Little things we've noticed

[cjd874]

I disagree with that assessment ever-so-slightly, because Frank often seemed to rely on a variation of his Bert/Fozzie voice - especially whenever he'd perform AMs on SS.

True, but I was talking only about the Muppet Show characters. Of course Jim had Guy Smiley, which was unlike any other character in his voice repertoire. I think Frank's voice repertoire was more expansive than Jim's because...well, let's just say that Frank played both Cookie Monster and Miss Piggy! It doesn't get more extreme than that. But I agree that the Bert/Fozzie thing was definitely Frank's go-to voice, and it fell in between Cookie's deeper growl and Piggy's coy, feminine voice.

 

[D'Snowth]

Fair enough.

 

[minor muppetz]

I disagree with that assessment ever-so-slightly, because Frank often seemed to rely on a variation of his Bert/Fozzie voice - especially whenever he'd perform AMs on SS.

Huh, I've been thinking his go-to voice was often his Sam the Eagle voice.

 

[cjd874]

Jerry Nelson's hand is visible at the end of this number, operating Slim Wilson's left arm. (A darn good song too, I might add.)

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm not usually one to harp on Kermit, but admittedly, he does look quite off somehow in MR. WILLOBY'S CHRISTMAS TREE . . . it's especially jarring whenever he wears a top hat, because it's too big for his head, and it's attached too far back on his head, which makes it look like it's falling off - and it seems to affect Steve's puppeteering as well.

 

[minor muppetz]

Not so much a little thing I've noticed as much as something I recently realized.

Shortly after I first saw Muppets from Space, I said that it was the best of the post-Jim Henson movies, and shortly after I first saw The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, I actually thought it was better than The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island (really!). But now I feel like MCC is both the best of the 1990s Muppet movies AND better than MTI and The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. That's not the thing I just realized.

MFS and Wizard of Oz were both big deals in terms of recasting. We got to not only see Scooter for the first time since 1991, but he was even given a full line. And we also got brief dialogue (though not more than a word each) from Dr. Teeth and Rowlf, though both had gotten new dialogue before this (at the time I hadn't known that John Kennedy voiced Dr. Teeth in Days of Swine and Roses, and thought this was his first post-1990 vocal appearance). And The Muppets' Wizard of Oz has some new recasts as well. It's the first major Muppet production since Jerry Nelson's semi-retirement, so we hear new recasts for Floyd, Crazy Harry, and Camilla (in addition to previously-heard recasts of Lew Zeland and Statler), it's Eric Jacobson's first performance as Sam (and one of his first vocal performances as Animal), Bill Barretta's first performance as Dr. Teeth, and it ended up being the only time Rickey Boyd performed Scooter (it was so good, impressing the Muppet performers, I was surprised this recast didn't stick) and Tyler Bunch performed Janice. Most of the Jerry Nelson/Richard Hunt recasts here didn't stick, and the recast dialogue varied from a lot of dialogue to brief dialogue to dialogue cut from the original broadcast version, but it felt like a big deal (even if there were more recasts/vocal appearances by these characters during the time between these two productions).

But The Muppet Christmas Carol also brought on new recasts, and I didn't really think of it being a big deal until today. Coming only a couple of years after Jim Henson died, it was one of Steve Whitmire's first major performances as Kermit, and the first time we heard the recasts of Statler, Waldorf, Beaker, and The Swedish Chef, and with the exception of David Rudman as Chef, all of these recasts have lasted a long time. Many of Henson and Hunt's characters were kept silent or absent at this point, but these characters got to be heard with new dialogue in 1992 (though it seems like we had to wait three years before Statler and Waldorf's next appearance).

But the difference is that I didn't know the Muppets were puppets until about two months before I saw MCC. I knew Jim Henson performed Kermit and had died by then, and I didn't think recasting was a big deal. Many classic iconic animated characters from Disney, Warner Bros., Hanna Barberra, and other studios were recast, and it wasn't until a few years after I got the internet that I heard about them being selective in recasts, I saw some things that mentioned animated characters being recast and didn't quite follow what they were getting at with not recasting many characters (not really realizing that the voice was only a small portion of the characters). In fact for several years after MCC I wondered "who performs Rowlf, Scooter, Dr. Teeth, Janice, Link Hogthrob, and other characters from these performers?" without thinking much of the fact that many hadn't gotten new dialogue (and Scooter was non-existent) until shortly before I got the internet and realized they just might not have recast them.

 

[D'Snowth]

I just recently realized that KSY is the only non-SS Muppet movie Joey Mazzarino performed in . . . I would have thought he would have performed in MFS, considering he co-wrote that one as well . . . unless he did, like a minor background character, and went uncredited.

 

[minor muppetz]

It seems like The Great Muppet Caper and The Muppet Christmas Carol were both made in a short amount of time. Movies tend to take a long time to develop, yet these both seem to have taken just two years before their releases.

Jim Henson wanted to do The Dark Crystal after The Muppet Movie (and I guess after The Muppet Show) but ITC wanted to do another Muppet movie and David Lazer arranged a deal to do another Muppet movie on the condition that they fund The Dark Crystal afterwards. GMC came two years after TMM. I don't know if Jim had any ideas for future Muppet movies during development of TMM, though it seems the script was a composite of two separate screenplays.

And The Muppet Christmas Carol came out just two years after Jim Henson died, I'm pretty sure Jim wasn't developing a Muppet adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Though it was originally going to be a television special, and maybe the fact that it was based on an existing story (and turned out to be one of the most faithful film adaptations of said story) helped keep up the speed.

Neither film feels particularly rushed, both great, quality films, though GMC seems to be the underrated film of the Jim Henson Muppet trilogy.

 

[cjd874]

According to Jim Henson: The Works, Henson loved playing "dumb, pompous characters like Link Hogthrob. He gave them just the right pontificating voices and smug yet confused facial expressions." (page 102)
To me, Link Hogthrob is the only example of that. I can't recall any of Jim's other characters from Fraggle Rock, TMS, SS, or LOG (Land of Gorch) that fit the description.

 

[D'Snowth]

Jim spent nearly a year working on TIME PIECE in his spare time, and if you pay really, really close attention, it actually kind of shows: the length of his hair and beard vary throughout - it's especially noticable when he's working in the tin can factory, where his beard is suddenly fuller, and when his head's in the toilet, where his hair is suddenly longer.