New Muppet Motion Comics Preview

[Drtooth]

I agree with you about the Babies, but always get flamed for it. When I talk about the Muppets to anyone 25 or younger they think of the Babies first and some start humming the themesong. It makes me sad. The animation and character performances don't have the grace and nuance of the Muppet puppets - the very reason that I love them. The Fraggle Rock is a lot more interesting now having watched the series on DVD, but there were so many lost opportunities in quality.

The problem with Muppet Babies is basically due to the mind set at Henson in the 80's. I feel that it was the first step in an unfortunate slide of branding Muppets specifically for children. Even without that series, there was a sign they were sort of doing that anyway, and pushing Creature Shop creations for adults and older kids. It is highly unfortunate that a lot of people remember the cartoon series more, but considering the fact that was the longest running Muppet TV project since TMS, and constantly rerun through the mid-90's, the only other media that was accessible was the line of movies. And there were only those 3 at the time. Plus, the occasional special. I've said multiple times, I've been lucky enough to have one of the stations, early Saturday morning before the cartoons started, to run the actual Muppet Show reruns. And, you have to admit, it was a high quality preschool series (it didn't treat the audience of younger kids like they were morons like Dora does), and a very high quality cartoon for the time it was produced, the 1980's.... But that's another story for another day.

Fraggle Rock's cartoon was a little bit different (and I can think of several things worse than that Henson produced... especially the inconsistent quality of the play-along videos). Not to mention HBO was the only station that actually wanted to broadcast it, leaving us kids without cable (or without premium) to make do with the cartoon series. Now, I don't know why NBC didn't get some sort of license to rerun the series (which would have actually been cheaper and worked better), but it did manage to bring the show to the less fortunate. After watching both the real and animated series, there wasn't a huge mark drop in quality for me... just, things were a lot different in ways of what they could and couldn't do. I think they could have had much more Fraggle Rock style story-lines if FRA didn't have so many episodes that were 11 minutes of one cartoon and 11 minutes of another. Plus, HALF the voice actors did a good job (Rob Paulsen especially)... but it seems that when they auditioned Junior they said, "okay, We've been here a while so whoever can do the worst impersonation of Elmer Fudd gets the job."

However, I feel the BEST Henson cartoon series was Dog City. It managed to do what Little Muppet Monsters was SUPPOSED to do, the cartoon was excellent in writing, acting, and animation (big 1980's and 90's Nelvana Fan right here)... and the interactions between Puppet and cartoon were true magic, not like LMM's experimental mesh that didn't quite mix. Far better than the other two, and highly underrated as a show entirely. Though I hear they reran it for years in Canada.

 

[Nick22]

I think this has a lot of good things to come from it. If they do the Muppet Show Family Reuion Comics we may get a voice for an adult Skeeter.

ooohh! yer right! i think these motion comic look pretty cool. i guess we'll see

 

[Frogster]

I'm pretty sure I won't ever watch this, because the comics, as they stand right now, are the one thing the Muppets have done lately that's above the mediocre level. Half the performers have lost touch with the characters they've been assigned with, and with comics, you can envision the original performers. Sorry, but I hope this- along with that frog-awful Cooking with Kat- sinks like Lindsay Lohan's career.

 

[dwayne1115]

I'm pretty sure I won't ever watch this, because the comics, as they stand right now, are the one thing the Muppets have done lately that's above the mediocre level. Half the performers have lost touch with the characters they've been assigned with, and with comics, you can envision the original performers. Sorry, but I hope this- along with that frog-awful Cooking with Kat- sinks like Lindsay Lohan's career.

See it's this kind of post that the Muppets and Disney don't need right now. The truth is when Disney bought the Muppets they could have sat on them, and not done anything with them. They are really trying here, and I think doing a great job. they are useing the internet in such a wonderful way, and they are reaching a broder scope by doing so.
I really don't see what everyones problem is with the Kitchen show or with the Motion Comic idea. They are really getting the comic timing that the Muppets where so famous for back. there is a lot of gold coming out and some just can't see it.

 

[TheMonsterAteMe]

Some people will never be happy. I see one particular poster on here who has something negative to say about ever piece of Muppet news.

