Great link Brian! Thanks for sharing it with us. Hope you are having a good summer. Just sent you an e-mail by the way.
Here's the full text of the article in case someone can't access the link. By the way this story does contain SPOILERS so read at your own risk...
Muppet 'Swamp' fling
Kermit epic's big fun for tadpoles & adults
Statler and Waldorf, those cranky old geezers who sat in the balcony criticizing everything they saw on "The Muppet Show," once reacted to a Muppet film parody by snarling, "I've seen detergents that leave a better film than this."
Well, I suspect even Statler and Waldorf would enjoy "Kermit's Swamp Years," the new made-for-TV Muppet movie airing Sunday evening at 6:30 on the Starz! network. And not just because they make a cameo appearance, seated in the same theater where Kermit the Frog sees his first film.
Both the critics and the frog are much younger, because "Kermit's Swamp Years" is a prequel. It doesn't reach back as far as the animated series "Muppet Babies," but it does reinvent Kermit's past.
Instead of being raised in a "Rugrats"-type nursery environment with toddler versions of other familiar Muppets, "Kermit's Swamp Years" takes a more realistic approach.
(Okay, realistic for a Muppet. Give me a break here.)
In this new telemovie, a sneak preview of a special to be offered on sister network Starz! Family, Kermit is a 12-year-old frog who has spent his entire life in the same Southern swamp. He has a mother, lots of indistinguishable brothers and sisters, and two close friends: a timid toad named Goggles and a red frog called Croaker.
The three critters are bored on the bayou, and after a chance encounter with their first humans, dream of setting out to see what lies beyond the swamp. They're warned not to, but that only adds to the attraction.
"Sometimes, knowing you shouldn't do something makes you want to do it even more," Kermit says in voice-over.
Fate intervenes when Goggles and a giant bullfrog named Blotch are snagged by a pet-store owner who sells them to a high-school science teacher. Kermit and Croaker set out to find and save them; meanwhile, Goggles and Blotch have to survive being fed to a pet snake and served up as science experiments.
"Class," says the science teacher, "it's time to dissect a frog."
There are no recognizable human stars at all - unless you count the friends and families of John Hostetter, Kelly Collins Lintz and William Bookston, who play the teacher, his assistant and the pet-store owner, respectively.
And aside from the youthful Statler and Waldorf, there are no familiar Muppets other than Kermit. Even so, the new characters are charming additions to the Muppet universe. Besides, there are nine songs, lots of horrible puns, and a script by Jim Lewis and Joseph Mazzarino that's smart enough to appeal to children and parents alike.
There's even an actor playing a young Jim Henson, the Muppets' creator. This suggests a string of sequels: Since Kermit becomes entranced with Hollywood after watching a swashbuckler film, why not have him meet up with Henson and get his big break, pretending to be a puppet on the 1950s Washington, D.C., children's show "Sam and Friends"?
A series of movies could follow Kermit all the way through meeting Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and the other Muppet buddies he showcased on "The Muppet Show."
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