granted a boat, Polly Lobster, Mad Monty, and Clueless Morgan are all on the same ship, and must be battled.

When you get to the other land, you find Dr. Teeth, whose bus has broken down, and the other Electric Mayhem members are elsewhere. Animal is running wild, Floyd is looking for bus parts, Janice has been kidnapped, Zoot is sleeping soemwhere, and Lips has his leg stuck in a bear trap. There is a cave, where Sweetums is vacationing at. There are evil bears who want to attack you before unlocking Sweetums. This cave also has a way to get to Fraggle Rock. There is a swamp, where Robin gets unlocked. There is a submarine soemwhere which the Mupets can use, but only Kermit and Robin can appear underwater without the submarine. And there is a nearby haunted house, where Bunsen and Beaker have been kidnapepd by Dr. Phil van Neuter. Other bosses besides Phil include Uncle Deadley, Doglion, and Mulch. The frackles also appear as enemies, as do evil clones of Beaker.

After all that, the Muppets can go to a space station, where Link and Dr. Strangepork are unlockable at. But the player has to give up most characters, as the ship can only carry 8 people. Kermit and Miss Piggy can't get out of it, and neither can Link or Dr. Strangepork, so that leaves four playable characters to choose from. The spaceship goes to the planet Koozebane, where several koozebanian creatures make cameos, as do Gonzo's alien family and the Muppets from Saturday Night Live. Eventually, the guest star appears and must be defeated.

 

[spcglider]

That's all really good stuff! And I have to say that most games are just replications of other games, so making a Muppet version of a "pokemon" type thing would be interesting.

I'd be a little more interested in taking it to an interactive semi-roleplaying type thing like the original Sam & Max Hit The Road or Indiana Jones and the Fate Of Atlantis games. Those were spectacular fun. Oh yes...and Monkey Island and Return to Monkey Island and Full Throttle. There was a great Star Trek game like that too. That way you can really get to know the personalities of the characters by what they say and can do and can add to the adventure.

Yes, I think the Muppets are REALLY losing out on a great licensing opportunity with the video game market (beyond a Mario Cart type game).

I also thought about taking a great computer activity program like Opening Night (Where you can assemble a complete play using stock characters, scenery,voices, music, etc.) and adapting it to a Muppet Theatre type show. In Opening Night, you pick a voice style and assign it to a character and then you can actually type in the dialogue and the voice synthisizer says the words! How cool would that be? And Opening Night is like, from the 1990's... so the voice stuff is probably a billion times better now.

-G

 

[dwayne1115]

Here is what i dont get if these componyes want to use the muppets why dont they at least try and ask for them. Ford Did and they seem to really be using Kermit well.

 

[spcglider]

Dwayne,

You have a fair point about companies not persuing the Muppets license for product , etc. I think that they might figure the license fees would be prohibitive?

I find myself in disagreement about Ford, though. When Jim Henson licensed out the Muppets or the Muppet likenesses, he did it with an eye towards bringing value to the Muppet property. He didn't trade on Muppet nostalgia or sell out the characters. Even in the old days when the proto-Muppets were selling Wilkins coffee, Jim was completely in charge of how the characters were presented. The Muppets represented... they never shilled.

But then again, I feel the same way about Target using Beatles music to sell crappy, foreign made knock-off Weber grills and cheap neon-colored beach towels too.

-Gordon

 

[dwayne1115]

well would not the price be worth it and really though how much would the muppets really cost. It floors me when record lables or componys wont let there songs or charitcturs. It would only promote the compony and yet still both would be making money. So it would be a win win situatuion i would think.

 

[spcglider]

I've always said that they could do worse than to simply "start up" the old style Muppet Show again... same format, same theatre venue. It would work just fine. AND it would mesh with the old show so they could package the whole thing to the networks.

Heck, Doctor Who re-started production after how many years off?

There's something VERY appealing about that old show styling. Its familiar, and we associate the Muppets with that format.

-G

 

[minor muppetz]

If I had been in charge of The Muppets back in 2004, when Disney bought the Muppets, here is what I would have done between then and now (I am not going to mention anything that has been reelased, though the movie DVD releases would have been two-disc special editions):

May 2004:
*ABC Family shows reruns of The Muppet Show (twice a day, back-to-back, during the evening)
*The Disney Channel shows reruns of Muppet Babies

July 2004:
*ABC Family starts showing Muppet specials once a week

August 2004:
*Reruns of Muppets Tonight and the MuppeTelevision segments of The Jim Henson Hour air once a week on ABC Family

January 2005:
*The Disney Channel starts showing reruns of Little Mupet Monsters once a week (following Saturday broadcasts of Muppet Babies)

June 2005:
* A new Mupet book, Muppets: The Ultimate Visual Guide, is released

August 2005:
*New video games are released

Febuary 2006:
*The Muppet Show: Season Two is released (if I thought that it wasn't worth rushing production due to music rights, then The Muppet Valentine Show would be released on DVD)
*Kermit's 50th anniversary roast special is broadcast

May 2006:
*The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson is released on DVD

June 2006:
*America's Next Muppet airs
*The Muppets at Walt Disney World is released on DVD

August 2006:
*The Muppet Show: Season Three is released

October 2006:
*A Muppet halloween special is produced
*A Muppet Family Christmas and Mr. Willoby's Christmas Tree are released on DVD

January 2007:
*The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show is released on DVD
*New video games are released

March 2007:
*The Muppet Show: Season Four is released
*Tales from Muppetland DVD is released
*Tale of the Bunny Picnic is released