 

[Erine81981]

Everyone just ingore him and don't pay any attion to whatever anyone says about stuff you enjoy. That's just how the world is.

 

[matleo]

What do you feel about the idea of cgi animated Muppets?
We first saw it with Waldo of course, and now used extensively on Henson projects with digital puppetry. And while I absolutely *love* Muppet Babies and Fraggle Rock animated Im sure we both could agree cgi muppets wouldn't be very good. At one point, a Muppet Babies cgi show was planned...and I think there's a Doozer cgi kid's show in the works.

Depends on your definition of CGI Muppets. Waldo was an experiment of Jim's and I think it's one he didn't get enough credit for. I think Jim saw the digital age and saw what it was going to do to puppetry (i.e Yoda). And he already had a plan in place for how he and his staff would survive with this new medium (hence Waldo) and it works for certain things heck, I expect that when/if they ever do the Fraggle movie I expect we'll see them do some neat things with doozers.

But jim used it the same way he used rod puppets, marionettes, cable controls, maskwork, animatronics, bunraku, and any number of camera and editing tricks to create an effect.

And if they did a CGI Muppet babies it might be really interesting depending on how they did it, but if your asking me if I'd like to see them replace foam, fleece and fur with pixels....no, I don't think it would have the same effect.

As Jim (as Rowlf) once said when asked about this 'Those of us who have it in the heart know that the computer will never have it in the heart."

--matt

 

[frogboy4]

See it's this kind of post that the Muppets and Disney don't need right now. The truth is when Disney bought the Muppets they could have sat on them, and not done anything with them. They are really trying here, and I think doing a great job. they are useing the internet in such a wonderful way, and they are reaching a broder scope by doing so.
I really don't see what everyones problem is with the Kitchen show or with the Motion Comic idea. They are really getting the comic timing that the Muppets where so famous for back. there is a lot of gold coming out and some just can't see it.

I like most of the new stuff and think Dave, Steve, Bill, Eric and the Muppeteers are doing a fantastic job. Some fans remember the Muppets of their childhoods and that's something that can't come back, but there are new opportunities for recasts and new characters too. Not all of them (cough Angelo cough) are 100% successful, but they're trying. The Muppets Kitchen has some great classic Muppet moments that echo the recent Muppets.com clips and I enjoy those portions. I think the concept will fade away and be forgotten once some of these more concrete projects are released. It's stuff like this and the motion comics that are smaller-scale ways to bring the Muppets back to the big time. I want to like all of it, but considering my extreme geeky fanboyishness...it's not likely to happen every time and that's okay. I come at the Muppets with a healthy measure of pragmatism and optimism. Yesterday is gone, but they're building some Muppety goodness today. There's enough variety for any fan to pick from IMHO. So...Angelo or no Angelo, lesser comic book artists or greater comic book artists...there really is something for us all!

 

[matleo]

I agree with you about the Babies, but always get flamed for it. When I talk about the Muppets to anyone 25 or younger they think of the Babies first and some start humming the themesong. It makes me sad. The animation and character performances don't have the grace and nuance of the Muppet puppets - the very reason that I love them. The Fraggle Rock is a lot more interesting now having watched the series on DVD, but there were so many lost opportunities in quality.

What I like about the motion comics is that they appear to be web-based. At least I hope so. It's a different animal altogether and they've gotten the original Muppet artists to lend their voices! I support this idea as an inexpensive way to advertise the comics and the other wonderful real Muppety things to come soon!

By the way...Disney people...please don't make this an itunes/apple only exclusive.

Muppet babies took the characters and, in every sense of the word, made them 2-dimensional. I think Gonzo was the character who suffered the most here.

I'm glad that Muppets will be web-based. Like i said I like the Xmen thing, but if I were spending the money on a DVD I'd want it to be a bit higher in quality. If I were spending money on a Muppet DVD I'd want to see feathers, foam and fleece.

 

[frogboy4]

Muppet babies took the characters and, in every sense of the word, made them 2-dimensional. I think Gonzo was the character who suffered the most here.

I'm glad that Muppets will be web-based. Like i said I like the Xmen thing, but if I were spending the money on a DVD I'd want it to be a bit higher in quality. If I were spending money on a Muppet DVD I'd want to see feathers, foam and fleece.

[LIKE]...extremely